That’s what Emma Rosenblum asks here in NY Magazine, writing in part:
… Since Sex and the City, a woman has become the central protagonist in a genre that used to have two (so instead of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, you get Carrie and … her computer). Thus, these women have to follow the logical course of main characters:learn, change, grow:alone. The men? They’re just fine as is. In New in Town, Renée Zellweger plays a driven careerist who moves to a small town to revamp the local factory, where she meets union rep Harry Connick Jr. The moment comes only after Zellweger’s cold heart has been melted by the superfriendly town. In He’s Just Not That Into You, Jennifer Aniston, long-suffering girlfriend of marriage-phobic Ben Affleck, gets a proposal only after deciding she doesn’t need marriage. In Confessions of a Shopaholic, Isla Fisher is a debt-laden journalist who falls for her editor, who can’t reciprocate until she’s given up her expensive shopping habits. …
