“Love your sisters and love yourself” Film Review: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
I decided to do the The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005) because I had seen most of the films on the list and this movie seemed like it could fit in with our material. I know the film was based on the book under the same title, which was read by many young women. This film opens on a group of four girls who are preparing to spend their first summer/time apart, while out they find a pair of pants that magically fit all of them. This leads them to make a manifesto in order for them to stay together for the summer.
Their manifesto has 10 rules, probably the most important ones are each girl keeps the pants for one week, when trading the pants you must write a letter detailing the most exciting thing that happened when wearing the pants and the last rule is “love your sisters and love yourself”. As for the girls there is; Bridgette the wild and unstoppable one, Lena shy and beautiful, Tibby the rebel and Carmen the writer. Each young women has something they work through in the film, however I want to focus on Carmen, who is planning on spending the summer with her father in North Carolina. Carmen’s parents are not together, the film does not say if they were ever married but we do find out that the two of them have never spent more than four days together. She is more than excited to have time to get close to her father; however she soon finds out that he is engaged to a woman with two other children. The issue is not that this was a surprise rather this new family is completely different from her memories of when her father and mother were together.
The reason why I focus on Carmen is because her story of an estranged father is so much like my own life. She is put in a new situation and has to learn to deal with it on her own, she is forced like many of the girls we read about in Red to face adult situations at an age where they are expected to have nothing to worry about. Among one of the differences of this new family is that the family is all white and lives in the suburbs, they play tennis, soccer, and are all “fit”. Carmen is Puerto Rican; she is curvy, speaks Spanish and lives with a single mother. Watching the film her story reminded me of Zulay Regalado’s essay in Red, Zulay had to learn to be proud of her family in a white, she states “they made me feel different, something I thought I could never overcome.” (63). The interesting thing about Carmen’s story is that she has to learn to accept this other family that her father is apart of. Carmen has to overcome jealousy, rage, and feelings of abandonment to come out on top, to be a better person.
The other girls in the film overcome many things and they used the pants as a way to face their problems with strength and courage. Since the beginning of the film the pants held a magically aura about them, making the girls feel invincible, connected, strong, independent, and smart. However at the end of the movie the magic of the pants is questioned, was it the pants that helped them stand up to fathers, adults, fears of abandonment, love, death? Or did each girl grow a little over the summer because they had to and because they were strong enough? Was it the pants or was it the sisterhood and their love for each other that helped them? This film gives girls great examples of what to be, none of the girls use profane language, they are supportive of each other, they never talk about each other or “back stab”. During class we often talk about media representations of young girls and this film has great characters that young girls can look up to and aspire to be.
Comments
I thought this was a really cute movie! I agree that Carmen "is forced like many of the girls we read about in Red to face adult situations at an age where they are expected to have nothing to worry about." I also can relate to this. The pants are somewhat of a security blanket to these girls and like most teenagers you lose your security blanket and find yourself. I agree this is a positive representation of girls, and are great role models.
I have not seen the movie but I based on your summary and information, I wonder if just a little self-esteem for girls can go a long way. They had the jeans and while they may or may not have been magical, the idea of them could have been. But, if they did not grow in the end; then perhaps not. I also wonder how the support group (knowing that the girls have friends in the end)--if that is also a booster to their self-esteem. I wish I had friends like that too--that lived near me!
Yes you are right that one character does loose her virginity. Which is kinda a spoiler but its an interesting part of the film because she does have problems with the persona she choose and also the place/timing. The best part about this is that she does grow from the experience and in fact has to tell a boy that he did not force her to "give it up", she owns her sexuality and understands that she was in control. She grows because she learns a lesson about views on female sexuality and that seeking out sexual activities as a distraction may not be the best idea.