20 Pussy Power Films for Your Wokeness
For a few months, we’ve wanted to write a list of pussy power films that don’t appear on your typical lists (i.e., the ones that want to represent strong female leads but always seem to have a component of violence). Just Google “movies with a strong female lead,” and a whole bunch of movies with femmes kickin’ ass and handling bidness will pop up. Lara Croft, Wonder Woman, Mad Max, Buffy, Serenity, Aeon Flux, Million Dollar Baby, G.I. Jane, Foxy Brown, Hunger Games, Kick-Ass, Avatar, Trinity from The Matrix, Leia, Underworld, Resident Evil, Kill Bill, Ripley in Alien, Terminator. You get the idea.
It seems that to be a badass female lead, you must be violent AF and as sex-positive as possible. That’s a qualifier, así de primario. Of course, there are some impressive lists out there too, but they mostly revolve around the same flicks.
We didn’t want to only focus on strong female leads, but films that had substance and touch upon themes that make us question power structures, and participate in the construction of an equitable society for women and people of color.
We had tons of options and please bear with us if some of your favs didn’t make the cut or you consider that some of these don’t deserve to be on the list.
We tailored this selection so you can visit the Burton Barr Central Library or other Public Library branches in Phoenix, and check out the movies from there (hope you returned all those books and paid them late fees!).
Most of these titles are suggestions from friends, some of them we’ve stumbled upon on festivals or studied them at film courses and workshops over the years. We hope these are useful for your wokeness database.
Also, total disclaimer for whoever wants to give us shit for the title of the list, we consulted with a focus group of women who strongly approved the headline.
- Dark Girls (2011)
2. The Invisible War (2012)
3. Diary of a Lost Girl (1929)
4. Norma Rae (1979)
5. Princess Mononoke (1997)
6. Aventurera (1949)
7. Whale Rider (2002)
8. La Cucaracha (1958)
9. Cautiva (2005)
10. Bread and Roses (2000)
11. Women Without Men (2009)
12. Appropiate Behavior (2014)
13. Belle (2013)
14. Persepolis (2007)
15. Born in Flames (1983)
16. Suffragette (2015)
17. Mustang (2015)
18. Fargo (1996)
19. Beasts of Southern Wild (2012)
20. Rhymes For Young Ghouls (2014)
BTW, we have these suggestions that aren’t available at the library but you must add to your collection by ordering them online: The Woman (2011); Maïna (2013); Hello Hemingway (1990); Mosquita y Mari (2012); Empire of Dirt (2014); Breakfast on Pluto (2005); and Daughters of the Dust (1991).
