Written By: Sky Cummings
To be loved is to be understood. We pick our favorite movies and books based on the characters we most relate to, whose words speak to our very souls. We love them, and perhaps more importantly, we feel loved by them. It’s comforting to hear our most intimate and private thoughts – the things that we’re ashamed of, that we want or crave, that hurt us – said aloud. It’s almost more comforting to know other people are hearing them because that means there’s a chance something could change. In today’s world, plagued by political attacks on autonomy and threats to independence, young women find themselves clinging to female characters they resonate with in order to find relief from the incessant battles. Below, I compiled a list of my favorite feminist speeches on screen. I return to these amazing women when I need a reminder that I’m not alone in the struggle. The beauty of the writing and perfection of the performances remind audiences that we have more power than we know.
- Jo March Conflicted by Love and Purpose
I have to start off this list with a short speech from my favorite movie, Little Women (2019), directed by Greta Gerwig. Jo March, ever prideful and ambitious, laments on the 19th century attitude that a woman’s only vocation should be marriage:
I just feel like women, they have minds and they have souls as well as just hearts. And they’ve got ambition and they’ve got talent as well as just beauty, and I’m so sick of people saying that love is all a woman is fit for. I’m so sick of it. But I’m so lonely.
I think Jo does not have so much a problem with love as she does with the restrictions and expectations that accompany marriage. Earlier in the story, she expresses “disappointment at being a girl,” but she’s not saying she wants to be a boy instead. She’s saying she wants the privileges and freedoms men are awarded at birth, those prerogatives withheld from women. Jo is caught between the two options she has, love or a career, because until the end of the story she doesn’t think she can have both. In reality, very few women actually did get both at the time. Jo’s speech reigns true today and reminds young girls that their looks are the least interesting thing about them and that they’re capable of more than anyone has ever told them.
- Gloria Confronts Contradiction in Womanhood
I could not make this list without including something from Barbie (2023), also directed by Gerwig! America Ferrera delivers an incredible monologue while comforting Barbie through her struggles with conformity, beauty, and acceptance. One notable passage:
You have to never get old, never be rude, never show off, never be selfish, never fall down, never fail, never show fear, never get out of line. It’s too hard! It’s too contradictory and nobody gives you a medal or says thank you! And it turns out that not only are you doing everything wrong, but also everything is your fault.
Here, Ferrera’s character, Gloria, finally brings to light the internal struggles women face everyday. She comments on the contradictory nature of womanhood, such as that we have to be attractive to men in order to get respect but not too pretty so as to tempt them into bad behavior (which would then be our fault). Gloria highlights that these discrepancies and inconsistencies are expected, and no one talks about it because that’s just the way things are, even today. Women are held to an impossible standard for perfection in which we’re punished for both meeting and falling short of those standards. Gloria’s speech serves as a breath of relief that someone at last expressed the exhaustion that accompanies being a woman in this world. She brings young women a sense of comfort from the knowledge of being seen and appreciated.
- Amy March on the Economic Proposition of Marriage
Also in Gerwig’s Little Women, is a short yet cutting speech by Amy March that addresses the unjust relationship between women in marriage in the 19th century. While getting lectured by young Laurie about how marriage should stem from love (according to the poets), Amy returns:
Well, I’m not a poet. I’m just a woman. And as a woman, I have no way to make money, not enough to earn a living and support my family. Even if I had my own money – which I don’t – it would belong to my husband the minute we were married. And if we had children they would be his, not mine. They would be his property so don’t sit there and tell me marriage isn’t an economic proposition, because it is. It may not be for you but it most certainly is for me.
Amy March is a stronger character than she’s often given credit for. Since she was a teenager, she’s been burdened with the knowledge that it is up to her to provide for her family – love wasn’t really in the question. She, like most men of the time, was given the responsibility of taking care of her family financially. However, she would need to do it with none of the acknowledgment, thanks, praise, or appreciation men tended to receive as a result. Amy recognizes that the life of women is often, in a word, unfair. Her short monologue shows how far we’ve come as a society that women can now own property, money, and investments, but also cautions us to look out for other discrepancies that result from gender.
- Rose Maxson and the Convention of Giving
The talented Viola Davis gave an oscar-worthy performance in Fences (2016), an impactful story about the normalized racist attitudes and policies in 1950s America, especially in terms of professional athletics. Davis plays Rose Maxson, a dedicated and loving wife despite her husband’s infidelity. In an argument with him, Rose says:
I wanted to be there with you. Cause you was my husband. Cause that’s the only way I was gonna survive as your wife. You always talking about what you give and what you don’t have to give. But you take too. You take and don’t even know nobody’s giving.
In her speech, Rose highlights the strain that systemic racism not only put on her husband’s career aspirations, but also on her marriage and Rose’s own hopes and dreams. Rose recognizes the historic tradition of women giving. Women give everything they have nearly all the time. They give their bodies in order to have children; their careers in order to raise them; their pride in order to keep their husbands happy; their ambitions in order to make room for others’. Rose gives herself the power to underscore her own appreciation for the sacrifices she made and continues to make, even if no one else will offer such an acknowledgment. Davis’ performance draws attention to how much women give and how much women should get in return. A simple thank you would probably suffice.
- Belinda on the Gloriousness of Menopause
While Fleabag is one of my most beloved fictional characters to date, one of my favorite monologues of her show comes from a side character, Belinda, who’s given a “Women in Business” award. While bonding with Fleabag over the hard truths of being a woman in the modern day, Belinda offers her own insight on the relationship between gender and profession:
We have pain on a cycle for years and years and years, and then just when you feel you are making peace with it all, what happens? The menopause comes. The fucking menopause comes and it is the most wonderful fucking thing in the world. Yes, your entire pelvic floor crumbles and you get fucking hot and no one cares, but then you’re free. No longer a slave, no longer a machine with parts. You’re just a person. In business.
Belinda not only reflects on the unsung pain women endure on a regular basis, but also goes as far to offer up menopause (a generally dreaded phase of womanhood) as a relief! In between the lines, Belinda remarks on the reality of how women are perceived in the workplace, even today. Women aren’t just people in the profession, they’re risks. They are wombs that could potentially house a child and therefore require maternity leave (less profit). They are weaker bodies that menstruate and require more sick days (less profit). They are mothers trying to balance their career with parenthood and take all of their vacation days (less profit). Belinda divulges that once the reproductive era of a woman’s life is over, they can finally just be people. I believe Belinda’s monologue serves to show Fleabag and the rest of the viewers that women are more than just their reproductive organs. Not only that, but Belinda also contributes to the de-stigmatization of menopause by offering a new perspective.