Initially, China started National Singles Day as a way to celebrate those without a life partner. After all, what better day to celebrate independent men and women than 11/11, a day of physical "ones" and the day that dreams supposedly come true? Even though the U.S. has no such day, we're celebrating with a massive movie marathon, celebrating our favorite ladies that choose to live the single life.
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Thelma and Louise
Up until this point, the road movie was an inherently masculine genre. But the enduring love and friendship between these two fugitives is much stronger than any of the men they encounter, even though Susan Sarandon's Louise gets a marriage proposal mid-movie. The two would rather die together as free friends, literally leaving men chasing them in their wake.
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My Best Friend's Wedding
This film, for the record, is billed as a romantic comedy, though there is really nothing romantic about it. Julia Roberts is essentially conniving and manipulative, and instead of being forthright with poor Dermot Mulroney, she decides to lie, con, and sabotage. In the end, when she finally comes clean, romantic comedy audiences are expecting them to run off together, which they do: to find his poor fiancée. In the end, single Julia Roberts wishes her best friend good luck and gets to dance with the gay dude.
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Waiting To Exhale
Yes, this is the self-empowerment movie to end all self-empowerment movies, and for good reason: Each of the four leads is powerful and beautiful, and they all cut loose the men who have been holding them down. After decades of women being reduced to one-dimensional sketches, it's the guys' turn, and watching the freedom and joy each woman encounters with the other is all the joy of which Lifetime-style movies are made.
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Death Becomes Her
Yes, both Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn spend their time feuding over their man (a very shabby Bruce Willis). But the feud is so much less about getting the dude and more about their overdramatic but still pretty relatable rivalry: Who is prettier, who is more successful, and—the point of the movie—who looks younger. In the end, they are stuck together, because, well, they deserve one another.
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Kill Bill Volume 2
The love story between Beatrice and Bill is complicated, abusive, and terrifying. But deep inside, there was a strong, enduring love between the two of them. When the plot reveals that there was a massive misunderstanding between Beatrice and Bill, she has the ability to forgive them, mend her family, and live united. Except, this is a story about revenge, and Bea set out to kill Bill, and damned if a "happily ever after" ending will get in her way.
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Chasing Amy
On the surface, this Kevin Smith movie could be read as problematic, especially because the lesbian love interest ends up falling in love with a man (echoing Banky's, Jason Lee, sentiment that she just needs a "deep dicking.") But by assuming his formerly lesbian girlfriend is down for anything after finding out she is more sexually experienced than him, Ben Affleck ends up not listening to his partner when she repeatedly says that just wants him. And in his stupidity, he loses her, and she chooses not to "be his whore." Props.
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Brave
Yes, Merida is very young, but the entire movie kicks off with her father trying to find her a suitable partner. The point? There isn't one, and Merida's most important relationship is the complicated and very real one between her and her mother. No princes, no rescues, just a young girl struggling to prove that she is becoming a woman.
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