(More Than) Grrrl Power! Girls Studies at UCF

I chose to review the movie Speak which was released in 2004. The movie was directed by Jessica Sharzer and is based on the novel written by Laurie Halse Anderson in 1999. The independent film stares Kristen Stewart, Steve Zahn, and Michael Angarano. It is a story about a high school freshman dealing with the traumatic experience of being raped. Within her school she is known as a snitch because she called 911 at a house party after she was raped. It was the end of eighth grade and she was sexually assaulted by an older high school boy though when the police arrived the rape was not reported. Many of the students who were still at the party got in trouble for underage drinking she began her ninth year being shunned by most of the school. The main characters name is Melinda or Mel for short. Throughout the movie she deals with her suffering by withdrawing and refusing to speak. She is alone and ignored by all of the people around her except a new student and an art teacher who

Andrea Roberts. WST 3020. Film Review I am doing a movie review on the film 10 Things I Hate About You (Touchstone, 1999), directed by Gill Unger and written by Karen Mc Cullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith , based loosely on William Shakespeare’s famous tale, The Taming of the Shrew . In this film, Julia Styles plays Katerina Stratford “Kat,” the protagonist, referred to in the movie as a “heinous bitch.” Here we can see Shakespeare’s shrew appropriated, and updated as a feisty young feminist who defies the stereotypes reinforced by her peers. We have two female voices (the writers of the film) complemented by the “male gaze” (Lipkin 2009) of the director. It makes for a charming story that is both funny and heart wrenching. The story follows Kat who eventually falls in love with tough guy, Patrick (played by Heath Ledger), her formidable, and unexpected love match—who initially pursues her with ulterior motives, but than realizes that she is

I was stunned recently, having discovered Carly Fleischmann. This is not merely a story of female empowerment but human empowerment. It is incredible how technology can enable communication which would have been otherwise impossible. It's also very important not to judge a person based on how they appear. Being that Carly is a teenage girl I felt that you all would appreciate learning more about her. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1uPf5O-on0&feature=related

I chose to review The Princess and the Frog. I chose this particular movie because when it first came out and there was all this hoopla going around about how African American girls finally got a “black princess”, I didn’t want that fact to take away from me truly enjoying what they had done with the fairytale and pick out every misrepresentation of the African American girl from the images placed on the scene. I have to admit sometimes I just want to be entertained. I want to just look at something that has been put together theatrically and just enjoy it without clouding my perception on what the media and the public really think about African American girls. So much noise was being made about how great this picture was for the African American viewer and how we could now be depicted as princesses and live happily ever after as so many white princesses did for years. Or could we? When the tape rolled I was ready. I had already heard a few things about the movie from my cousin,

Completely edgy and riveting this film “The Itty Bitty Titty Committee” Directed by Jaime Babbit is a complete eye opener on the face of feminism that should be displayed out more. Taking place in Los Angeles, California “Ana” who is played by Melonie Diaz comes across the CIA whose meaning is Clits in Action after witnessing Sadie who’s played by Nicole Vicious tag across the front of a Plastic Surgeons office building where she works and inviting her along to go to one of their meetings. Ana who decides to go, and demonstrates how confused she is by their ideas and can truly show how confused women are in reality of how the media affects their daily lives without even being noticed of it. This small group of radical feminists who consists of other 3 members :Meat who’s the one behind all the artwork they display, Aggie who’s a transgender male and allowed in under the exception of having a clit, and finally Shula Smith who I think is the most radical of all 5 girls but speaks with c

Like most girls my age growing up, I read "The Baby Sitters Club" book series. My grandparents bought me the books from garage sales. I even had the trivia board game. The series and this movie follows seven girls from all different backgrounds. You had Mallory (the bookworm), Mary Anne (the quiet girl), Dawn (the environmentalist), Stacey (the New Yorker girl who loved to shop), Claudia (the creative artist), Kristy (the tomboy), and Jessi (the dancer). These seven girls operate their own baby-sitting business in their small town of Stoneybrook. This series doesn't do a great job of playing up stereotypes. Dawn wears flowers in her hair and long, flowy skirts. She is also always seen munching on some all-natural healthy food. Stacey is the pretty girl from New York who loves to shop. Mallory is the bookworm with glasses and the need to dress like the stereotypical "nerd". Kristy is the tomboy who plays sports and wouldn't be caught dead in a dress

When I finished watching this movie, and began to write my review, I stared at a blank screen for about an hour. All I could say after watching this movie was “wow.” This Lifetime movie, Shes Too Young, explains it all in the title. It’s the story of a 14-year-old girl named Hannah. Hannah is in high school and comes from a great family. She has a father and mother who love her so much and take pride in her for always telling the truth. She plays the cello and has always excelled in school, getting straight A’s and being the perfect child. But that all changed. She began hanging out with two of the school’s most popular girls. Dawn and Becca become bad influences on Hannah. They introduce her to Nick, their schools “stud,” the boy that everyone wants to be with. One thing leads to another and Hannah loses her virginity to Nick, at the age of 14. But when Hannah refuses to have a three-some with Nick and two others, she soon learns that he’s not the great guy she thought he was. As if t

For my film review I watched the movie Thirteen. I choose it because I have never seen the movie before and I thought it would be interesting to watch and see what really goes on in some thirteen year old girls' lives. I was absolutely shocked after seeing the movie and I had know idea that girls this young were getting into some of the things they did. The main character in the movie Tracy was a regular thirteen year old in middle school just trying to fit in. She would watch the "popular hot girl" around school and decided she wanted to be friends with her. She started hanging out with the girl and everything went down hill after that. Tracy started stealing, drinking, smoking, doing drugs, and sexual acts. Her relationship with her mom became a disaster as she wouldn't listen to anything her mother said and talked very disrespectfully to her. It's really crazy how girls will act when they want to be with the popular kids. In this case it ruined Tracy and eventu

Many movies have tried to capture the “catty” ways of high school females, but few have captured it in its essence the way that the film “Mean Girls” does. This movie is based on the non-fiction book, “Queen Bees and Wannabes,” buy Rosalind Wiseman. It was screen written by Tina Fey as a comedy that portrays a home schooled girl, Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) going to public high school for the first time in her life. On her first day her eyes are opened to the difficulties of fitting in and dealing with the in and out crowds that permeate high school life. The movie theme revolves around, who belongs to the different cliques, the bullying that goes on between the cliques and between their own members, and how one becomes associated with certain cliques, especially those that are considered popular. Cliques are a part of all high schools in America and pose a great problem for those on the wrong side of their favor. Rosalind Wiseman recognizes the injustice that happens in the secondary

“In a land that loves its blond, blue-eyed children, who weeps for the dreams of a black girl?” – Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye The Bluest Eye weaves tales in many different ways: in its 164 pages, it contains a trauma narrative, a work of historical fiction, a tale of racism and families working to survive during the Great Depression – but at the root of all of these stories is one constant: a girl who wishes to be anything but who she is. Throughout the novel, Toni Morrison aims to deconstruct racial prejudice by opening up a narrative largely about whiteness, and how whiteness is seen to represent beauty. Another theme throughout the book is love and sex, and how those two are seen to be interchangeable in the eyes of some. Pecola Breedlove is the protagonist of the story. She is an eleven-year old girl who is constantly being reminded of her ugliness. Pecola believes that if only she had blue eyes, she could be beautiful and be seen in the same light as the little white girls wi

Janet Fitch’s work “White Oleader” depicts the young life of a pre-teen girl up until the age of 20, and recounts some horrific experiences that she endured on her way to reaching physical and mental maturity, as well as the ultimate outcome that those experiences influenced. The aim of this novel is to introduce the idea the horrible experiences may a girlhood make, and though they can have great weight on the outcome of that girlhood, the result does not need to be catastrophic but will always have the potential to reach greatness and contentment. The resiliency and elasticity of a young human heart that somehow continues to beat from one horrendous uproar to the next is portrayed throughout the entirety of Fitch’s novel. This work has been presented in a time where it is now potentially crucial to have a Girls Studies school of thought in order to better prepare young women for their transition into womanhood, where there is the question at the height of controversy whether to all

The other day I noticed that CNN.com had a special section titled “Gay in America,” and featured a variety of topics related to that subject. One article, “Race, ethnicity can be challenge to gay acceptance,” discussed the issue of how white homosexuality is more accepted in America than non-white homosexuality. Thinking about it, I think the author, Jamie Gumbrecht, is on to something. Think about TV couples or individuals who are homosexual. Most of them are white. That leads me into another article that was on the same news sight about four weeks ago. This article was titled, “White actors snagging minority roles causes furor.” this article discussed how most lead characters are, can you guess? Caucasian. I had not really thought about the truth of this until reading both articles. From what I have learned through my college courses, America is about 50/50 when it comes to Caucasians and minorities (Asian, Hispanic, African American, Native American, ect.) I do not know what to sa

I really enjoyed watching sections on the movie Wall-E. On YouTube, and reading from the clippings of the two websites posted in the blog. This is a kid’s movie that will capture the hearts of children regardless of sex or culture. This lonely space creature machine seemed to have been on a quest for happiness and finding Eve made his life complete. The movie portrays him as this lonely robot in need of love and guidance. He finds Eve and immediately begins to display human-like characteristics; such as falling in love. Without the readings I would have just taken it for granted that Wall- E and Eve were a boy and a girl, but now I have to stop and think, “What if they are the same sex? Their state of heterosexual is assumed by society. This has been a big problem in our today’s society; assumption. People are too quick to label others, or serotype individuals into categories of their choice. The movie is not depicting any particular sex. It shows one robot falling in love or showing

I shared this interesting essay about the different possible interpretations about the film Wall E on the discussion boards in class, but I felt I ought to also link to it here so more people can read it. It's an eye opener to how we humans tend to see nonhuman objects as 'male or female' and may change your views. It spoke to me because I often have an unconventional interpretation of characters or situations that seem 'normal' on the surface. http://katebornstein.typepad.com/kate_bornsteins_blog/2008/07/walle-a-butchfe.html Here is another review which raises different questions about gender roles in Wall E. http://thehathorlegacy.com/wall-e-the-gender-fication-of-robots/

The Virgin Suicides By: Christine M. Sepulveda The tale set in 1970s suburbia of the five Lisbon girls Lux, Mary, Therese, Bonnie, and Cecilia is narrated by the boys in their community that were completely infatuated by them. These boys for the most part are reacting to the situations that surround the lives of these sad and tormented young girls. The title of the movies says it all. However, these girls were not necessarily all virgins when they ended their short lives in the exact sense, but more like virgins that they were not able to experience all that life had to offer. These girls were for the most part confined to their home and their strict parents. These girls were never really able to express themselves freely in their home. Their story is not one of rainbows and unicorns, but of the reality of what so many young girls have and are still going through in our society. The one theme in this film in my opinion that illustrates, develops, questions or challenges the representa

Jeliza Rose is all alone in a barren Texas landscape, far from the house where she's been staying with her father. She trots through tall grass, talking and singing to herself, her companions the heads of dolls she wears on her fingers. She finds an overturne d, burned out school bus and eagerly climbs inside to talk to the fireflies floating inside of its charred husk, and when a train roars by mere feet from the bus, she screams in joy as the she is rocked by the wind and fury of the passing loco motive. Terry Gilliam's Tideland opens this way, presenting to us a preteen girl who is simultaneously typica l and wildly unusual. Since she was born, Jeliza Rose has been falling down a rabbit hole, and as sh e falls, she does not try to climb back to the normal world. Like Alice Liddell, she wonders what the next curious sights she will encounter will be, and falls and falls and falls. Alice i n Wonderland was the starting point for Jeliza Rose's story, but the film, bas