Recently, Netflix came out with yet another romantic teen movie. While the movie “Tall Girl” talks about a six-foot-one girl overcoming her insecurities, there seems to be a constant repetition in Netflix teenage movies that end with girl-gets-guy and happily ever after, right?
This idea that Netflix gives us is that in real life, no matter what the conflict may be, you will still have a happy ending. This is not only seen in the movie “Tall Girl”, but also in the movies like “The Kissing Booth”, “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before”, and so on. While it isn’t a bad idea to give girls hope that, despite their insecurities, they will find someone, this is not practical.
There are bigger issues going on in the world such as gun control, discrimination and lack of LGBTQ+ representation to name a few. An example of a movie that is more so dominant of white people than any other race is “Ghost in a Shell”. This stars Scarlett Johanson, who is white, portraying an Asian character. These issues are what need to be discussed more in Netflix films because people of all different races and backgrounds are being hidden in the dark in movies instead of celebrated.
While it is okay for movies to show women conquering their insecurities as Jodi does in “Tall Girl”, she still appears nearly perfect in many ways despite her height. This happens with many female leads in Netflix, but what is this teaching young girls? This causes them to think that as long as they have a man their insecurities, as well as all acne, weight, and cellulite, will go away.
Young girls need to know that, yes, being able to overcome these insecurities is a good thing, but they don’t need a strong man to do it for them. No girl will ever be skinny, pretty, and perfect just because of a man who tells them. The true obstacle to overcome is knowing you are amazing the way you are without a man being there to tell you that. Self-love is key and that needs to be highlighted more than another Cinderella story.
Netflix should be creating films that have more substance and are actually about real-world problems. Movies that young people can take away from and actually think about, rather than just another high school romance where the girl with self-doubt gets the boy and happily ever after.