The Cool Girl Trope, Explained

[am2m]

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Basicaly the video explores the old "cool girl" trope: created by men for men. But remember that it only works if the cool girl is hot. It points out the Sandra Bullock was "one of the guys" on Miss Congeniality but she only becomes a cool girl after the make over.

Comments

[marywebgirl]

God damn I love Gone Girl. Fincher’s casting is usually excellent but the actresses in this movie were all especially perfect for their roles.

[aawler]

agreed for the most part but i think emily ratajkowski was miscast!

[marywebgirl]

Yep. That’s what happens when you listen to Affleck.

[am2m]

Who do you think would be a better choice?

[rhapsodeeinblue]

The Gone Girl monologue is iconic. It explained the trope way too well lol. And unfortunately unlike the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, which only exists in fiction, you had real life "I'm not like the other girls" type girls. Luckily I think pop culture has been moving away from that.

[am2m]

It was a game changer imo

[gossipfaux]

I think that's reflected in the cultural phrase "pick mes" and the conversations around "pick me" types of behaviors.... not like other girls etc.

[greenfairy_87]

Sometimes I wonder if the MPDG was created by a man who briefly knew an autistic woman and didn't know, but found her cute and her unexplainable behavioral quirks madly enticing and thought "What if her lacking social skills translated into wanting to fuck me"

[meow_tan]

I can’t watch the video but I hate that Jlaw is in the video. She’s a living breathing person, not a fictional character. The point of “cool girl” is that like the manic pixie dream girl, she can’t exist in real life.

tbh a lot of the times I see “cool girl” flung at women as an insult it’s women who don’t like wearing makeup they’re accused of being pick-mes and it’s all artificial and I kind of hate it. everyone took the wrong message away from the gone girl cool girl speech- it’s not that women fabricate aspects of their personality to keep a man, it’s that men don’t see us as fucking beings that’s the problem.

[nomoneyfun]

I do think Jennifer's Lawrence's public persona is steeped in cool girl, especially with her penchant for reminding interviewers how much she loves to eat. Liking food is not a personality trait, unless you're a size 2 actress.

[meow_tan]

Why can’t a woman like food without being accused of doing it for men lol. Hollywood is rife with eating disorders, and while Jlaw is skinny, she’s “big” according to many assholes in Hollywood so I can see her mentioning food a lot as a way to be defensive about her weight. or maybe she just likes food. i love food, esp buffalo wings and it has fuck all to do with men.

if she talked about how much she liked salads or “healthy” food nobody would say she was pandering to men but only men eat pizza so I guess she’s faking that

[talklikelions]

I think the video addresses that kind of well. Liking pizza, beer, sports, etc aren’t things only men enjoy. But they aren’t cool until or unless the woman is HOT (not my opinion and not fact, just the way movies and Hollywood treat things)

From what I’ve read about Jen’s upbringing, she’s a football watching, beer drinking, pizza eating regular human being, but she was thrust into a spotlight where not only did she have to be hot, she was also called fat and not feminine enough at the same time. I think the cool girl attitude was a way to cope with that. She did grow out of it and a lot of that seemed to come with learning how to protect her privacy and her relationships, and with just not engaging in it as much.

[tequila]

The cool girl monologue is good on its own, but I resent the way people now use it to dismiss or ridicule women who have genuine interests that aren’t typically “feminine”.

[meow_tan]

this is what i was trying to say, thank you

[gumby]

FUCKING THIS

[evrythingisrent]

Yes! I just finished Dollface and while I mostly liked it, there’s a part where she imagines all the “cool girls” pretending to like sports and stuff to attract guys. Women can like sports of their own accord. I love football, I pay for the NFL ticket, play on like 5 fantasy football leagues and still get questioned on whether it’s because guys like it.

[trendsnational]

I'll never forget the hate Anne Hathaway got for saying "it came true" while accepting her Oscar. She got crucified for wanting her Oscar win vs someone like JLaw who was very nonchalant about it.

[abbiemills]

The hate Anne got for going hard in wanting/winning an Oscar was ridiculous.

[am2m]

Agreed

[genbu_no_miko24]

Sometimes I think it depends on the actor. Cause I was def someone who was always annoyed at her thirst for the Oscars. Ever since she started moving away from the Princess Diaries association she would constantly oscar bait in interviews by mentioning her weight loss/gain (which was a popular thing to do if you wanted to win a oscar at the time~) and a bunch of other things. But then kinda deny she wasn't after an Oscars (which tbf back it was really encouraged to not show yourself wanting an oscar) It's been a while so I can't remember else. So it just annoyed me coming from her.

On the other someone like Kate Winslet very much always wanted that Oscar and it was obvious as all hell. She did so many oscar bait films and was asked about wanting to win etc...etc. In her case it never bothered me I was totally here for her constant campaigning. Maybe because her talent is obvious it didn't bother me so much or I just liked her attitude towards it.

Then again someone like Leo Dicaprio for the longest time annnoyyyyed the hell outta me