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41 Times Movies Didn’t Know How Women Work At All
Some people might say that Hollywood is making strides in progressive representation. We're seeing more and more people of color in leading roles, women directors, and stories about people from different socioeconomic backgrounds. In 2024, women led more than half of all movies in Hollywood for the first time ever.
However, that doesn't always mean that the women characters are compelling or realistic. In fact, many people complain that some women on screen and in books still lack agency, make dumb decisions, and are just not believable as real people.
Bored Panda has collected people's hottest takes on this topic from several different threads online, where folks asked: "What's the worst and/or most unrealistic representation of women you've seen in Western media (books, movies, TV series... anything really)?"
Some answers might be predictable, like the always-perfect-looking Lara Croft or the "secretly hot" nerd from She's All That. But others, like Scully from The X-Files, might surprise you. So, check out people's reasoning why they should be included in this list!
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#1
Bella Swan from Twilight. Her dependence on Edward to the point that she can barely even live when he leaves her is just pathetic and a bad role model for the teen/young adult girls that read those books. Those books romanticize female weakness and enforce the idea that having a boyfriend is more important than even being alive.
Exact_Opportunity606:
My speculation on why he couldn't read her mind was because there weren't any thoughts in there to begin with.
OP:
🤣
RELATED:
#2
Every time I remember 50 Shades of Grey exists, I want to projectile vomit in rage. Literally both a book and movie about a one dimensional woman whose entire self worth is validated by an jerk man, that manages to somehow be even worse than Twilight.
Medusas_snakes:
I hate read all 3 books in one weekend when I was getting over the flu. The flu was the better experience of the two.
#3
It's a classic but women wearing heels all the time in films and TV series. Honestly, it drives me crazy!
#4
It is a trope - the woman in a movie always runs away from violence.
They trip the bad person/monster or hit them with a pan and then... Run away
NO. That thing is going to attack you. Attack it first. Use the pan you just dropped until its head is no longer recognizable.
Women in stories rarely fight back and all of my instincts are the opposite.
I'm not a violent person but I'm also not stupid. Women are portrayed as tactically idiotic victims.
sneaky518:
Women don't just trip, they trip over nothing. It's like a pratfall trip. When you're scared you generally get improved athletic performance from adrenaline, but movie and TV show women fall over their own feet instead.
#5
Nearly all of them.
Wakes up. Perfect hair.
Escapes a deadly attack and still has better hair than me after visiting my hairstylist.
the-rioter:
Oh oh, I also need to include:
Woman sleeps in full make-up like this is normal.
The one scene in Scrubs where Eliot and JD h****** the second time around and she's hanging out in her tank top and shorts PJs because her car with her stuff was stolen and when the intimate scene starts and she strips she's in a full red matching bra/[underwear] set under her pajamas.
The entirety of the 3rd Transformers movie where the woman who replaced Megan Fox as the love interest is in a full, white top/bottom ensemble and gets ZERO dirt on her outfit as buildings are literally collapsing around her.
#6
As a woman, we all only have a few standard jobs to choose from:
- kindergarten teacher
- housewife and mom
- magazine something (or, variation: Intrepid Girl Reporter)
- Nurse
- military who grew up with 37 brothers
Those are your only available careers, ladies. Enjoy!
library_wench:
Hey! You totally forgot about the viable career options of:
Owner of a cutesy little shop (that in real life would never make a profit), and
Cinderella job (maid, waitress, or personal assistant to a total b****) that you keep until you fall for the rich love interest.
#7
I really hate the trope in fantasy and historical dramas where a pregnant woman is having a difficult birth and goes “let me die, but save the baby” or some other iteration of self-sacrifice.
I get that it’s dramatic but it’s so so ubiquitous and I’m pretty sure that the “it’s either her or her baby” trolly problem wasn’t super common in premodern medicine. More like “yeah you both gonna die bruh”.
#8
I’m sure there’s worse examples but I was always bothered by how the women in The Walking Dead stayed gorgeous and never had a problem with their periods.
fawn-witch:
And no body hair, AT ALL?!? You telling me that not a single woman at the end of the world has at least a little bit of a ladytash?
cant_be_me:
Yep, we want realism in our dystopian/historical fiction, which means all of the r**e everywhere but somehow does not include other realistic physical elements like messed up teeth or armpit hair or untweezed eyebrows or catastrophic sunburn or sepsis from a tiny blister from a bad pair of shoes or any indication of how these people smell with no shower access or anything unattractive like that.
#9
Any movie where there is a woman who’s introduced in a power position and then proceeds to do nothing the rest of the film except ask stupid questions and cry.
A good example of this was Jurassic World for me. The main female character is supposed to be the operations manager of the park and is introduced as the stuck up boss type and then the whole rest of the movie all she does is run in heels until she falls at the exact moments when the hero can save her, and ask questions like “what’s that?” and “where are we going?”
It [angry] me the off because she’s supposed to be the person who knows about the operations and layout of the park- why would you have her be the person asking those questions?
There are other issues for me, like running really fast through the jungle in high heels, having a perfect clean outfit after a dinosaur fight, and being uptight in the beginning (won’t drink tequila because she’s on a diet) and then her arc is just falling in love and becoming a nurturing motherly woman. All around annoying.
shypster:
They did her assistant so dirty too. Her death scene was so unnecessarily long. For the crime of not wanting to babysit her boss's nephews?
whydonttheysayegg:
My biggest issue with her, on top of everything you mentioned, was the perfectly clean white dress and heels at all times while she is running through the mud. Like, that's not how mud works.
#10
I love the ones where the plain nerdy woman just needs to take off her glasses and let her hair down (and undo a few buttons) and suddenly she is a supermodel. She had no idea she could be so attractive if only she took off those silly glasses!
If I take off my glasses I will struggle to correctly identify people standing five feet away. I guess being blind is fine so long as you look good?
Anon:
This bothered me a lot in She's All That. Even though I felt like Zack's character sort of saw Laney for who she was before she got made over, at the same time it was like, was it really necessary? He didn't seem "starstruck" with her until she came down in a red dress, freshly cut hair and makeup and no glasses. I won't lie, I thought she looked cute the way she looked before in the movie, with the clothes that were her, her long hair and her cute glasses.
But guys won't notice you that much unless you are smoking hot, right?
ill-settle-for:
“He had noticed, not that Elfine was beautiful, but that he loved Elfine.” -Cold Comfort Farm
I think it’s possible for someone to find a woman attractive in her everyday getup and still be in awe when he sees her in makeup and a well-cut dress; I think it’s almost impossible to get that across in film.
I mean, fancy clothes and makeup are designed to make us look good. They’re good at it. You can look equally as enticing in good casual clothes and glasses, but that doesn’t mean a man won’t notice when you’re dressed to go out either.
It’s just very difficult to portray that kind of thing in a movie. You can write out someone’s thoughts (if you care to) but you can’t always get them across just by facial expressions, etc.
#11
Black Widow’s “I’m a monster… Just like you” speech in Avengers: Age of Ultron. She’s a monster not because she’s unalived people but because… She’s infertile. An absolute Marvel classic.
PracticalSolution352:
I remember being really excited that they were going to address the moral grey-ness that a character who is an As**ssin (but only taught that) must have… And they did the no babies reveal and I almost cried in frustration. Like I want deep and three demisional characters [darn] it!!!
#12
The movie Crazy, Stupid, Love. It has a side story where the young teenage son has a crush on the 17 year old babysitter, who in turn has a crush on the dad (Steve Carell). The story includes the girl taking nudes of herself for Carell's character and his son basically stalking and harassing the her. After repeatedly turning down his advances she has a conversation where she tells the boy that his actions make her uncomfortable.
When the film resolves, she still doesn't date the boy but she gives him her [undressed] pictures!! My brain did a record scratch. What man believes a girl will seek out her stalker, who makes her noticeably uncomfortable, and give him nudes as a consolation prize?! Just. Wow.
The way that was written still drives me crazy and it wasn't even a very big part of the story.
Reddish81:
Yes this movie is deeply troubling - even worse that I used to love it!
#13
Any instance where it's implied women faint at the sight of blood.
Comfortable_Bell9539:
And where it's implied that they're cowardly in general - oh god, I should have mentioned that girl in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom... She was useless as f***, always crying and screaming hysterically.
#14
Specifically the book - Bird Box.
I remember reading the birth scene and wondering out loud if the author had ever met a woman who'd given birth before. Unfortunately I have erased from my mind precisely what it was that offended me so much!
alyeffy:
SPOILERS but at least in BirdBox, Sandra Bullock’s character didn’t get pregnant again during the 5 years before they learned the existence of the blind school sanctuary.
For A Quiet Place, the whole time I kept thinking, why the h**l would you choose to have babies, that are literally unable to stop making noise when their needs are not met, in an apocalyptic world ravaged by monsters with ultra sensitive hearing. They’re literally endangering the rest of their still alive children by doing so too.
#15
Teyla from Stargate Atlantis. While heavily pregnant, she is captured by evil aliens. Of course for ~the drama~ she goes into labor on their ship, and her only assistance is the awkward nerdy science guy who’s panicking about having to deliver a baby. As they’re running down the hallways trying to make their escape, she has to stop to give birth. It maybe takes 30 minutes? A short enough timeframe that no aliens walk down the hallway and discover them. (Her first baby, by the way.)
The baby comes out clean, and also
looking about six months old. No gushing blood (or other bodily substances). No placenta.
One commercial break later, she’s up and continuing the dash for safety, fighting off aliens with one arm with the baby in her other arm. Her hair is a little disheveled but she’s still got a full face of makeup on.
Okay, to be fair, technically she is Athosian and not human, but ‘Athosian’ is Stargate for ‘we’re going to call them aliens but our makeup department DGAF and in every respect they’re just going to look and act like humans’.
The actress was pregnant IRL and the writers had *months* to try to lampshade it a little! At a prenatal appointment have the doctor comment, “So your people give birth quickly, without any pain or blood? Fascinating!” *Some* kind of half-assed explanation.
I’ve seen some pretty bad on-screen birth scenes, but that one wins the Worst Ever award pretty handily.
#16
Not the most egregious, but it lives rent free in my brain. In an episode of Criminal Minds, two women get boxed in by a car of men in a deserted parking lot at night. They proceed to get out of the car to confront the men. In what universe would that happen????
#17
I've been watching a lot of youtube videos about Colleen Hoover books lately and boy howdy is it astounding how bad she is at writing characters of her own gender. And equally, how abysmal she is at writing compelling romantic male leads. All her men are next level horrible, and she writes romance. I seriously don't understand how she's published, let alone how she sells as many books as she does. The line "We laugh about our son's big balls," is burned into my head forever now.
Also, I guess she had one or more books she had to edit in later editions because the originals had straight up SA scenes? What the h**l.
#18
Tea Leoni’s character in Jurassic Park III. Every singe time one of the men said something about staying safe or what they should do, she would immediately come stomping through the scene doing the worst possible thing and ignoring every shred of common sense. I absolutely loathed that character. The writer or director - someone responsible for her depiction truly thinks women are stupid and useless creatures.
#20
This is tough, because it is so pervasive that it can be hard to notice when things are wrong, especially in media consumed when young. There are so many depictions of girls and women in books, shows, and movies that I loved when I was young that now horrify me.
#21
All the women in The Birds (old, I know) are so infuriating. Hitchcock was a big time misogynist of course. They simply cannot do anything without a man’s direction!
#22
It's not THE WORST but my enjoyment of Baby Driver was lessened bc of how empty and stupid I found the love interest waitress. She has no life outside of falling in love with a dull guy to the point she even puts her life on hold to wait until he gets out of jail? They werent even officially dating!!!!
And also the other thief played by Eiza Gonzales who did nothing but be pretty and sit on Jon Hamms lap.
Fun movie, bad female characters.
#23
Every anime portrayal of females. I don't know if it has Something to do with Japanese society, but for some reason most females are shown in the dire need of getting a men. Like if they lived entirely for that. There are exceptions of course, like ghost in the shell or evangelion, but it seems to be a trend for some reason.
reesedra:
Not to mention how they're all mentally 12. Anime is creepy and has problems.
#24
I hate when the only flaw they give the woman is that she’s clumsy. I see this in rom coms a lot. Like wow the perfect woman but oh man we’ve gotta give her a flaw- let’s make her clumsy.
Also - I hate seeing skinny/fit women portrayed as constantly cramming burgers/cookies/insert whatever food into their mouth all the time and not gaining weight. Like come on they’re not eating that much and never working out and still looking like that.
#25
Can’t think of a specific work rn, but the cool girl troupe where super thin, conventially attractive white women eat tons of j*** food and drink alcohol like it’s water. But they remain super skinny. I know genetics can make some version of this possible, but still…
(Also they’re not just thin but fit. Like the actresses clearly work out, but their characters do not?).
#26
For it's the teen drama and the heavy focus on female sexuality. Which can be fine if done tastefully but a lot of times it just seems to be for shock value or for people to [want] over 16 year old bodies (played by 20 to 30 year old) without feeling bad. Like Euphoria. So gross.
#27
A man implying that a woman must be hysterical because she's on her period is the best, most realistic representation I've seen 🤣.
MTheLoud:
This is a perfectly realistic depiction of a sexist man.
FeistySpeaker:
To be fair, when my cramps are bad enough I get pretty d***** hysterical... until I get to the medicine cabinet. (And for the maybe half hour it takes the medicine to get into my system.) Ow.
#28
The women of the book versions of the Wheel of Time series. They simply cannot stop thinking about men and seem to exist solely to balance out the male characters with their no nonsense womanly wisdom. Basically they all just naturally act like nagging moms, ESPECIALLY to their live interests.
#29
Terry Brooks, one of the Shannara series, maybe the Sword of Shannara? I was barely a teenager, got hold of this book where the Chosen One was a girl, and I was excited. Yay! A GIRL got to be the Chosen One. She would get to have adventures and save the world.... um, nope.
She got turned into a tree. A f******* tree. Unable to move, unable to speak, unable to think. Utterly passive.
But she saved the kingdom or something! Ha-hah.
#30
Personally I hate the supportive woman role, where a female character trains her entire life for something, only for the male protagonist with no experience to be the chosen one.
#31
I recently watched The Untouchables for the first time and was ready to scream into a pillow at a scene toward the end where a young mother is just so unbelievably helpless.
First, she can’t for the life of her figure out how to get a stroller and a suitcase up a flight of stairs and Kevin Costner’s character takes forever until he finally does the gentlemanly thing and helps her with the stroller.
Then, Costner freezes on the very last step because he spots the man he’s looking for and refuses to let the mother take the stroller from him. The stroller is literally pointing downwards something like two stories of steps. The mother does the soft-natured thing of kindly telling him that it’s okay and she can take the stroller now, but he’s too distracted. She becomes stressed because her baby’s life is in danger but can only helplessly keep telling him to please give her the stroller.
What happens next? The most excruciating slow-motion scene in cinema history. Costner LETS GO of the stroller to pull his gun out and he and the man start shooting at each other. The stroller rolls down the flight of stairs. Does the mother run after the stroller to save the baby? No, she throws herself down on the ground and reaches for the handle but can’t reach it. Bullets fly everywhere, just barely missing the stroller. Does the woman get up and hurry after the stroller? No, she keeps stretching her arms towards it while yelling with no sound for dramatic effect ”My baby….!”
I still get frustrated just thinking back to that scene.
#32
Miscarriage as a casual throwaway event: This isn't one representation, it is every single time: A woman has a miscarriage so there are a few drops of blood somewhere and downcast eyes as she leaves the stall of the work bathroom and goes back to the podium to deliver her speech/ back to her desk/ back to the law office's conference room. Another option is she just announces at dinner with teary eyes that a miscarriage happened.
Once she is far enough along to know she is pregnant, miscarriage is a fullblown vaginal delivery of the placenta and quarts of other materials and takes hours of real and [intense] contractions. She may not be able to walk easily for a day because of such intense muscle soreness, like a high intensity full body workout. A lot of women now are sent to ER to have a miscarriage and are given anesthetics and have an abortion-like procedure performed to minimize the physical and emotional trauma of having a birth-giving like experience. It is like a 2-3 day traumatic event, not an easy-peasy plot device.
#33
I was an avid watcher of How I Met Your Mother right to the horrible ending. The two main women on that show were portrayed really unfairly. Lily took on the role of the buttinski nag while Robin's character took on whatever characteristics the writers felt like giving her that season. It wasn't development. It was brand new stuff every time.
Also the men in the show were far more developed than the women. Just watch "Spoiler Alert" as proof. All of the guys' annoying habits were previously established in the show. If you watched it you'd know about them. But they had to make up annoying habits for both women specifically for that episode. Never saw them do those things before.
Lots of flaws in what I once thought was a clever show.
#34
Women in any male-written, male-centric film (likely action/thriller). They are robotic, doting, unquestioning/obedient Stepford wives that ultimately end up dying to serve the one dimensional purpose of furthering the male character's plot/development.
#35
Natasha romanoff in Age of Ultron. I’m a huge MCU fan and love her but that movie destroyed her character and made her into the ditzy love interest that wasn’t good enough.
#36
16 year old me would hate me for saying this, but Scully from the X Files. I was in high school when the show first started, but I bought the box set recently and have been watching it again and am shocked at how little agency the character actually has. I remember 20+ years ago when the show was advertised as having a strong female lead but in hindsight she is there to make Mulder look good by being a straw man caricature of whatever scientific theory the show wants to subvert this week, she has no identity outside her role in the partnership (except when it's narratively convenient, like her father's death), and when the show wants to tell us the stakes are high, something happens to Scully so that she needs rescuing by her unstable, one-dimensional partner.
In the context of early 90s network TV, or the multitude of police procedurals that came after it, it's not the most egregious portrayal of women out there. But I was in high school in the early 90s and loved the X Files, it's been sad watching it back and realising how regressive the gender politics are between the lead characters.
#38
Their best friend is either a man who secretly loves them, a frenemy who is jealous of her, or a plain friend who is really not a human with feelings or depth.
Like women have no idea how to have supportive friends.
#39
It's been a long time since I've had to watch it, so it may have changed, but Penny from Big Bang Theory.
Portrayed as unintelligent, wants to be an actor but has no acting skills and can't recognize that, is consistently broke, she can't function without this group of men across the hall and in turn they get to regularly harass her, but that's cute because they're nerds and she's a cool girl.
And she was the only regular female character for several seasons.
#41
I find that the most egregious depictions of women, in terms of realistic scenarios and behavior, is to be found in pornographic films. The situations where a woman is depicted as being willing to have [intimacy] with strangers, or where she becomes trapped within or beneath common household furniture or appliances, seems to strain credulity.
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