Feminist Influence: The Movies of My Childhood

When I was a kid, I watched a lot of movies that all the other kids were watching, like The Little Mermaid and Homeward Bound. But I also watched a lot of movies that weren't made for kids, simply because my mom was watching them. And since my mom was 5 or 10 years older than many of my friends' parents, the movies we watched were a little different.

I didn't give a lot of thought to having been exposed to these movies at a very young age. I loved them, and loved watching them with my mom, so that was all that mattered. I have often teased my mother about the fact that we were so young when we watched Pretty Woman that my older sister thought the colorful condoms were candy, but my mom's response is, "See? You didn't even know what was going on. You were fine." But recently, as I thought back over many of the films we watched, I realize that for my entire life I was exposed to movies about strong women, working women, the challenging of gender roles, homosexuality, and more. I was exposed to feminism and forming feminist ideas before I ever heard the word.

So, here are some of the movies that helped form my ideas about the world while they entertained me through multiple viewings.

Baby Boom, 1987: Diane Keaton is a high-powered businesswoman (which we know because she wears skirt suits all the time) who suddenly inherits a baby and her world is thrown completely off-course. I don't remember all the details, I haven't seen it in a while, (don't ask me how someone simply inherits a baby), but here's what I remember: babies and board meetings don't mix, babies and city life don't mix, but sometimes a woman who thought she was meant to be a CEO is also meant to make homemade baby food. OK, based on my sketchy memory, this movie could potentially have a lot of problems, but it was still a movie about the difficulties of being a working mother, and it shows that "having it all" doesn't really exist unless you change your definition of "it all".


9 to 5, 1980: Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton and Dabney Coleman. Fabulous film about working women, sexism and sexual harassment in the workplace, and sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigots. What I learned: working women are awesome, sexism is gross, flexible workplaces make for happier employees, smoking pot = fairy tale murder fantasies, and mixing up the boxes of coffee sweetener and rat poison is terrible but hilarious. Seriously, though, this was one of my absolute favorite movies as a kid, and it still holds up today. The three female leads are incredible and hilarious, and watching them succeed against sexism and a workplace that didn't allow for flexibility was inspiring. Bonus: it has now been made into a musical.

Tootsie, 1982: Dustin Hoffman plays an actor who can't get any work, so he decides to pretend to be a woman and go after a woman's role. And he gets it! And then, as a woman, he experiences sexism and sexual harassment, and becomes a better man for it. I can't decide if it's a little insulting, or a brilliant commentary on our society, that it takes a man pretending to be a woman to call attention to all the difficulties women face every day. I like to think it's a brilliant commentary on a sad state of affairs, showing that even when it comes to women's rights, it takes a man's voice to get the issues heard.


Pretty Woman, 1990: As I said, my sisters and I have been watching this since we were very young. And thanks to watching it on TBS and USA with commercials, we didn't even know there were sex scenes until we were older. We all know the story: prostitute gets rescued by rich, rich, rich man but then "she rescues him right back." It's a movie with pretty traditional roles, the female damsel in distress and the male hero, but I picked up on some little lessons along the way, like sometimes women can know more about cars than men, and assuming someone can't afford what you're selling in your store is just rude. And of course, no matter what your job, you should be in control of your profession: "I say who, I say when!!!"




To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, 1995: Drag queens. When I first saw this movie, I thought John Leguizamo was an actual woman (I must not have been listening to any dialogue). Anyway, I honestly don't remember what I thought when I first saw this movie, it was so long ago, but it quickly became a family favorite. My sisters and I loved watching drag queens trying to pass for women in a small town. This movie had a lot to teach. Thanks to a speech by Wesley Snipes, I learned the difference between a transvestite, a transsexual, a drag queen, and a boy in a dress. I learned about the horror of domestic violence (at least as much as a PG-rated comedy can teach), that discrimination is good for no one, and that being yourself is always the best way to live your life, no matter what anyone else thinks.
"Your approval is not needed."
"Approval neither desired nor required."

So, thanks to my mother, for exposing me and my sisters to more than just movies made for kids. They affected us more than we knew, and we are better for it.