In terms of movies, they were more often than not aimed at teenage girls, who have tended to be the arbiter of trends for much of modern history. Girl power movies tend to be funny, light-hearted, with an underlying edge of honesty. The comedy is whip-smart, the fashion iconic and, often, easy to replicate. These movies of the 90s and 00s became cult classics and must-watch viewing for the young girl growing up in a world where the feminist landscape was changing quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019re not talking the teenage-oriented romcom like 10 Things I Hate About You <\/em>(although I do, thoroughly, recommend it) \u2013 we\u2019re talking the movies with girls supporting girls and doing incredible things, whether there\u2019s a romance involved or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As done before, if the title is accompanied by a \ud83d\udc95, it means I\u2019ve watched (and loved) the film myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I refuse to recommend garbage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Haley Graham was once an up-and-coming gymnast until she walked out of the World Championships mid-competition. Now, lost and facing juvenile detention, she\u2019s sent back into gymnastic training \u2013 a world of ultimate perfection for girls, and all-too-strict ruling. Includes incredibly fun camera angles and shots of the gymnastics and <\/em>an incredibly grumpy mentor-mentee relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although practically laughed out of the cinemas when it premiered, Jennifer\u2019s Body<\/em> has become a cult classic. The dark comedy about a violated cheerleader getting revenge on men and the relationship with her best friend who\u2019s in love with her will become a quick favourite as long as you\u2019re willing to sit back and occasionally say \u201cHuh, good for her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With iconic outfits and hilarious dialogue, Clueless <\/em>is about high school popular Cher proving that she\u2019s not just her vapid lifestyle as she takes a transfer student under her wing in attempt to make her popular, too. Includes the timeless line \u201cMay I please remind you that it does not say \u2018RSVP\u2019 on the Statue of Liberty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Starring young Parminder Nagra and Kiera Knightley, this movie is about a talented British Indian football player and her traditional parents who don\u2019t want her to play. Themes include: fighting for your dreams, female friendship and whether David Beckham really is the best football player of 2002.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course Mean Girls<\/em> is on this list. It\u2019s a classic. New student Cady (Lindsay Lohan) decides to befriend the popular girls in an attempt to halt their reign of terror and bring them down, but finds herself becoming one of them in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chadha directs another life-changing teen girl movie with Angus, <\/em>based on the book series of the same name. The film centres on a teenage girl keeping a diary of the ups and downs and downright embarrassings of her life, and features a young Aaron Taylor Johnson before he appeared in the MCU for all of five minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A championship-winning high school cheerleading team discovers its previous captain stole all their choreography from an inner-city school and now must scramble to come up with a new routine for competition. The Princess Diaries<\/strong>, dir. Garry Marshall (2001) \ud83d\udc95<\/p>\n\n\n\n Awkward teen girl Mia (Anne Hathaway) discovers that her absent, recently deceased father is actually the heir to the throne of the small country of Genovia. Her grandmother (Julie Andrews) must teach her how to become a princess, and, later \u2013 in the sequel \u2013 how to become Queen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most recent on the list, right at the end of the 00s, Whip It<\/em> is a brash, messy movie about a women\u2019s roller derby championship and a seventeen-year-old who joins despite her mother\u2019s wishes for her to be a pageant queen competitor instead. Legally Blonde<\/strong>, dir. Robert Luketic (2001) \ud83d\udc95<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fashion-forward sorority queen Elle Woods decides to go to Harvard Law School to chase her ex-boyfriend who has recently dumped her. Once there, she discovers she\u2019s more than just her looks (but the looks are fun and important too). What\u2019s your favourite girl power movie? Have I forgotten something that absolutely belongs on this list? Let us know! Treat yourself to a little walk down girl power memory lane this Women\u2019s History Month (or wait a week and see what our historic women\u2019s movie recommendations are!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n This month, we\u2019re doing two types of movie and TV show recommendations for Women\u2019s History Month \u2013 the historical kind, looking at real life women from history and their stories […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":331329,"featured_media":16870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2886,66],"tags":[110,114,4042,2014,4046,4022],"class_list":["post-16846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-equality-and-diversity","category-sustainability-engagement","tag-acting-together","tag-actingtogether","tag-girl-power","tag-sustainability","tag-womens-history-2","tag-womens-history-month-2"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"authorName":"Bethany Climpson","featuredImage":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/669\/2023\/02\/girl-power-1-1.png","postExcerpt":"This month, we\u2019re doing two types of movie and TV show recommendations for Women\u2019s History Month \u2013 the historical kind, looking at real life women from history and their stories […]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/331329"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16846"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16886,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16846\/revisions\/16886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/669\/2023\/02\/movie-recs-1024x512.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Stick it<\/strong>, dir. Jessica Bendinger (2006) \ud83d\udc95<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jennifer\u2019s Body<\/strong>, dir. Karyn Kusama (2009) \ud83d\udc95<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clueless<\/strong>, dir. Amy Heckerling (1995) \ud83d\udc95<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bend it Like Beckham<\/strong>, dir. Gurinder Chadha (2002) \ud83d\udc95<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mean Girls<\/strong>, dir. Mark Waters (2004) \ud83d\udc95<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging<\/strong>, dir. Gurinder Chadha (2008) \ud83d\udc95<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bring It On<\/strong>, dir. Peyton Reed (2000)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whip It<\/strong>, dir. Drew Barrymore (2009) \ud83d\udc95<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Bethany Climpson, Sustainability Engagement Assistant<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"