WHERE MY WORKING GIRLS AT?

”Work, turn to the left
Work, now turn to the right
Work, sashay, shante
Work, turn to the left
Work, now turn to the right
Work, sashay, shanty’’

(Ru Paul, Supermodel, somewhen around 1990)

In this particular time of the year I really felt the need to talk about something far away from sociology, structuralist cinema critics, Belgian auteur movies and post-feminist claims, asking myself what exactly is so wrong about MOBBING(1) – for the right causes – when you’re job is a NINE TO FIVE(2) struggle, trying to stay afloat.
All of us WORKING GIRLS(3) should really hold hands together, and if it’s worth it, let us WORK IT(4).

… So pardon my french, but I had to start with RuPaul.

Talking about girls @work and the evolution and “progress” we made throughout the years is overrated and a bit boring to read – I know.
There are some characters though who subtly influenced the perception we have today.
These are some women who, tiny or huge their everyday’s biz might have been, really made us see what a working woman stands for: power, knowledge and absolute effortless beauty in thousand different ways.
These not so fictional characters can be a bit like us and feel more real and closer to us than anyone else.
These are my women, the characters of our own lives, the ones each one of us once was even for some days or weeks and eventually might become going through life.

SO, WORK IT GIRL!

SILVANA MANGANO a.k.a LA MONDINA in RISO AMARO (1949)
“LA NOUVEAU PAUVRE”
Here in Italy, some our grandmas and grand grandmas used to work in the summer for about 40 days in the so called rice “monda” in the outskirts of Vercelli (Novara, northern Italy).
Silvana Mangano stars as one of them in Riso Amaro, a classic neorealist success realise? par Giuseppe de Santis in 1949. With her feet and hands depth inside the water, dancing with her comrades, Mangano is maybe too beautiful and stylish to be an actual mondina, or maybe she isn’t because all of them were actually really beautiful somehow.
The movie is a melodramatic climax about love, work and malavita.
There are contrasts between the regular working girls and the “clandestine”, the devastating effort they make, the solidarity and the joy of taking their lives back.
Finally alone, away from their homes and husbands.

JENNIFER BEALS as ALEX OWENS in FLASHDANCE (1983)
“THE WORKING CLASS HERO WHO HAD A DREAM”
How can we possibly forget the shy and fragile Jennifer Beals working in a helmet in a Pittsburg factory?
Alex is an eighteen-year-old welder at a steel mill in Pennsylvania, who lives with her dog Grunt in a converted warehouse. Although she aspires to become a professional dancer, she has no formal dance training, and works as a exotic dancer by night at Mawby’s, a neighborhood bar and grill which hosts a nightly cabaret.
Alex Owens was one of the few workers to be ever represented in occidental cinema history, even if she was going to transition to a dance academy later on.
Curious is also the path the actress chose, from the international success to the Indie cinema scene (Caro Diario, Nanni Moretti, 1993)
Alex didn’t just pursue her dream, she sorts of incarnate a kind of contemporary “anti-hero”.
She comes from the dust and she raises to the stars because after all, she has always been one.

CYNTHIA NIXON as MIRANDA HOBBES in SEX AND THE CITY (1998)
“THE BALANCED VOICE OF REASON INSIDE EACH ONE OF US ”
The less loved and lately most appreciated character in Sex and the City. Miranda.
Miranda Hobbes is a career-minded lawyer with extremely cynical views on relationships and men.
After going through some “bring me somewhere” kind of relationships, as every woman does, she finally gives birth to a son, Brady Hobbes and she finds dealing with her workaholic personality.
She finds a way to balance career, being single, and motherhood.
Of the four women, she is the first to purchase an apartment (an indicator of her success) and then decides to move into a Brooklyn townhouse in the final season to make room for her growing family.
She’s really a self made woman, brave, opened and knowing what’s right for her (in the end).
As she wisely answered to her new housekeeper once
“I drink coffee, have sex, buy pies and enjoy battery operated devices. I’m a woman.”
Miranda you’re really everything, everything a woman could be. Thank you for reminding us to fuck someone off once in a while.

JULIA ROBERTS in ERIN BROKOVICH (2000)
“THE FORMER HOUSEWIFE WHO DIDN’T NEED TO STUDY FOR IT”
Erin was a young, twice divorced mother of three who was struggling to support her family. With little legal expertise, Erin began working for a law firm.
She started an investigation to take down corporate giant PG&E company for contaminating the water supply of the small town of Hinkley, California with Chromium VI.
She really manages with her abilities and sense of humour both in life and career to break down the evil and help the people.
Big hurray for Erin and every woman who is making the difference in the big from her small everyday.
We are the power and when we are doing that 10th interview for a decent job let’s remember what that Erin girl said: “Im smart, I’m hard-working and I’ll do anything. And i’m not leaving here without a job”.
PLEASE REMEMBER US SOMETIMES ERIN. WE DESERVE IT AAAALL.

RENEE ZELLWEGER STARRING IN BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY (2001)
“THE MODERN SUPERWOMAN (IT’S A LIE)”
As we all might know, the story centres around Bridget and her slightly desperate attempts to get her life together. Both the books and the films were praised for being an accurate portrayal of the challenges of modern womanhood, as well as being incredibly funny.
As for Bridget herself, she has become the patron saint of single women everywhere, and a staple of every girls’ night in. Bridget knows it, it’s hard to get some happiness, especially when talking about romance (we hate/love you Daniel Cleaver) but Bridget is incredibly us, and an incredible woman. Period.

REESE WHITERSPOON starring as ELLE WOODS in LEGALLY BLONDE (2001)
“BUSY, SEXY, EASY (What’s more SoapOpera than this…?)”
Though this film is disguised as a light-hearted comedy, it’s actually a really good film about leaning in. Elle originally goes to law school to follow a guy (yuk) but the fact that she gets into Harvard is pretty impressive. It’s there that she realises she doesn’t want to be a lawyer, and that even though people judge her on her looks and ditzy exterior, she’s a very smart woman even if she only wears pink (this is not obvious yet for some boys out there…)
Finally she ends up picking a partner who supports her career path and les jeux sont fait.
We are all blondes sometimes and gotta be proud of it because there’s exactly nothing to be ashamed of.

BRITT ROBINSON starring as SOPHIA AMORUSO in GIRLBOSS (2017)
(based on NASTY GAL’S PIONEER FOUNDER’S life)
“THE STAIRWAY TO CASH (FROM TRASH)”
Sophia is a rebellious, broke anarchist who refuses to grow up.
She stumbles upon her passion of selling vintage clothes online and becomes an unlikely businesswoman. As she builds her retail fashion empire, she realises the value and the diffi- culty of being the boss of her own life.
After struggles, failures, eating trash and so on- you name it – she really became a Someone with a capital S (Almost totally on her own- because we all know, nobody is really alone in anything…).

AND LIKE THE LED ZEPPELIN ONCE SAID:

‘There’s a lady who’s sure
All that glitters is gold
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven
When she gets there she knows
If the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for
Oh oh oh oh and she’s buying a stairway to heaven”

This lady exists and she is the everyone, who knows perfectly how to get there and she’s not buying anything, she’s just deserving it all, because in any  case, either path she will follow, it’s gonna be fine fine fine.

(1) F.Comencini+N.Braschi, 2003 (2) Colin Higgins, 1980
(3) Lizzie Borden, 1986
(4) Missy Elliot, ‘Work it’, 2002