Maybe you heard, but this Friday Iron Man 2 comes out. Last Friday, Paper Man was released. February had The Wolfman; March, Repo Man. At the tail end of 2009, A Serious Man and A Single Man joined the Oscar race. Later this year, there will be Solitary Man, Extra Man and the documentary Winnebago Man. Well, gee, that’s a whole lot of movies with the word man in the title! While this naming convention — Random-Descriptive Man — isn’t new (The Thin Man, The Third Man), it sure seems like it’s turning up more than usual. Because it is!
2010 has had by far the most Random-Descriptive Man movies of any year since 1990, and over those twenty years, the convention has become more prevalent generally. (This is counting movies that you might have heard of, not ones that were never widely released.) Plus, to add a little dose of lady-criticism, we checked how many Random-Descriptive Woman movies have been made in the same period. Guess what? Not very many! Maybe Wonder Woman, possibly, finally coming to a theater in 2011, will help rectify the gender inequity in movie titles. (Which, no joke, is real: check out all the Random-Descriptive Wife and Random-Descriptive Girl movies there have been.)
2010
Man Movies: 7, The Wolf Man, Repo Man, Paper Man, Solitary Man, Iron Man 2, Extra Man, Winnebago Man
Woman Movies: 0
Girl/Wife Movies: 1, Exploding Girl
2009
Man Movies: 2, A Single Man, A Serious Man
Woman Movies: 0
Girl/Wife Movies: 2, The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Astronaut’s Wife
2008
Man Movies: 3, Iron Man, Yes Man, The Other Man
Woman Movies: 0
Girl/Wife Movies: 3, My Best Friend’s Girl, The Other Boleyn Girl, Kit Kitteridge: An American Girl
2007
Man Movies: 1, Spider-Man 3
Woman Movies: 0
Girl/Wife Movies: 0
2006
Man Movies: 3, Wicker Man, Inside Man, Little Man
Woman Movies: 0
Girl/Wife Movies: 2, Factory Girl, The Dead Girl
2005
Man Movies: 5, Cinderella Man, The Weather Man, The Perfect man, The Man, Gingerbread Man
Woman Movies: 0
Girl/Wife Movies: 0
2004
Man Movies: 1, Spider-Man 2
Woman Movies: 2, A Good Woman, Catwoman
Girl/Wife Movies: 1, Jersey Girl
2003
Man Movies: 0
Woman Movies: 0
Girl/Wife Movies: 0
2002
Man Movies, 1 Spider-Man
Woman Movies: 0
Girl/Wife Movies: The Good Girl
2001
Man Movies: 1, Harvard Man
Woman Movies: 0
Girl/ Wife Movies: 1, Birthday Girl
2000
Man Movies: 4, Family Man, Hollow Man, The Ladies Man, Company Man
Woman Movies: 0
Girl/Wife Movies: 0
1999
Man Movies: 3, Bicentennial Man, The Best Man, The Minus Man
Woman Movies: 1, The 24 Hour Woman
Girl/Wife Movies: 0
1998
Man Movies: 1, The Gingerbread Man
Woman Movies: 0
Girl/Wife Movies: 0
1997
Man Movies: 1, The Sixth Man
Woman Movies: 0
Girl/Wife Movies: 0
1996
Man Movies: 1, Glimmer Man
Woman Movies: 0
Girl/ Wife Movies: 2, The Preacher’s Wife, The Rich Man’s Wife
1995
Man Movies: 1, Dead Man
Woman Movies: 0
Girl/ Wife Movies: 2, Tank Girl, Party Girl
1994
Man Movies: 1, Renaissance Man
Woman Movies: 0
Girl/ Wife Movies: 1, My Girl 2
1993
Man Movies: 2, Meteor Man, Demolition Man
Woman Movies: 1, A Dangerous Woman
Girl/Wife Movies: 0
1992
Man Movies: 3, Encino Man, The Lawnmower Man, Medicine Man
Woman Movies: 0
Girl/Wife Movies: 0
1991
Man Movies: 1, The Marrying Man
Woman Movies: 0
Girl/Wife Movies: 2, My Girl, The Butcher’s Wife
1990
Man Movies: 2, Cadillac Man, Far Out Man
Woman Movies: Pretty Woman
Girl/Wife Movies: 0