He's Just Not That Into You: movies today reflecting on the "sexual revolution"

From Megan Basham in World on the movie He's not that into you...

Each character represents a struggling archetype on the modern dating scene....women chasing after men, desperate to hang onto them even when the men are clearly "not that into them." While that doesn't sound too amusing, the resemblance of these characters to real-life women we have all known or been is so canny....

But behind the laughs, and, indeed, behind the film's popularity, is an unspoken question: What left women in such a precarious position?...

Because the women here have been liberated from the social norm of saving sex for marriage, the men are free to approach dating not as a way to court and win women but as an activity to maintain an active sex life until they're ready to settle down....

In the end, though, the movie seems to find the truth it shares with women too hard and tries to back away from it, assuring them in the final scenes that they can be the exception. They can trade their hearts and bodies away for nothing but the most cursory attention from men and still attract love, respect, and happiness....