(More Than) Grrrl Power! Girls Studies at UCF

The Virgin Suicides. Dir. Sofia Coppola. American Zoetrope, 2000 The Virgin Suicides was a film set in the mid 1970s in a small upscale neighborhood in Michigan. The basic premise of the story is the life of five teenage girls settled in a seemingly normal American society, and how the pressures of adolescence changed their existence. What I found to be the most compelling aspect of the movie was the type of parents that these five young girls had influencing every facet of their lives. What these two parents expected of their daughters (more so the mother than the father), was an unattainable picture perfect idea of the untouched, unheard, god-loving American beauty. To their community they are viewed as just that, until a tragic chain of events is ignited by the suicide of the youngest daughter, Cecilia. The only other daughter that plays a big role in the movie was Lux Lisbon (Kirsten Dunst) who is one of the older sisters. Lux’s biggest struggles are with her sexuality and with app...

Be Assertive, Take Action and Don’t Be Afraid of What You Believe While I was reading it made me think and take a closer look at how I feel about girls’ issues and women’s’ rights. Girls’ need an outlet like a blog on the web to express their feelings.The internet as a form of communication can be good. The internet can also be a nightmare, not knowing who you are chatting with. In the book Queer Girls’ “In other words, youth make use of the Internet as a realm to try out. Play with, and perform their identities and desires through provisional combinations of images, words, and narratives.” (pg170) In my opinion this clearly states the internet is an outlet for girls’. The book makes its case for the need of queer websites that allow middle aged girls’ the ability to chat with other girls’ ask questions, receive answers and not be criticized.(pg171) Suicide rates are higher among queer girls’ due to isolation, and harassment. Web sites like ikissgirls and birls are making it possible f...

Mean Girls, a 2004 film written by Tina Fey and Rosalind Wiseman, is a film overflowing with modern girl culture. The film tackles the issues of girls and family, sexuality, friendships, and school. The film documents 16 year old Cady Heron’s pilgrimage out of Africa and home schooling and into the modern and cruel world of American teenage girls and “The Plastics.” The Plastics are a group of gossiping, glamorous popularity queens who consume themselves with primping, shopping, and making everyone feel inferior to them. New to the school, Cady is befriended by the “Art Freaks” and delves into the clique of The Plastics accidentally where she serves as a spy for the Art Freaks. Soon enough Cady is in over her head both the audience and Cady find it difficult to understand where the Plastic ends and the real Cady begins. The film climaxes with the Plastics’ queen bee dethroned and Cady being revealed. As the film draws to an end Cady must evaluate just how Plastic she is and reconcile ...

I chose to watch Juno for this film project, even though Now & Then is one of my favorite movies from my teenage years and I have already seen Mean Girls and Thirteen. I thought this movie was a pretty good enactment of how teenage pregnancy occurs. I applaud how she handles her "situation" as far as how everyone else looks at her. I feel she made a responsible decision as to what to do with her child, considering she was a child herself and had no real way of supporting her baby. This movie takes you through all her emotions, although I feel like if I had been her I would have been freaking out a lot more than that. She kind of took on the whole pregnancy thing herself, left out the father and didn't really involve anyone else for the most part. She was naive, yet responsible for her age (except for the part about getting pregnant... haha). I feel as though this is a movie that would help a fellow pregnant teenager to feel better about her situation. Obviously this k...

“Cady Heron moves to a new home from the bush country of Africa. She goes to a new school where she meets Janis and Damian. Her new friends warn her to stay away from the Plastics: the A-list, popular, crude, and beautiful clique headed by Regina George with Gretchen and Karen. When Cady sees Aaron Samuels, she falls in love. When Regina discovers this, she seeks revenge by taking and dangling Aaron in front of Cady. Now, Cady, Janis, and Damian plot to bring Regina's status down. However, as Cady continues to spend more time with the Plastics, she begins to become one of them” (Mark Alexander, IMDb). Mean Girls’ themes parallel what we have been discussing in this class. Cady’s Infatuation with Aaron Cady’s initial crush on Aaron made me think of Jocelyn in “Red.” In it, she writes: “You were tall, cute, and athletic. You had dark hair and dark eyes, and perfect skin that was tan even in the middle of winter. You always seemed to be surrounded by people, always a group o...

Thirteen is a movie centered on two very different teenage girls, and what happens when they become best friends. Tracy starts off as what you would call a “good girl” trying to make it in a new school. She quickly notices Evie, the most popular girl in school, and sees the amount of attention Evie gets. It is apparent that Tracy yearns to be like her, and suddenly decides to do everything she can to be her friend. Tracy finally earns Evie’s acceptance after pick pocketing a woman’s wallet when she is rejected from a shopping trip with Evie and her friends. Tracy and Evie become very close and it all turns into a downward spiral from there. Thanks to Evie, Tracy experiences stealing, sex, drugs (using and dealing), and lying to her mother who she was once very close with. It isn’t long before Tracy’s new world and attitude takes a toll on her, her family, and old friends. Thirteen is a quintessential girl movie. I could definitely see Tracy’s character in some of ...

Juno is the story of a pregnant teen girl, Juno McGruff, who decides she is going to have her baby and give him/her up for adoption. A local couple, Mark and Vanessa are her choice for adoptive parents. The movie follows her throughout the pregnancy until after birth. A lot of people consider Juno a comedy, and there are parts that are funny. Juno’s character is witty and solicits a few laughs, but to me, the movie isn’t one I would consider a comedy. For me, the movie acted as a commentary on the weight that pregnancy places on women. As much as your significant other can try to be there for you, or as much as your parents and friends support you, Juno’s situation shows that some parts of pregnancy you do experience alone. And Juno is one of the lucky ones. Her parents are (eventually) extremely supportive of her, she has a supportive best friend, and Mark and Vanessa are there for her to help her and pay all of her medical expenses. Lots of pregnant teenage girls don’t have the supp...

I’ve seen many girls in my high school pregnant from 9 th to 12 th grade. I can’t believe how young they were and with no sound future for themselves or their children. After watching Juno I was surprised by the strength one young women had throughout her pregnancy and her determination for that child to be raised correctly. Ellen Page plays Juno MacGuff a witty 16-year-old woman who decided to give her unborn child up for adoption. After a brief and not so romantic sexual encounter with her best friend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) she ends up pregnant. She wade her options and she decided the best route was to give her baby up to “the perfect” couple Vanessa and Mark Loring played by Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman. I loved the movie because she didn’t seem scared or dismal about herself. She would walk around big and all without a care that people were judging her. The movie makes you laugh and think about the many young women that get preg...