why the portrayal of the “cool girl” in film is toxic
May 26, 2021
“She’s not like other girls, she’s a cool girl”. A myth of a woman created by men reflecting all the stereotypical interests of a male. The cool girl is one of the boys who loves pizza and drinks beer.
As seen in the movies There’s Something About Mary or Mikaela in Transformers, the so-called cool girl has to be super attractive while also being super into sports or cars. This trope has women play a supportive role for a man while also not overshining them. This ideology wasn’t created for women to relate to characters, but to show the “perfect woman” through the male gaze.
But do not be fooled, the cool girl is only the cool girl when they are “above all hot,” said Flynn, the writer of Gone Girl. As shown in the film Miss Congeniality, Gracie, an FBI agent, has all the traits of the cool girl but is treated like trash by all her male coworkers since she is not conventionally attractive. But once she gets a makeover, she is now gorgeous in the eyes of her colleagues, which shows how only “attractive” women can be the cool girl.
This male fantasy has women not only looking the way men want but also acting like it, which has women suppressing their true authentic selves. Gone Girl, a book-to-movie adaptation, shows the horrible fallout of a woman playing this character in her relationship. While Amy is showing the steps it takes to frame her husband, Nick, of her disappearance, we hear her monologue on what it was like playing “the cool girl”.
She’s determined to destroy Nick after pretending to be the cool girl for so long throughout their relationship. Impersonating this role turned her into a so-called sociopath. We see that once Amy gets tired of playing the role, Nick goes and finds another “newer, younger, bouncier, cool girl,” Amy says.
Another issue with this myth is it puts down another type of woman. In Forgetting Sarah Marshall this new free-spirited woman is used to put down the more put-together “uptight” women, which shows the inherent misogyny on the basis of the cool girl when showing how her stereotypical male traits are better than the stereotypical female traits.
This just continues to show how the cool girl is a horrible representation of women that wasn’t even created by women. It’s just a fake persona that is made for men to dream over.