I’ve come to expect that, once every week in college, I will miss my mom. It’s not just the typical passing thought, prompted by someone else talking about their mother, or by being tired of University food and wanting some of her home cooked meals. It’s a deeper feeling — I miss having her as a constant person in my life.
This week, my mom-missing episode happened while I was scrolling through my friend’s Netflix account. (I believe I have already explained to you, reader, about how I use my friend’s Netflix account instead of paying for my own.) I just thought to myself, “I miss Amma! I wish she was here so I could give her a hug.” (Reader, a little lesson in Telugu for you — Amma means mother in Telugu). So I went on a search for some mother-daughter movies or shows. And I did not find many.
Sure, there are TV shows and movies about competition between mothers and daughters, or about conflicts between the two people. But there are not many shows (excluding “Gilmore Girls”) that display the deep, complicated, but ultimately loving relationship that a lot of mothers and daughters have.
In fact, there are many positive relationships between women that are not really showcased in mainstream media. Often, movies and shows that feature women as the main actors (and reader those are already hard to come by) have them competing against one another for a man, teaming up to “defeat” a man who has wronged them in some way, or have them be friends, but only talk about each other’s relationships. Not only can this be heteronormative, it isn’t too realistic. Sure those moments exist. I’m not one for denying that I, reader, love a good bit of drama. But I find that in life there are so many shades of relationships between women that aren’t shown that often. So in honor of Women’s Empowerment Month, I’m going to pitch our imaginary Hollywood execs some ideas for projects that feature these underrepresented relationships.
Pitch One: A TV show about some women watching an awards show together. This could be substituted for an actual awards show, and instead of showing the awards, the whole show is the women’s reactions of the fashion on the red carpet or for who the winners are. Imagine the suspense!.
Pitch Two: It features a roundtable in, like, let’s say, a coffee shop, or in a park where women just grabbing coffee talk about the political climate and how it’s affecting them, whether that be the status of health care, tax reform, or trying to figure out whether to register as an independent or not.
Pitch Three: A show about naps, featuring women taking naps. Mother and daughter, friends, girlfriends, sisters, cousins, step sisters, step cousins, fiancée, any grouping of women one can imagine.
Pitch Four: A movie where a group of women go on a quest for the best comfort food. I suggest there be a three-part arc of them first trying to cook their own comfort food, then trying to find grocery stores that offer good comfort foods (I’m thinking Trader Joe’s comes in clutch here), then going to a open air market, and then they finally all give up and just order Domino’s.
Pitch Five: An advice TV show where women come on with questions about their career, about adulthood (reader, this means doing one’s taxes or managing one’s credit), about motherhood, or even just how to keep up a calendar or organize the millions of coupons — any issue that a woman could have. I suggest having a rotating panel of women, some famous, some that the producers of the show literally picked off of the side of the street. It’s like an advice blog, but on TV and in HD.
Pitch Six: A show featuring groups of women going out and dancing in a circle. This could be in a traditional dance environment, like a party, or it could be somewhere where dancing does not usually occur, like a library, or a Target parking lot.
Pitch Seven: Speaking of Target, a show about women compiling a list of supplies they need, going to Target, and then following them as they progressively lose their original purpose and wander around Target for hours, ultimately buying much more than what they came in for.
I’m not one for fools — I know these shows are quite random. But who knows. Maybe Tina Fey or Oprah will see this article and get an idea for a future project. One can dream. See you next week reader.
