Miss Representation is a fantastic documentary and over all movement that aims to highlight how badly women are represented in the media. These days everyone is spending more time on their mobile devices than off, which means that they are almost constantly being bombarded with advertisements, marketing schemes, and media propaganda. According to Miss Representation, women only hold 5% of clout positions in mainstream media and MoviefiedNYC can’t help but feel that this is contributing to the fact that the amount of cosmetic surgery performed on youths 18 or younger more than tripled from 1997 to 2007, and apparently breast augmentations increased nearly six-fold in a 10-year period. Thankfully, women are both capable and persistent, meaning that these days a strong female presence in the media is almost inevitable. Today we celebrate the women of this intense industry.

1. Mean Girls

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler can do no wrong. This witty and unbelievably quotable film is an easy watch as well as an educational one. Fey looks at the treatment of women, not from the perspective of men but instead other women, as her character says “You all have got to stop calling each other sluts and whores. It just makes it ok for guys to call you sluts and whores.” This teen high school drama has hidden depths as it explores ‘Girl World’ a place where following the rules can make you simultaneously popular and hated and breaking them will leave you isolated and socially destroyed. Ultimately, Mean Girls is a smart movie with a lot of heart that forces women to take a look at how they treat each other.

2. Bridesmaids

Bridesmaids is a movie made by women for women and just about anyone else with a sense of humor. Like a lot of movies with a heavily female cast the story focuses on the importance of friendship between women. Bridemaids finds Kristen Wiig fighting through the failures of her life with the help of her best friend played by Maya Rudolph and fellow bridesmaids played by Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Wendi McLendon Covey, and Elli Kemper. These ladies are each hilarious in their own way, whether it be from playing the gross out comedian, the innocent girl, the stressed out bride or the absolute mess of a woman. Each actor played her part with comedic ease. It’s a must see.

 

3. Pitch Perfect

Is this a guilty pleasure movie? Yes. Does it hold merit despite this? Definitely! Pitch Perfect is a comedy that follows the angst-ridden Beca as she enters college life and is forced to join an all-girl a cappella group called The Barden Bellas. These ladies must band together to beat the all-boy a cappella group The Treblemakers. The girls fight, throw up, break laws and struggle through numerous obstacles before finally excepting and promoting each other as a group of friends as well as performers. This is a film with a strong female cast, a lot of pop culture references and some great self-aware comedy. Rebel Wilson, Elizabeth Banks, Anna Kendrick, Brittany Snow and Anna Camp deliver strong performances along with the rest of the Bellas as they not only act, sing and dance but learn how to sing numerous songs a cappella! Kendricks even got a music video for one of the songs she performed. Impressive.

4. The First Wives Club

The line “I beat Meryl” has become all the more famous after Jennifer Lawrence quoted it when accepting her Golden Globe for Silver Linings Playbook. The First Wives Club has an all-star cast including Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, Diane Keaton, Maggie Smith, Sarah Jessica Parker and Stockard Channing. When one of their old friends suddenly passes away, three women come together again after years of separation to mourn their loss. During this period they realize that all three of them have been used and abused by their ungrateful husbands and revenge ensues. This film celebrates the importance of female friendships and enforces the message that women should support each other through thick and thin whether that means leaving their husbands, reconsidering them or branching out into something new all together. A sweet film with a young, pre-Sex and the City, Sarah Jessica Parker.

5. The Sweetest Thing

Cameron Diaz, Christina Applegate and Selma Blair play three best friends out on the town looking for Mr. Right Now. The girls play the game like pros, working the room, drinking cocktails and shimmying out of unwelcome dance encounters. It just so happens that on this night, one of the girls finds Mr. Right in the club but he’s on his way out of town. Cue a spontaneous road trip which of course goes anything but planned. Once again, the importance of friendship amongst women in shown and the film tries to re-sensitize the modern day woman to the possibility of true love after too many years of playing the dating game. The film is full of slapstick moments and musical numbers but it also laughs at how women today are still expected to act as doe eyed, wilting flowers of the past as opposed to the strong, sexually revolutionized women of the present. All in all, a good watch for a girl’s night in.

Honorable mentions:

Here are some women of the industry that I admire and respect but couldn’t fit into this short post: Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Stone,  Mila Kunis, Mindy Kailing, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, Brittany Snow, Rebel Wilson, Sandra Bullock, Candice Bergen, Jayne Curtin, Rachel Dratch, Nora Dunn, Abby Elliott, Ana Gasteyer, Cheri Oteri, Gilda Radner, Molly Shannon, Jeny Slate, Julia Sweeney, Michaela Watkinsa, Betty White, Jane Lynch, Cobie Smulders, Alyson Hannigan, Emma Watson, Leslie Mann, Maud Apatow, Iris Apatow, Saoirse Ronan, Lyndsey Fonesca, Parker Posey, Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Lena Dunham and well, the list goes on!

I’m happy to say, I dont think theres a way for me to truly name all the great women working in the industry right now. Thank goodness for that!

– Sinann Fetherston