The Girlfriend Flick: Movie Analysis

What comes after understanding how female characters are mistreated and mishandled when compared to men, is understanding how they are when men simply are not a factor. ‘The Girlfriend Flick’ as feminists have started referring the ‘chick flick’ as, is a subset of films that focus solely on women and what they do, with men not always having to be a factor (Winch, 2012, pg. 70). It is considered the next logical step in films focusing on women, and it allows us to see women as people (Winch, 2012, pg. 70). Women are as varied in the world as men are, and yet female characters don’t seem to be as varied on screen in other films, this type of film gives a better perspective of that variation (Winch, 2012, pg. 78). Women, when presented outside

For a long time men were the heroes and women the damsels, always needing to be rescued, but over time that changed towards an almost equal representation of male heroes and female heroes (Wright, 2012, pg. 407). Female heroes were allowed to be muscled, to fight with swords or magic, and to go on adventures with their male counterparts in several 1980’s sword and sorcery films (Wright, 2012, pg. 407). And while the women were free, the villainesses were much freer in their ability to be sexualized without consequence to their purity (Wright, 2012, pg. 407). The problem, though, with that is it is relative of the ‘good girl’ and ‘bad girl’ representation in slasher films where women who are sexualized are ‘victims’ or in this case ‘villains’ and then those female heroines whose sexuality is noted as rather ‘masculine (Wright, 2012, pg. 407 and pg. 408). Women are once again punished for sex while men are reward and looked up to for the same things, this dichotomy is problematic in that it exists in the culture and thus is seemingly inescapable (Wright, 2012, pg. 408). Something that is truly important, though, is that the films of the eighties have led way to the films of now which are much more accepting of strong female heroes, who are not noted for a masculine nature and rather are noted for being

70). Women simply are, and that should be the goal of filmmakers. Female characters should be representative of women, but no single female character should be expected to represent women as a whole. Women have a niche in Hollywood that seems to be limited because of their gender but it is being dealt with, albeit not as quickly as it should be going. For now, should women simply be happy that they are represented at all or should women and men alike fight for a better representation of half the human population? Three female figures shocked the world when their films were some of the highest grossing of 2012, but are they the best we can do or is there more that can and should be done (IMDB, n.d., “Most Popular Feature Films Released in 2012”)? Three genres manage to diversify women while still limiting them in most regards, but these three characters didn’t fall into that pitfall. However, women are not fully represented in the world of film and that is something that should never be given up on. It is time for women to be more fully realized on the screen, as more than the hero’s girlfriend or the girl next door. Women in film and other media should be just as diverse as their male