22 Ways Women Are Constantly Misrepresented In Movies
Recently, we asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to share unrealistic things women do in movies but almost never in real life. People had a lot to say, so here are the infuriating results:
1.Rarely, if ever, wear the same outfit twice
Paramount Pictures / Via giphy.com
"Sure, it's fun seeing new pieces, but no female character ever repeats a jacket, shoes, or blouse. What waitress or nanny has the money to own so many clothes, especially given the reality that women are still paid less than men?"
2.Wear a bra during sex and always cover up their boobs with a sheet afterward
3.Wake up looking refreshed or wearing a full face of makeup
Netlix / Via giphy.com
"Waking up with perfect makeup on."
4.Have glamorous and flowing hair after taking it out of a ponytail or bun
BBC America / Via giphy.com
"Two words: hair dent."
"When they take their hair down from a bun or ponytail after doing something and automatically look like they're in a hair product commercial with luscious, perfectly flowing hair. I look like a gremlin."
5.Keep up with shaving and grooming, regardless of living through a literal apocalypse
"Perfectly groomed during any apocalyptic scenario! No armpit hair, shaved legs, and perfect brows. The least they’ll do is tone down her makeup, but anything else? Heaven forbid she looks less than a 10."
"Shaving during an apocalypse."
6.Throw away a dream job for a man
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"My business is struggling. Oh, what's that? A ruggedly handsome man that verbally put me down but played it off as a joke? I'M IN LOVE! I'm giving up my bakery and marrying him at once!"
7.Never pee after sex
"Like, no girl, go pee so you don’t get a UTI!"
8.Wear high heels to work physically demanding jobs
"High heels in a place or profession where no sane woman would wear them. Especially police detectives, adventurers, archaeologists on location, and others with physically demanding jobs."
9.Engage in physical activity with their hair flying all over the place
"Do movie writers honestly not realize how obnoxious and in the way hair gets?"
10.And maintain flawless hair and makeup after a big fight scene
"When there’s a fight scene and afterward their hair and makeup is still perfect! Even their injuries are perfectly placed so they still look flawless."
11.Try on upward of 20 outfits while a friend watches
Warner Bros. Pictures / Via giphy.com
"No one has time for this. Maybe three to four outfits tops."
12.Wear matching lingerie sets at all times
"Always having lingerie sets on, even with chance encounters you had no idea to prepare for. No one wears cute underwear all the time."
13.Treat their best friend as a sidekick or as a sounding board for their troubled love life
"I would feel so guilty if I dragged my friend around in my everyday drama like they don’t have a life. Realistically, that’s a very toxic friendship with no balance."
14.Become beautiful overnight by removing their "ugly" glasses or by straightening their hair
Buena Vista Pictures / Via giphy.com
"Growing up with frizzy, curly hair and glasses, it truly made me self-conscious when the main character would be considered 'beautiful' after straightening their hair and getting contacts (see She’s All That, The Princess Diaries, etc). Now I love my curls and have so many pairs of glasses for different outfits, but growing up with that stigma was tough!"
15.Orgasm immediately from penetrative sex without any foreplay or lube
"Passionate, satisfying, penetrative sex without one second of foreplay or lube. Then just putting her undies back on and going back to work like she doesn’t have a goddamn bog between her legs."
—PHM8
16.Look ready for the runway at 7:30 in the morning for a day of high school
"When high school girls in movies look better than some celebrities I've seen on red carpets. Nobody looks that freakin' good at 7:30 in the morning."
17.Need to get married and have children in order to feel fulfilled in life
Paramount Pictures / Via giphy.com
"If that's what you want out of life, that's great! However, there are a lot of women like myself who don't. I'd love to see more movies depicting those kinds of women."
18.Make it everybody's business when they get their period or never get their period at all
"When it’s so obvious a girl on her period is written by men. With almost all women, you would never be able to tell when we’re on our periods. Most of us don’t openly start yelling about all that’s gone wrong that day in front of all our coworkers because we’re bleeding out of our vaginas. (That’s an actual scene in movies I’ve watched)."
"No one ever seeming to get their periods, even during times of disaster, kidnapping, etc."
19.Lounge around the house alone and fully clothed, rather than hanging in sweats or pajamas
"Not just women, but when people hang out alone in their house fully dressed in their regular clothes, especially jeans and bras."
20.Only talk to other women about men
"More movies need to pass the Bechdel test."
21.Eat ice cream straight out of the tub whenever they're sad
"I've never in my life, or known any of my female friends to be a total wreck after a breakup, only consoled by eating ice cream straight out of the tub."
22.And are overly clumsy for the sake of appealing to a romantic interest.
Lionsgate / Via giphy.com
"I'm very clumsy and it bugs me SO much when 'quirky' women are portrayed as clumsy, but only in cute ways around their crush and not accidentally whacking people in the face."
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and clarity.
