What Women Want

What Women Want
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Title	What Women Want
Director	Nancy Meyers
Starring	Mel Gibson, Helen Hunt
Release date	2000
Country	United States
Language	English language

What Women Want is a 2000 American romantic comedy film directed by Nancy Meyers and starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt. The film follows a Chicago advertising executive who gains the ability to hear women's thoughts, prompting comedic and reflective encounters with colleagues, clients, and family. It sparked discussions across media, academia, and industry about gendered perceptions, workplace dynamics, and romantic tropes.

Overview

The premise centers on Nick Marshall, a character portrayed by Mel Gibson, who after an accident wakes to discover he can hear the inner thoughts of women, including characters played by Helen Hunt, Marisa Tomei, and Ashley Judd. Set in Chicago, the narrative uses the device to explore themes common to romantic comedy and screwball comedy traditions, drawing on conventions associated with films like Some Like It Hot and When Harry Met Sally.... The production and release occurred amid the late-1990s and early-2000s landscape dominated by studios such as Warner Bros. and distribution patterns shaped by the Motion Picture Association of America ratings system.

Psychological and Evolutionary Perspectives

Analyses in psychology reference work by researchers influenced by David Buss and John Gottman when interrogating the film's depiction of mate preferences, intrasexual competition, and empathy. Evolutionary psychology scholars compare on-screen behaviors with hypotheses advanced in texts from Evolutionary Psychology (journal) contributors and by figures like Steven Pinker and Leda Cosmides. Cognitive scientists, drawing on methods from labs at Stanford University and Harvard University, examine theory of mind, perspective-taking, and empathy to contextualize Nick's sudden attunement to female cognition. Social psychologists influenced by Elliot Aronson and Alice Eagly assess the film’s portrayal against research on gender stereotypes, attribution bias, and interpersonal attraction.

Societal and Cultural Influences

The film premiered during debates about workplace equality, sexual harassment policy, and advertising ethics shaped by institutions such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and cultural moments linked to figures like Anita Hill and movements associated with third-wave feminism. Advertising industry depictions evoke companies and campaigns resembling those run by agencies like Ogilvy and Saatchi & Saatchi, and situate the plot amid changing corporate cultures addressed in studies from Columbia Business School and Wharton School. Reception varied across markets, with box-office patterns in North America compared to international distribution circuits influenced by conglomerates like Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Gender, Identity, and Intersectionality

Feminist scholars drawing on frameworks from bell hooks, Judith Butler, and Kimberlé Crenshaw critique the film for flattening diverse female subjectivities into accessible inner monologues. Intersectional analysis foregrounds how race, class, sexuality, and age—discussed in work by Patricia Hill Collins and Angela Davis—are underrepresented in the film’s primarily white, middle-class milieu. Queer theorists referencing Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick interrogate heteronormative assumptions embedded in the romantic plotline. Discussions link to broader cultural texts and movements such as #MeToo and debates within academic venues like Signs (journal).

Representation in Media and Popular Culture

Critics and commentators from outlets like The New York Times, Variety, and The Guardian evaluated the film’s comedic premise and star power. The movie inspired remakes and adaptations in markets including China and India, reflecting patterns in transnational remaking studied by scholars at New York University and Oxford University Press authorship. It intersects with television series and films exploring gendered perspective devices, comparable to Freaky Friday and episodes of The Twilight Zone, and continues to appear in cultural retrospectives alongside careers of actors like Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt.

Research, Surveys, and Methodologies

Empirical work referencing audience reception uses methods from media studies grounded in techniques popularized by researchers at Pew Research Center and academic surveys published in journals such as Journal of Communication and Sex Roles. Content analysis protocols derived from scholars at University of California, Los Angeles and University of Southern California have been applied to quantify gender representation in the film. Experimental designs inspired by social cognition research from MIT and Yale University test hypotheses about perspective-taking effects on attitudes, often employing Likert-scale measures and implicit-association tasks.

Implications for Policy and Practice

Although a commercial entertainment product, the film has been cited in discussions about workplace training, diversity initiatives, and advertising practices at corporations and consultancies influenced by standards from Society for Human Resource Management and professional codes discussed in texts from Harvard Business Review. Educators in communication and gender studies at institutions such as University of Michigan and University of California, Berkeley use the film as a case study to examine representation, empathy, and ethics. The narrative continues to serve as a cultural touchstone for dialogues bridging popular culture, scholarship, and professional practice.

Category:2000 films