5 years of Girls on Film

On this column's five-year anniversary, a look at the ongoing evolution of femme-centric film in culture and Hollywood

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(Image credit: (Facebook.com/DragonTattoo))

Five years ago, Girls on Film kicked off as a quick, biweekly column looking at Hollywood's ongoing gender problem. At the time, the topic was barely discussed outside of personal blogs and occasional statistical news pieces. Five years later, it feels like a different world — one that provides an interesting microcosm of how much things can change, and how much they stay the same.

Back when I started, Hollywood was coming off a year where men ruled the box office. 2008's highest-grossing movies were full of superheroes (The Dark Knight, Iron Man, Hancock), adventurous men (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Quantum of Solace), and children's films (Wall-E, Kung-Fu Panda, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Horton Hears a Who!). Only the power of the Twi-hards could penetrate the bubble and give the list its only femme-centric film: Twilight.

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Monika Bartyzel

Monika Bartyzel is a freelance writer and creator of Girls on Film, a weekly look at femme-centric film news and concerns, now appearing at TheWeek.com. Her work has been published on sites including The Atlantic, Movies.com, Moviefone, Collider, and the now-defunct Cinematical, where she was a lead writer and assignment editor.