By Blair Thill -

Hello all! Welcome to my very first post of “Pop and Circumstance,” a blog dedicated to all things entertainment — movies, television, music, viral videos, books and everything else created for us to enjoy. My goal is to offer witty insights and incisive critiques on the things we talk about around the proverbial water cooler. I’ve harbored a love of popular culture my entire life, obsessed with knowing TV shows, Oscar contenders, and every lyric to any pop song stuck in my head. So now that you know a little about me, I think it’s time we get down to the fun stuff.

In the film version of Dreamgirls, Effie White brilliantly sums up the role of the female film goer without meaning to do so. When the Dreams are convincing Effie to take a backseat to Deena and demote herself to backup singer, she sings, “What about me? What about what I need?” For any female media consumer, this is a common cry. The film industry constantly caters to the man-boy of America with comic book adaptations, Judd Apatow raunch-fests, and, generally speaking, dude-led casts.

Before you call foul, don’t misunderstand me. I, a female, am an ardent lover of many male-centric movies. A teenage guy, William Miller, is at the heart of my favorite movie, Cameron Crowe’s classic rock ode, Almost Famous (though if we’re being honest, we all know Penny Lane is the real focus of Crowe’s opus). I am forever in awe of Christopher Nolan’s reboot of the Batman franchise, particularly last summer’s smash, The Dark Knight, which is probably in my top 10 favorites. I don’t hold issue with a studious approach to a drama or comedy that just happens to star a man.

What I do take issue with is a mindless display of obvious pandering to the teenage boy sect that Hollywood believes still rules the box office. What I do take issue with is the fact that this belief gives scant voice to female filmmakers, female starring vehicles, and female movie consumers. Enter Transformers. Michael Bay would rather give screen time to another CGI monstrosity than create a solid female counterpart to Shia Labeouf’s nerd, Sam. As much as I hate to agree with Megan Fox, she was right when she called out Bay for giving her no chance to act, though I doubt she could have put such an opportunity to use, anyway. The point is that Bay didn’t give women a second thought in his box office pillager. I suppose he did give us a third thought — the kind that involves Fox running around in a skimpy jean skirt in front of Shia’s bulging eyes.

Transformers is the rule, not the exception. Though critically well-received comedic efforts — Superbad, Knocked Up, and Wedding Crashers — treat women in the same way, they do it for comedic effect instead of pure eye candy. Hollywood looks at the box office numbers and sees nothing but testosterone, causing them to form theories about how theater goers are predominantly men. Did Hollywood ever stop to think that maybe there are more male attendees because the media is purposely targeting them?

What do they offer women? The negative connotations of films known as “chick flicks.” As Entertainment Weekly movie critic, Owen Gleiberman, pointed out in his column, the very term “implies that they’re an exception, a side course in the great popcorn smorgasboard.” I must admit, I have a soft spot for so-called chick flicks, as long as they are done well. Give me Sleepless in Seattle over Superbad any day; Pride and Prejudice over Napoleon Dynamite every day. But the very fact that these films are classified in female terms keeps them from enjoying wide success. If Judd Appatow can market his movies as comedies when they extol male fantasies, why couldn’t Love Actually be billed as a charming comedy instead of a chick flick?

The good news is the industry may be a step closer to resolving the grievances I just laid out thanks to a little indie movie franchise called Twilight. For those of you living under a rock, New Moon opened to monumental numbers the past two weekends — numbers that make Michael Bay’s robots look like ants. The biggest midnight showing numbers, the biggest opening day numbers, the third largest opening weekend ever — it all adds up to over an estimated $230 million to date. Not bad for a human, a vampire and a werewolf, oh my. The kicker, though? A whopping 80 percent of the opening numbers can be attributed women. As if that weren’t enough fodder for Hollywood to chew on, Sandra Bullock’s The Blind Side came in second each weekend with another female majority. Not bad for a chick flick mainstay.

The Twilight Saga is much more polarizing than its box office juggernaut predecessors of The Dark Knight and Spider-Man, which only makes its numbers that much more impressive for the female cause. But Stephenie Meyer’s romantic musings are only the most visible harbinger of the lady invasion. It’s possible that three women could be nominated for the Best Director Oscar this year ─ that’s equal to the amount of past female nominees. Sandra Bullock topped the charts twice this year with The Proposal and The Blind Side, proving she only gets better with age. Meryl Streep, Carey Mulligan and the ladies of Precious are getting more buzz than any male Oscar contender for their powerhouse performances.

Meyer didn’t expect her vampire-human love opera to turn into a published book, let alone a phenomenon. Well, what does she think about the film adaptation of said book possibly changing the landscape of male dominated media?

For further ponderance on that question, see Owen Gleiberman’s inspirational article:

http://movie-critics.ew.com/2009/11/26/new-moon-why-its-good-for-the-future-of-movies/