Do Men and Women Have Different Taste in Movie?

First off, I wish I knew everyone's gender. No, I don't want to have sex

But I'm curious if there are certain things gender looks for, but also the exception to the average. I'm a guy, but shoot-outs, car chases (yes, even Bullit), the caper itself, some kind of escape, bore the hell out of me. To me, it's all formality I have to sit through and agonize.

I think there is a general perception that there is a difference between what guys like and Women like. I mean the general parlance is "chick flick" and I am not sure what the male alternative is called. I am also not into violence for violence sake in movies. I watch movies like Live and Die in LA because they are "arty" I guess. I watch movies like the "Dark Knight" because they are imaginative. I will watch my fair of Rom coms and perhaps a few chick flicks. I just want to be entertained like everybody else. I prefer movies that make me think, no matter what is classified as. I am a guy

I look for interesting or charming actresses...But not necessarily beauty queens and not my primary reason for watching a movie, but it helps especially if the movie isn't good

The answer to "does group X have different tastes than group Y?" is always going to be yes. This should not be controversial, just as it would not be controversial to suggest that those groups have different experiences simply by virtue of being who they are. If that is true, then it is inevitable those different experiences will shape their tastes in some way. To deny our differences is to deny the value of diversity.

A tougher question is whether you can (or should) draw any specific conclusions about those tastes or any individual representative of those groups. But just in the aggregate? Of course.

There are a lot of factors that influence taste: gender, sexual orientation, age, political/social/religious beliefs, personal interests, race/culture, education, etc. But I think generalizations are stupid and don't really tell us anything.

Also in my experience, men far outnumber women among the active users of this site so I don't think you're going to get a particularly balanced response.

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I'm always fighting against generalizations, and the subject line doesn't have enough characters for your better worded paragraph above, but part of it was to get the opinions of those in here, particular women since Miss Vicky rightly pointed out that these sites (and message boards, and movies - directors) are dominated by males. I'm always looking for the exceptions to the rule. I think it's too simple-minded to say that men prefer violence and capers while women like romantic comedies. But I'd also love to read what other women (or men) think of their fellow women's tastes, and maybe why this is so. Yeah, men are more violent, more prone to engage in bank robberies, but then you have many who say they watch movies for escapism.



Another sub-question I'd like to ask is if people can tell who directed a movie (male or female) after they've seen a particular movie. Personally, I always catch the name of the director, so its not possible unless I avoid that too, and I wonder how viewers (again, the disparity between men and women) watch a movie if they know it's directed by a woman. Do they put on a different lens trying to understand the female point of view, and the female characters? I'd love to do an experiment where I show movies, but intentionally flip the genders. I think some would say "Yeah, see, typical woman" despite it not being typical. I'd like to quantify what I think I know; that we are prejudiced, but to what extent, how much, and can we fool ourselves or be fooled? I'd love to see adapted movies made by each gender and see if there is a difference or at least an emphasis. From my observations, it seems men are moving into the direction of women, and vice-versa. To throw another curveball, I wonder how much of this is organic and how much is conformity because of social norms. I think the latter, but I also acknowledge that certain traits are not as necessary.. Men don't have to be as strong because we aren't killing our food by hand or having to live in the wilderness surrounded by unforgiving nature. I don't know if coming closer to the center is helping, I'm starting to think we might need complementary relationships for balance. I wouldn't want young women to ever feel that their decision to be a "stay-at home" mom is weird. My only wish is for people to be their true selves as much as possible, which is why I post this stuff and then paste it onto twenty other message boards (more comparison, more results, stratification).

To generalise it Women are very romance/relationship oriented I feel so look for those things in a movie, whereas Men are very competitive and want to watch sport/gangster/action movies, or like a detective movie where the character is competing against the killer etc.

I always felt that a movie catering to both tastes is the best, like Titanic, for women it's a love story, for men a disaster movie. In reality it's both.

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I'd rather watch a good romantic comedy than a violent caper film. Though most of the romantic comedies I've run across are banal, unless they're from Hollywood's golden era. There are of course great movies in any genre. But most stereo typical chick-flicks or action-explosion flicks are no-brainers.

Hey I'm qualified for that answer! As I've watched a lot of MoFo women's movies in the HoFs (Miss Vicky, Cosmic Runaway, Thursday Next, Gbgoodies) Gee I hope I didn't forget anyone, It seems to me that the lady MoFos like the same sort of stuff movies us guys do. I mean they are diversified with their own unique taste in movies, as we all are. But I've yet to see one of them nominate a so called chick flick. Many of the MoFo women have picked darker, films. If anything I usually pick films about women and lighter in nature, so make of that what you will


Sometimes I can. Some women directors will craft their film with more emphasis on substance to the characters.

You have a lot of questions today Matt!...I personal don't think there's as much difference between men and women's behavior as people like to think. I don't go for 'men are Mars and women from Venus', besides the obvious inhospitable aspect of those planets...men and women have a lot more in common especially these days and differences to of course.

Yes, men and women are different.

I wouldn't say "taste", but rather that -- generally speaking -- people of different genders tend to have different leanings and preferences, as far as what they like to watch, listen, do. Like Yoda said above, this is "simply by virtue of being who they are", usually comes from their particular upbringing and societal rules, which makes it an extension of the traditional and expected gender roles. It's no different than girls playing with dolls and kitchen sets, and boys playing with soldiers and tool sets, or girls dressed in pink and boys dressed in blue.

As they grow up, some people stick to those leanings and preferences, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but others manage to steer away from them.

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You raise another good point. I think those who love movies enough to sign up on message boards will be less discriminating.



The women whose movie tastes I know would fall in line mostly with the stereotypes, but they also aren't that serious about movies. The first girl I met who had similar tastes as me was very serious into movies. Just like the average male viewer will watch almost anything and forget it by the time it's over.



I woke up at 4am (ahhh) and the movie I saw yesterday was one of the first things on my mind. I'd recommend it to you, but it might be something you don't want to watch in front of ANYONE (a ton of nudity)

No. There is no way you can pick 1 random female and 1 random male from a supermarket and confidently and accurately state their movie tastes without asking them. So the answer has to be no.

I agree with the conclusion (about the applicability of generalities to individuals, which I mentioned as well), but isn't this is an answer to a version of the question that asks about "a man" and "a woman" rather than the aggregate groups?

You can't tell with confidence and accuracy what those two individuals will like, but there are things you can guess that have a higher or lower chance of being right, as well.

Yeah my wife wouldn't want to watch a movie like that, and I'm not to keen on male nudity, so thanks but I'll pass.

There's just as much as a male-female audience for something like Mad Max: Fury Road as there is for your typical rom-com. Maybe give or take, more or less, this or that 'gender'... but as a male I love typically-'feminine' movies. I love romances, I love romantic comedies, I love musicals, I love romantic musicals... but I also love 'masculine' movies, mindless action, westerns, kung fu, on and on, and I know there's a female market for those films because I've been around many women who enjoy those films too. But I think a kid in kindergarten stated the real differences best...

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Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception. How many colors are there in a field of grass to the crawling baby unaware of 'Green'?

-Stan Brakhage

I'm all for sex and nudity in movies as long as the men are attractive (so many movies with ugly men and beautiful women. UGH.). I'm also fine with it if it serves a distinct purpose within the film. The only time I have an issue with male nudity is when it's used for humor, because somehow it's been decided that male genitalia is funny? (I'm looking at you Walk Hard, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, etc.) So stupid.

I also tend to like violent movies, though not horror or war movies. I grew up watching Die Hard, The Road Warrior, Terminator, and the like. My tastes as an adult have shifted away from action movies (though Mad Max: Fury Road is ****ing awesome), but I still like violence.

I couldn't tell you the last time I watched and enjoyed a Rom Com. I loved them when I was a teen, but now they're pretty low on my list and if I see an ad for anything with a predominantly female cast or female protagonist, I almost always don't want to watch it. It'd be a tough call for me to have to decide between rewatching a movie I know I hate and even giving something like Little Women a chance.

But I also love movies with a softer side. I do enjoy a good romantic drama (as long as it's not too sappy) and of course love quite a few animated children's movies. Though the movies I like in these categories seem to have a lot of male fans as well.

I think it was on IMDb.com that we could state our gender. I seem to recall a wee “f” for female & “m” for male. Of course, anyone could state the opposite of what they actually were if they were so inclined.

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I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.

Same here. Full frontal nudity on men though is not too attractive IMO & I think men, in general, look better leaving their pants on.

Same here though I’m fine with war movies. Love SPR, Band of Brothers, anything Vietnam-related.

Same here. And, like you, I don’t much care for an all-female cast.

Little Women is pretty great, and I enjoyed seeing it in the theater as much as I enjoyed Mad Max: Fury Road (which is also great).

You monster.