Neo-feminist Cinema Girly Films, Chick Flicks and Consumer Culture

"Neo-Feminist Cinema" examines how Hollywood has responded to women's changing social roles through an analysis of a flourishing sub-genre 'the Girly Film', associated with the contemporary 'Chick Flick'. Films designed for a female audience such as "Pretty Woman", "Legally Blonde", and "Confessions of a Shopaholic" exploit the conventions of the romance, while producing hybrids that reflect significant shifts in the cultural position of women. Radner pays particular attention to how the contemporary woman's film portrays what some have called postfeminism and what the author redefines as neo-feminism, represented by figures such as Helen Gurley Brown - women for whom work was a necessity, rather than a right or even a privilege. Through an analysis of the girly film, this project teases out the parameters of the neo-feminist paradigm and its implications for an understanding of the contemporary woman's film. Popular films explored include "He's Just Not That Into You", "The Devil Wears Prada", "Bride Wars", "Sex and the City", and many more.