Friendship is one of the most important things in life. There's nothing quite like the bond with someone who you like doing random stuff. You can be friends with either guys and girls. Yes, guys and girls can be just friends without there being some secret romantic tension them, but that's a rant for another time.
When watching movies or reading books, especially mainstream ones, it's hard to ignore all the romance going on. People easily remember the famous line "I'll never let go," from the movie "Titanic," or the iconic dramatic kissing in the rain scene between Noah and Allie in "The Notebook."
Over time I've noticed more and more stories where friendships are very important relationships. After all, in adventure stories it's always fun to see a group of friends working together to complete a quest. One of the most famous examples of this is the fellowship in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. I love seeing a group of people grow close to each other, willing to risk their lives for the others and essentially becoming a found family.
There is, however, a problem. A lot of the celebrated friendships in movies tend to be between men, rarely is the most important relationship in a book or movie a friendship between two girls or women. In fact, more often than not women are pitted against each other, rather than working together.
The first example I can think of right now is from the "Maze Runner" series (spoilers for the book series ahead). I read those books back in middle school. The idea is that all these teenage boys are trapped in a killer Maze and have been trying to find a way out for two years. Then everything changes when the first girl, Teresa, shows up. Now, obviously, there isn't room for a strong female friendship in the first book.
Then come book two we find out there was another Maze with all girls and one boy. But we don't get to meet the girls until the last chunk of the book, and Teresa even disappears for a bit. When she does we're introduced to Brenda, who I'm convinced exist only to have a love triangle between her and Teresa fighting over Thomas, the main character. Since we barely get to interact with the girls from the other Maze, who I imagine are really close, the only girls we really get to see are Brenda and Teresa, who barely interact and just low key hate each other because they're both in love with Thomas (personally I think they can do better than Thomas, they should date each other).
The friendship between the boys was so strong, why couldn't we see the same with the girls?
During a workshop for a creative writing class, I recently had a professor say that my two main characters, who were both teenage girls, were "unrealistic" because they were being "too nice" to each other. First of all, they're best friends, why wouldn't they be? I know there are cases of toxic and fake friendships, but my characters were meant to show a genuine platonic love for each other. When I was in high school, I was lucky to have girl friends who were the kindest, most genuine people I've ever met. I knew I could count on them for anything. I'm still in touch with them and want them to be part of my life.
I was lucky to have these friends in my life. Why not show this in media? Why not show that these friendships are just as important as finding a "soulmate."
