Smart girls remain virtually absent from film

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jan 14, 2001 | by Warren Epstein

After a recent screening of "Finding Forrester," my wife and I got into a discussion about this and other genius-kid flicks.

The ones we could think of were good movies - "Little Man Tate," "Good Will Hunting," "Real Genius," "Magnolia" (in part) - but they're all missing something.

Girls.

Sure, there are girls as love interests. Cute girls. Flirty girls. But smart girls? Hard to find.

The girl in 1995's "A Little Princess" was creative and weaved interesting stories. "Matilda" featured a girl with magic powers.

But think about the last time you saw a movie about a girl who actually was smart. It's easier to think of a smart Farrelly brothers movie.

Meanwhile, in the real world, girls are about even with boys in language skills and are closing the gap in mathematics.

It might help close that gap further if girls had a few cinematic role models who aren't afraid to crack a book or two.

At least they can look forward to the movie adaptation of the popular children's book "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," due out next fall. Although Harry wields a mean wand, it's Hermione Granger who seems to be the best student at Hogwart's, a school for wizards.

Although we haven't seen many smart girls in films, we have seen more strong women lately.

The outstanding new Ang Lee film, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," which opened here Friday, features women who remain strong both emotionally and physically; they can break out of arranged marriages and do kung fu moves that put male warriors to shame.

Coming on the heels of "Charlie's Angels" and the indie hit "Girl Fight," "Crouching Tiger" demonstrates how the girl-power momentum built from the TV shows "The Powerpuff Girls" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is picking up even more steam in the movies.

Amy Richards, co-author of the book "Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future," says it's important that women in TV and movies are kicking some serious butt.

"Physical strength in our society is considered extremely valuable, so I see these movies and TV shows with strong women as a major sign of progress," Richards said during a telephone interview.

"In the past, you had the 'Bionic Woman' and the original 'Charlie's Angels,' but they were really not allowed to show their strength in the way women are today."

Richards agrees it's important that the media show a full range of what girls and women are about, but it makes sense that they literally must fight their way to get there.

"To be taken seriously, girls have to do boy things," she said.

Today, those boy things are kicking the crap out of bad guys. Tomorrow, perhaps they will be bantering about literature with Sean Connery.