Empowering women: 5 feminist movies that you need to watch

Staff November 7, 2018

269 3 minutes read

Cinema often inspires us to be who we are or to question that same. Here is a list of movies that reflect on the role of women

Cinema can often be a political tool. The cases in which it has served to carry a message to the masses or in which it has been a platform for the powerful or for resistance are not isolated. Thus, the cinema has come to question or to reaffirm things that we took for granted. One of them is the role of women in society.

Leer en español: 5 películas feministas que te harán sentir empoderada

Through the seventh art, we can take a look at our experience as women in the world and be critical of it. That is why we present you these five films that question this role of the feminine in society and that will also make you feel empowered to start the change if you are dissatisfied.

Carol

Based on the book The Price of Salt by the great writer Patricia Highsmith, this film tells the story of two women who fall in love in New York in the 50s. One of them, Therese, played by Rooney Mara, is a young woman who works in a boutique. The other, Carol, played by Cate Blanchett, is a married and sophisticated woman who belongs to the highest spheres of society.

This film tells a story of female love. Count the obstacles of these two women to be a couple during this time and even to accept themselves who are in love with each other. It shows how the love between two women can be different and how they overcome these obstacles that repress them.

Mulan

That's right, Disney's animated film goes IGNORE INTO this list that goes for children and adults. It is already a Disney classic that girls of this generation should also watch. It tells the story of Mulan, a Chinese girl who feels dissatisfied with her role in the world. One day her father, an old war veteran, is recruited to fight against the invasion of the Huns.

Mulan, then, replaces him secretly and pretends to be a man before the army. This film, in addition to reflecting on issues such as honor, family and lineage, breaks stereotypes by putting a transvestite as a protagonist. As she gets better every day in the army, Mulan shows the other soldiers that a girl can also win a war.

20th Century Women

This 2016 movie is not very well known. It is directed by Mike Mills and is slightly inspired by his childhood and adolescence. The movie tells the story of Jamie, a fifteen-year-old boy who lives in Santa Barbara, California, and the women around him: his mother, his best friend and a tenant of his mother.

These three women are responsible for their upbringing and are the witnesses of the beginning of his curiosities and anguish. There are tensions between them and you can see in the film how the love of these three women, how the female experience, has repercussions on their character and their way of relating to the world.

You can also read: 'Feminists: What Were They Thinking?' A story told through photographs

One of the women introduces Jamie to feminism and there are scenes in which the characters talk about the movement. So we, the audience, can hear the characters talking about the issue, while we see how feminism affects their lives.

Persepolis

Another animated movie on our list, but it is not a Disney film. This is the French movie based on the successful graphic novel by the French-Iranian writer Marjane Satrapi. It tells the story of an Iranian girl who grew up in a Westernized family, and how the political and social context of her country during the 70s affected her life directly.

It is a very feminist film because it criticizes without any veil the fundamentalist regime during the so-called Iranian revolution, which forced women to wear veils and to always be at home. It is the story of a girl who grows up to be a critical and unhappy woman of the place she has been given and who is struggling to change it.

Joy

Like other films on this list, this movie is titled with the name of a woman, its protagonist. This is the story of Joy Mangano, a single mother who became an inventor of the 'miracle mop', a mop designed to reach many surfaces and make life easier for the housewife, and then owner of Ingenious Designs.

This is the story of a woman who turned her back to being a single mother and used the place to which she had been relegated to invent something new. It is an inspiring story of entrepreneurship from the feminine space.