They would all be in porn.
The post-funeral scene in Steel Magnolias was what instantly popped into my mind upon reading the thread title.
Bette Davis in Dark Victory - the ending where she is going blind, which is the tell-tale sign that she’s about to succumb to her brain tumor (Prognosis: NEGATIVE!) While her husband is still at the house, she pretends she’s fine and that there’s nothing wrong with her sight because she doesn’t want to worry him before he leaves to give a big speech at a conference. Because, y’know, she doesn’t want to meddle in her husband’s career with something so silly & inconsequential as…HER LIFE COMING TO AN END!
Talk about a noble, strong, self-sacrificing woman giving up everything for her man. Just like a woman in a 1930s soap opera would do!
This thread is very discouraging…
Discouraging?
Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight: If I were not mad, I could have helped you. Whatever you had done, I could have pitied and protected you. But because I am mad, I hate you. Because I am mad, I have betrayed you. And because I’m mad, I’m rejoicing in my heart, without a shred of pity, without a shred of regret, watching you go with glory in my heart!
“You had me at hello.”
River Tam near the end of Serenity.
“You take care of me, Simon. You’ve always taken care of me. My turn.”
She then dives through the door and teaches the Reivers who Shiva is.
“Suck. My. Dick!”
- Demi Moore, G.I. Jane
Yeah, I don’t really like either measure. Men fight, women seduce? Blegh.
Are we talking the traditional definition of femininity, with women being coy and passive? If so, probably the ball (especially the dance between her and the prince) in Disney’s Cinderella.
If it’s the no-holds-barred, ass-kicking woman of today kind of womanly, any of Ripley’s scenes in Aliens.
If it’s the materialistic, chatty, judgmental bitch archetype, pretty much every moment in both Sex and the City movies.
There’s so many definitions of “womanly” it’s hard to keep track.
Dawn Wiener (Heather Materazzo) in Welcome to the Dollhouse trying to find out if the slutty girl laying on that Mustang convertible actually had sex with the man of her (Dawn’s) dreams.
The Flintstones (John Goodman/Rosie O’Donnell version): Betty Rubble asking Barney “Do you REALLY have to do everything Fred does?”
The Raquel Welch/Faye Dunaway throwdown in Richard Lester’s The Three Musketeers.
Penny Lane tricking that douchebag rock star into visiting William Miller at home in Almost Famous. Also, Frances McDormand scaring the shit out of him over the phone, same movie.
Jamie Lee Curtis climbing into bed with a sick Winthorp in Trading Places
Karen Blixen arriving with supplies to save the lives of her husband and his troops in “Out of Africa.”
It’s so amazing and an almost complete portrait of the modern gender conflict. She is feeling proud and adventurous and strong. He is feeling embarassed to be saved by a woman. Despite the fact that if she hadn’t come and made it through they would all have starved to death, they are chagrined to be saved by a girl.
You see her deflate as the realization hits her, and a contempt resolve itself in her view of him. She never held it against him for being weak enough to get into this jam; but she can not forgive him for being small enough to be embarassed.
Ilsa in Casablanca: “I can’t fight it anymore. I ran away from you once. I can’t do it again. Oh, I don’t know what’s right any longer. You’ll have to think for both of us, for all of us.”
Grace Kelly’s entrance in Rear Window.
In Princess Mononoke, the scene where San is feeding Ashitaka jerky. It’s very maternal, and yet very sensual, also.
Or when Sophia hits Harpo.
When G.I. Jane is doing those one-armed pushups on the chairs.
For bonus points, there’s always Talia Shire in ROCKY II: she wakes up in a hospital bed after giving birth, and there’s her regretful but overjoyed husband finally acceding to her pre-coma wishes by agreeing not to fight the champ. “There’s one thing I want you to do for me,” she says, and giggles a bit. He leans in close. “Win.”
He stares at her in disbelief. “Win,” she repeats, intensely.