Hockaday students explain why everyone loves a good chick-flick

Symptoms include: strained relationships, bloodshot eyes and bad hair days. No one yet has found a cure for this powerful addiction. There are no 12 steps. A Hockaday girl’s addiction to chick flicks is here to stay.

Whether the movie is a light-hearted romantic comedy with Ryan Reynolds or a cookie-dough and sweatpants one with Ryan Gosling, the genre of chick flicks usually takes up a couple of hours in a Hockadaisy’s weekend. Girls memorize the punch lines, know the exact second one’s eyes start to water, and have the sweets handy, but the experience never gets old. The obsession, if anything, grows stronger.

“I think they are addicting because they give you hope that there is a guy out there for you and because they are like a grown-up fairytale, our very own Cinderella,” junior Lexi said.

“The idea that the girl gets the guy in the end makes everyone happy and they are also amusing and optimistic,” agrees senior Marisa.

As chick flicks are to movies as Taylor Swift songs are to music. Maybe not all the greatest artistic achievements ever, but they are unmatched when it comes to summarizing high school gossip and boy drama.

“The predictability is alluring, although we pretend to criticize it,” junior Ashley said. “We like knowing it’s going to work out well and it gives us hope about what could happen in our lives.”

Movies provide an easy solution. Who cares that a Headmistress’ list student didn’t make straight A’s on her last report card? Watch “Clueless.” Is the Hockaday gossip chain getting especially overwhelming? Pop in “Mean Girls.” Boys still won’t stop playing Modern Warfare 3 and hold a conversation? Grab the tissues and blubber over “A Walk to Remember.” Problem solved. Chick flicks allow Hockaday girls to escape their stressful lives for a few hours and live vicariously through others. So fetch!

“People relate to the emotions conveyed in chick flicks easily,” Ashley said, “so you are crying a little for them, and a little for yourself.”

Edward Cullen, the fictional, sparkly vampire played by Robert Pattison in the “Twilight” film series, is one of the many cases in which Hockaday girls seem to formulate an unreasonable picture of their next boyfriend. Noah from “The Notebook” and Jake Perry from “Sweet Home Alabama” also can be added to movie characters who took up computer backgrounds for months on months.

“Usually guys in real life can’t ascertain all of the qualities or expectations a lot of girls set based on their favorite guy in a chick flick,” Marissa said.

Girls wait for guys to serenade them outside their bedroom windows with a boom box, or make an outlandish, public declaration of love, or whisk them off into the sunset in a car. However, some girls recognize the irrationality of these fantasies.

“I think chick flicks definitely affect our views on relationships,” Lexi said. “We want real guys to be like the ones in the movies and do the big, romantic gestures they do even though that’s not realistic.”

Most girls can remember that time, that moment when they thought, “Why on earth am I seeing this in theaters? This is strictly a home-by-yourself-while-it’s-raining movie.” And then it happens. First it is one, glistening tear. The urge can be controlled. Then another one starts forming. Well, it’s a dark theater no one will notice. Finally, the sniffing noises escape.

Although some try to conceal the sobs, the awkward heaving/choking noise that takes its place is just as unattractive. People can try and pretend to look in their purse for gum or claim their contact is flipping around, but everyone knows the truth: you can’t believe Channing Tatum gave away all his money to make sure the husband of the love of his life survives in “Dear John.”

But not all girls focus on the drama-filled chick flicks. “I like romantic comedies more than the dramatic ones because there is just the right amount of hilarious jokes and sad moments, like when they hit the predictable obstacle in the relationship, but you laugh much more,” sophomore Madison said.

Walt Disney once said, “Movies can and do have tremendous influence in shaping young lives in the realm of entertainment towards the ideals and objectives of normal adulthood.”

And it’s true; movies will always continue to have a lasting impact in a Hockadaisies’ lives. Chick flicks can raise standards (whether for better or for worse is up to debate), make girls laugh or cry (usually cry) and provide hope. The addiction to chick flicks is deeply rooted in girls’ systems, but no worries, there could always be a formation of a Chick Flicks Anonymous. Until then, there is always “Titanic.”

– Sydney