Female Friendships in Movies & TV

  

Both movies we watched toward the end of the semester contained valuable lessons about the importance of female friendships and sisterly love.  In Mustang, for example, the sisters, and at times other female relatives, looked out for each other when it seemed like no one else was there for them. Frozen also shows the bond between sisters Anna and Elsa. When Anna needed an act of true love, it was saving her sister that kept her alive instead of a “true love’s kiss” that we often see in other Disney movies. 

In both of these movies, we see that close female friendships and sisterly bonds are important to hold on to because those people are able to support and understand you when no one else will. 

Trigger warning for mention of suicide

Also Fleabag spoilers

One show that also does a good job of showing sisterly love and female friendships is Fleabag. The show begins shortly after the main character loses her best friend, Boo. Fleabag slept with Boo’s boyfriend, and when she finds out she was cheated on, Boo steps into traffic with the intention of getting into a minor accident to get attention. Boo actually ends up dying, and we see Fleabag struggle with the guilt and grief of losing her friend. Another focus of the show is Fleabag’s relationship with her sister, Clare. The sisters aren’t that close to begin with, but their relationship is damaged further when Clare’s husband tries to kiss Fleabag and later blames it on her. Clare believes her husband and makes a comment about how Fleabag can’t be trusted after what she did to Boo.

In the opening scene of the second season, Fleabag tells the viewers that, “This is a love story,” and while it was a romantic love story, it was also a story of the love between Clare and Fleabag. Over the course of the season, Fleabag falls in love with a Catholic priest that tells her he can’t be with her because his relationship with God is too important. Clare also has a lot going on in her relationship with her husband. In the beginning of the season, Clare has a miscarriage and Fleabag tells everyone it was hers to cover up for her sister. Clare’s husband says a lot of rude things to Fleabag and is just a huge douchebag, which obviously hurts Clare. He is also generally unsupportive, and at the end of the season, Clare tells him they’re splitting up. Throughout all of her marital problems, Fleabag was there for her sister and supported her in ways her husband didn’t. They grow much closer towards the end of the season, and they were there for each other when their romantic relationships weren’t going well. In this way, the second season was not only a love story between Fleabag and the priest, but also a story of renewing the love between sisters.