Teen Movies Need A Girls' Night Out
Posted by anastasia on 08-23-2007
I know I'm being a little self indulgent with these teen movies posts, but hey, it's August, and it feels like everyone's gone on vacation but me. Last night I saw "Superbad." I thought it was ok — it had that exhausting quality you experience when you watch teen movies that chronicle teens' night out. Think: "Dazed & Confused" or "Can't Hardly Wait." By the end of the movie you feel like you've been out all night. It's been hailed as an instant classic in the teen sex comedy genre that includes other movies like "Porky's" and "American Pie." It's also very much a boy movie — for most of the movie until the very end, the girls are there as objects the boys want to have sex with or at least talk about having sex with. Spoiler alert: Of course, at the end, we realize that it was indeed all [very raunchy] talk.
It made me wonder whether there had really been any "teen sex comedies" told from the girls' perspective that aren't purely romantic — "Ten Things I Hate About You," "Clueless," "She's All That," etc. I feel like "Fast Times" definitely gave us a little more of this through the eyes of Stacy Hamilton (Jennifer Jason Leigh) thanks to Cameron Crowe and Amy Heckerling (who both get female characters). But the reality is that gender roles still reign supreme when it comes to most teen movies. Girls fall in love and guys are insatiably horny. The dirty little secret is that girls talk about sex, too. Maybe not quite as much or in a way that's quite as raunchy, but it's not really shown on film all that much or it's all serious and complex and indie like in the film "All Over Me" [which is a favorite of mine]. I guess I'm jonesing for a girls' night out at the movies where we follow real girlfriends who aren't "Clueless" or "Mean Girls" from party to party, hear real teen girl conversations and see the night from their perspective.
Categorized under: Movies & Music
August 23rd, 2007 at 8:57 am
"The Sweetest Thing" with Cameron Diaz is a raunchy, female-perspective movie.
The characters aren't teenagers, though.
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:02 am
I agree with you that girls know quite well how to talk about sex, but aren't nearly as raunchy. My wife tells me of these conversations quite often (more between her and her friends than the ones she has with the girls we work with). My thoughts in response to yours are this: 1)Girls may talk about it, but (call it stereotyping if you like) generally do so in the context of actually caring about somebody rather than just using men as objects; 2) Maybe girls don't talk as raunchy as boys because they have more class and/or maturity (again, a generalization, but one I've seen again and again), especially teen girls vs. teen boys; 3) You won't see many movies like your suggesting because most directors and producers are men, and because the current type sells, or they perceive it will sell, better than what you're suggesting.
August 24th, 2007 at 7:57 am
I think that it is harder to portray teen girls because they seem to be more emotionally complex (im generalizing). I remember girls from high school that would talk about sex just as much and just as explicit as the guys in the movie…however like the old stigma girls can be seen as slutty while guys are heroes when it comes to sexual activity. It is hard to find that balance in portraying positive realistic female teen characters…maybe sophia coppola could give it another try (I loved the Virgin Suicides).