Becka Wall | @beckawall
Ah, winter. The season for ice skating, snowball fights …. and “Netflix and Chill.” What could be better than inviting over some of your favorite feminists and spending a few hours cuddled up with snacks, movies and feminist theory.
For a Good Time, Call…
Summary: Two girls with polar opposite personalities come together when they start a small business – a phone sex line.
Themes: Owning your sexuality; friendships; lady CEOs; the male gaze
Snacks: “For a Good Time, Call…” is colorful, peppy and fun. Stock your snack pile with lots of fruit and/or gummy candy, funfetti cupcakes and/or cookies.
Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer
Summary: Fearless Russian punk-rockers ignite a revolution and piss off Putin along the way.
Themes: Smashing the patriarchy; calling out shitheads; questioning systems of power
Snacks: Live like a real rock star with lots of pizza, beer, beef jerky and poptarts.
Miss Representation
Summary: The media uses completely messed-up stereotypes about women to keep them from gaining political or social power.
Themes: Critical thinking about our media, society and the world we live in; representations of women on screen MATTERS!; women in politics
Snacks: Keep it classier than those pundits on TV and serve some hors d’oeuvres – a nice charcuterie board, or make the most of that frozen puff pastry by whipping up a butternut squash & prosciutto flatbread or some parmesan twists.
Tiny Furniture
Summary: The movie that made Lena Dunham famous centers around a young woman moving back in with her mother and sister after graduating college, and all the fun growing pains that come with it.
Themes: Relationships with mothers and sisters (biological or otherwise); what it means to be an adult; the thrill that comes with first jobs and paychecks.
Snacks: With your early 20s comes one very important thing – an appreciation for the beauty of pizza and wine. Nom accordingly.
A League of Their Own
Summary: The first female baseball league in the 1940s was full of strong, smart women – and nobody expected them to succeed.
Themes: Friendship; relationships with men; breaking the glass ceiling; Tom Hanks flying off the handle; how hard it is to be a woman in a man’s game (or world. PATRIARCHY, am I right?).
Snacks: Go all-in on the baseball theme with popcorn, peanuts, cracker jacks and hot dogs.
Bridget Jones’s Diary
Summary: Bridget decides it’s time to take control of her life – and start keeping a diary – which just so happens to chronicle her friendships, new love triangle, failed cooking attempts and valiant efforts to stop smoking.
Themes: Loving your body and your true self; all the awkward moments that come with career advancement; falling in love.
Snacks: Do Bridget proud and make your own Fish & Chips, with some pints to go on the side (Just stay away from her blue birthday soup concoction).
Mean Girls
Summary: Cady moves to America and has to start at a new school while learning about the jungle that is teenage friendship.
Themes: Teenage friendship; feminist a-ha moments; a society which makes young women feel they must compete with each other for attention.
Snacks: Swing by Dylan’s Candy Bar to pick up a version of the famous “Kalteen bar”, or pop up some popcorn with lots of butter – since butter is a carb.
Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Summary: Janey has always followed the orders of her strict Army father and stayed out of the spotlight, but when she moves to a new town, she decides to disobey her father and enter a TV dance competition.
Themes: Breaking the rules; deciding what’s best for yourself; friendships that make you grow.
Snacks: This is a full-on 80s movie, and perfect for a sleepover party. So tell your crew to bring their pillows, toothbrush and sleeping bags. Then stock up on some ice cream, cheesy snacks and takeout.
Gilmore Girls
Summary: A single mother raises her daughter in a quirky small-town in Connecticut (But you didn’t need that summary, did you?).
Themes: Mother/daughter relationships; paving your own path and future; the importance of female friendships to get through hard times.
Snacks: Do Lorelai proud and go all in. Get some twizzlers, marshmallows, pizza, chinese food and lots of chocolate.
Jane the Virgin
Summary: Jane – an engaged virgin – is accidentally artificially inseminated with a different man’s sperm.
Themes: Mother/daughter relationships; the value society places on women’s chastity; how class, race and income can determine your life and opportunities and the difficulties of being a working mom (granted, in a telenovela world).
Snacks: Everytime they talk about making empanadas for dinner I start drooling. So whip up a batch of fresh beef empanadas.
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