This film, Girlfight is about a young woman’s struggle to fit in the mold of what society a woman should be in Brooklyn, New York. It is written and directed by Karen Kusama. It stars Michelle Rodriguez as the main character Diana Guzman. Its a coming of age film that exposes the main character’s deep and trouble feelings about her life’s struggles with dominating men like her father, Sandro Guzman played by Paul Calderon. Her mother committed suicide, and Diana thinks it was because she was trying to get away from her physically and verbally abusive father. Diana is on a road to self destruction by having a bad attitude, lack of self-discipline and getting into fights in school, getting close to being expelled from school. Her younger brother Tiny is forced to go to boxer training by their father Sandro because it will make him be more of a man and protect himself. One day when Sandro asks Diana to go pay for Tiny’s boxing lessons , she herself became interested in the sport but her father would never allow her to train. Diana takes it upon herself to steal money from her father to train. Her trainer Hector is reluctant to train her and tells her she can have better things to do time. Diana is insistent and he agrees to train her. He realizes that Diana has real talent and powerful punches and takes her training seriously. Boxing started to give Diana an outlet for her anger and rage, it also started to help her develop some self-discipline.
The other trainers were against female boxers fighting in the ring, but her coach believed in her and put her to fight in the ring anyway, she even fought males and beat them. This encouragement and development of her self-esteem enabled her to start caring for other people and get into relationships with other boxers. Her father found out about her fighting and told her she was not allowed to box and she was no good at it. She physically fought her father and moved out of her home but not before confronting him about what he had did in the past to her mother. She returns to the ring and fights her boyfriend and fellow boxer, Adrian Sturgis. He did not want to fight her at first, but then realized he had to and when he did, she won him and this built more respect between them as fighters.
The adversity Diana had to overcome in the male dominated wold of boxing was commendable. She took on a challenge she believed she can beat, One of the first signs at the boxing gym she saw was “Boxing is Brain Over Brawn” . This was a sign to her that she would be able to fight these young men in the ring, and although she may not win them all, she was still a challenge and not a “wussy” girl. In Girlfight, Diana is a rebellious teenage girl, but she is also strong, both physically and mentally. She just needed positive role models in her life to bring out all the good qualities she had to offer and this film shows us that not all Latino women are poor, helpless victims. Latino women commonly have been in films as either weak victims or over sexualized vixens and it is very nice to see a woman be portrayed as strong physically as a man and be able to kick their ass and at the same time still show her softer side when she was with her boyfriend. In the reading Towards a Latinidad Feminista:The Multiplicities of Latinidad and Feminism in Contemporary Cinema, Baez describes that this film was compared to the male dominated film series, Rocky(pg 117). I do see some similarities in both films, however this story line is stronger and more powerful because no one expects a woman, especially a Latina to beat a man in the boxing ring. We think of women being the weaker species, but its not always the case as it is shown in Girlfight.
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Towards a Latinidad Feminista:The Multiplicities of Latinidad and Feminism in Contemporary Cinema (2007) Jillian Baez
Hi,
I have had seen the previews of this movie and had been wanting to see it, but one thing lead to another and was put in the back burner. I like films where the females get the opportunity to actually do what they want or feel like doing/pursuing. Diana’s persistence reminds me of Anna in RWHC. You touched some interesting issues in your blog such as; why her mother might of committed suicide; how the father was oppose to her boxing and her perseverance to continue. This movie is back on my “to watch list.”
When the trailer came out for this film I didn’t spark and interest in me to go see it. It seemed like your typical Latino coming age movie, but by reading your blog I definitely feel compelled to watch it. It seems that a lot of Diana’s issues have to do with the machismo she has to deal with at home from her father. Machismo is real problem in the Latino community. Boys are raised being taught they need to prove their manhood by being tough, just how Dianas brother was told by his father to take up boxing to toughen him up. In the other hand, girls are being raised with the mentality that they are weaker than men. I’m glad this film touches on the subject of Machismo and how it affects our children’s psyche.
After reading Baez’s article the film seemed interesting, and now I want to watch it even more. It would be interesting to see how Diana goes against the typical standards of how a woman should be that her father lays out for not only her, but her mother. It seems the father is the stereotypical macho Latino who has little respect for women, kind of like Bob in La Bamba. I will definitely need to check this movie out.
I have never seen this movie before, but from your blog is evident to see that it deals with a person that has been through many issues, since early on in life. The other thing I gather from the blog is that it has some similarities with some of the other films that we have screened in class. One of them being American Me and some parts of Scarface. The fact that the father does not allow her to train, sounds like situations that I deal with at school with some of the Hispanic parents. Some of them still have the mentality some sports are only for men to do. Hispanic girls and living the house is another issue that many Hispanic families go through with their daughter because of the father not allowing them to do certain things, that they want to do. Many times they feel that they only way out is to get out the house. Most of the time all girls need on their side is someone positive and someone that believes in them, so that they get the courage to get things done.