“The Kissing Booth,” “Sierra Burgess is a Loser” and “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” are new Netflix movies, all about a nerdy girl being rescued by a popular boy.
These movies perpetuate the same stereotypes that old Disney movies portray — a damsel in distress needs help and a strong prince comes to save her. They’re all just set in a modern-day setting so young girls think the films are better, but it’s the same story. The only difference is instead of the prince saving the damsel from evil, the popular boy is saving the girl from her unpopularity.
These girls are not in need of saving. They are all smart, well-rounded girls with their own friends. The popular boy, in some way or another, pops into their lives and tries to fix them. In “The Kissing Booth,” the male lead gives the protagonist her first kiss and becomes her first boyfriend. In “Sierra Burgess is a Loser,” the hot-but-sensitive jock ends up liking Sierra for who she is, even though she’s deemed undesirable by her classmates. In “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” the male love interest pretends to be the main character’s boyfriend to make his popular ex-girlfriend jealous and actually ends up liking his fake girlfriend.
None of these boys are doing the girls any favors by being decent human beings. They don’t deserve a gold medal for liking someone for their personality and not their looks. The bar is so low it’s on the ground for the boys in these movies. They show a small ounce of compassion and suddenly they’re superheroes to the female leads.
There are so many better things to be than “cool.” The girls in these movies show how fun and interesting they are at the beginning of the movie, and by the end they fit in, but at what cost? They lose friends along the way and their grades drop, but at least they have a hot boyfriend.
Elle, the protagonist in “The Kissing Booth,” only becomes good enough to date when her body develops over the summer and boys start to notice her. Once she “looks better,” Noah, Elle’s best friend’s brother, wants to be with her and rescue her from her unpopularity. Sierra in “Sierra Burgess is a Loser” is one of the smartest girls in her class, and because she is so caught up with boys and becoming cooler, she forgets one of the biggest assignments of the year.
This type of narrative tells girls they have to find a popular boyfriend or be popular to be happy, and that is just not true. The idea of popularity in high school is such a strong presence. Adding these types of movies into teen lives only adds to it. Girls in high school should feel comfortable with themselves by being more than just popular.
These misguided films also tell girls they can’t be happy alone. Women don’t need a man by their sides to be successful, but that’s not what these movies are portraying. The movie industry has been steering away from the “damsel in distress” narrative, but we’re beginning to move backward, not forward. We should be empowering our young women, not tearing them down and telling them to depend on a man.
Ashlon Lusk is a 19-year-old mass communication sophomore from Houston, Texas.