Umm, can we talk about movie descriptions?

I’d like to preface this by first saying, I love movies about women. In a world where we must compete with CGI monsters and male action heroes, it’s easy to overlook a movie featuring a strong female lead, especially one of color.

I’m focusing specifically on the three movies above because I feel that they are similar in story arc. Each movie features a female character who tries to fit in, only to realize later on that she doesn’t need a large group of friends to make her feel important.

You can find all of these movies on Netflix, which is great, however what bothers me is the wording of the movie descriptions.

Take Heathers for example:

Notice anything? The description says that Veronica hates the girls in her popular clique. They use the word clique because the girls are in school, I guess. Hanging out with a group of girls makes you a clique. Let’s take a look at Mean Girls.

Did you see that? They did it again. Cady joins the school’s most powerful clique. Again, hanging out with people in school makes you a clique. Now let’s look at Girlhood.

Notice anything here? The “cynical teenager” they’re referring to is named Marieme. The group she hangs out with is referred to as a “gang.” Why? The characters in this movie don’t do anything worse than the characters in the previous two movies, yet they are called a gang.

Let’s take a closer look at clique vs gang behavior.

In Heathers, Veronica teams up with a rebel named J.D. and together they kill all the popular kids in Veronica’s clique. Hmmm, but they aren’t a gang.

In Mean Girls, Regina George reigns supreme by tormenting other girls and triggering the entire female student population to cause each other physical harm. Hmmm, but that isn’t a gang.

What does Marieme do in Girlhood that is considered gang-related? The description says she drops out of school, but that isn’t true. Marime’s teacher informs her that her grades are too low to continue school and offers her vocational training instead. Marieme pleads to repeat the year for the third time, but her teacher refuses. She then pleads to move on to high school, but her teacher doesn’t allow it. She never willingly drops out.

So why is the group of girls that Marieme hangs out with called a gang? Is it because they’re black? I’m serious about this. Why are groups of non-black girls called cliques while a group of black girls is called a gang? I feel like this is the subtle way society is brainwashing us into thinking that black people, my people, are less-than and something to be feared. Four black girls can’t hang out without being called a gang.

You might think I’m exaggerating or making a big deal about nothing. Okay, fine. Your opinion. You might also think, “That’s just a Netflix thing.” Yeah, okay. I thought that too. Then I checked IMDb.

Here’s the description for Heathers:

Mean Girls:

And finally, Girlhood:

Notice Heathers has words like, “in crowd” and “popular kids.” Mean Girls refers to them as ‘The Plastics’ but still manages to squeeze the word “clique” in there. But Girlhood is just a movie about a girl who joins a gang and she’s happy for a while but not really. What?

Who wrote this garbage? I want names!

Ask yourself why police brutality against blacks has been so prevalent. Social media has made it possible to highlight the inevitable truth: If you’re black, you’re already guilty upon sight.

Stereotypes are deeply ingrained in our society to the point where this:

Is seen as less threatening than this:

This is just a classic case of racism hiding in plain sight.

If Marieme had actually joined a gang, I wouldn’t be complaining. Watch the movie for yourself. In fact, hold a movie night and view all three in order of release and you will see three different versions of the same story.

Monica Louise Bryant

Writing since December 2015 · 1 story contributed