Women's Day should be celebrated in an extraordinary way... for example, with one of our ultra-feminine cultural proposals. We present films and series created by women, about women and for women, both seriously and with a wink, but always in the tone of girl power. Feel the strength of your femininity!
Women's Day is no longer a holiday in which men ceremonially kiss women's hands and give them daisies or a piece of bread. Today, this day has completely different, positive connotations. Have we, as women, already achieved everything that was to be achieved, or are there still unexplored and imperfect areas where equality between women and men is difficult? How is the world "designed" and why is it still under men? This is written about, among others, by Caroline Criado-Perez in the groundbreaking book Invisible Women: How Data Creates a World Designed for Men or Rebecca Solnit in Men Explain the World to Me. However, if you prefer a movie or series screening, we have 6 suggestions of movies for women and series that touch on these topics and invite discussion: not only seriously, but also in a cheerful tone. Invite your loved ones to watch the films and talk after the show.
3 series for women that give strength
Big Little Lies with star cast including Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, and Zoe Kravitz is one of the more intimate and niche series for women. It shows motherhood and marriage without sugarcoating, beyond stereotypes, where domestic violence only meets poorly educated and not very wealthy women living in cohabitation, and the perpetrator always appears in the so-called wife-beater's shirt (white undershirt). In the series, you will see women in many life roles, including a mother trying to combine family life with her developing career, and those who give up professional development for the sake of family or live in patchwork, stitched families. Above all, however, Big Little Lies strengthens - it is a series about female strength and solidarity. We recommend it especially on weaker days.
No list of series for women could do without this iron position, based on the dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood of the same title. Of course, we are talking about The Handmaid's Tale. Bruce Miller paints his dark vision of reality in it, in which the role of women in society is reduced to reproduction and she has no rights - except the right and privilege to give birth to as many children as possible (including for the commander of the Gilead country and his barren wife Serena). It is also a story about the fight against extreme patriarchy, which is most often guarded by… women themselves. Sounds familiar...
Take a break from difficult and dark topics. Are you interested in possibly funny, but at the same time life-wise series for women? Netflix's Grace and Frankie on this platform is the right direction. The quiet life of the two eponymous, perennial rivals (played brilliantly by Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin) turns 180 degrees when their husbands come out and declare that they are in love with each other and are planning to get married. In this difficult situation despite their character differences, after man conflicts, the women manage to find a common language and find support in each other. The series also portrays and debunks stereotypes about age, showing discrimination due to the age of the main characters. You'll laugh to tears!
3 films about strong women that everyone should see
Among films about women, this title is already a classic. Thelma and Louise directed by Ridley Scott is a mandatory tear-squeezer. The titular heroines are friends bored with life in the conservative backwaters of America. The woman is completely there to support mainly his ego. One evening in a roadside bar, Thelma is attacked. Louise, who kills the assailant, saves her from rape. A loose weekend trip of friends turns into a flight from a police hunt. How does it end? Watch!
Good films about strong women are certainly not a fairy tale about how the heroines cope great. Real life is often much harder and has many shades of gray. The Wife with the titular role of Glenn Close is a portrait of a woman who for 50 years completely subordinates her husband's life, gives up her writing ambitions, and does not leave any space for herself, serving all her life. She is convinced that no one will take her work seriously, and it is not this belief. Her works are rejected not only because she is a woman.
In a seemingly hopeless situation (when her husband receives the Nobel Prize in Literature), and she herself is humiliated and treated only as his assistant, or possibly a family life manager, Joan tries to regain her "me", control, and initiative in small steps. This is a story about female self-realization, ambition, and the conflict between the roles of women in society and the roles that women often impose on themselves (or do under social pressure).
Among films about women, we also suggest a Polish accent about tough times, but filmed in a light way. The Art of Love. The story of Michalina Wisłocka with the brilliant, lively Anna Dereszowska is a biography of the famous gynecologist who devoted her entire professional career to breaking conservative prudery and sexual education of Polish women and men. The film tells about the circumstances of the creation of the famous Art of Love (Wisłocka’s sexual "textbook" for adults), exposes the hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness of those times, and also the realities of sexual life in the PRL period.
Our cultural proposals shake, force to think and squeeze tears, both from emotion and sadness, as well as from laughter. The movie and series Women's Day is a great opportunity to think about your role in a relationship, marriage, company, or even in the whole society over popcorn, sitting with your loved ones or just with Netflix. Reserve some time for it.
