Throwback Thursday-Rebellious Girls Of 1985- Girls Just Want To Have Fun & Just One Of The Guys

Teenage rebellion is a normal part of life.

In 1985, two different films reflected what it was to be a teenager and how every young person rebels in his or her own way.

In Girls Just Want To Have Fun, Janey (Sarah Jessica Parker) has one great love: dancing. She is also the new girl in town.  Janey becomes fast friends with Lynne (Helen Hunt), who loves dance as much as Janey does. Their friendship is cemented by a common love of their favorite television show, “Dance TV”.  Both girls are eager to audition when they hear that the producers are looking for a regular couple, but Janey’s father refuses to let her audition. Will Janey follow her dream or listen to her father?

That same year, Just One Of The Guys hit theaters. Loosely based on William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Terry (Joyce Hyser) has the perfect life for a teenage girl: brains, beauty,  popularity, the college boyfriend and the article that she is confident will get her the summer internship at the local newspaper.   Then reality hits her in the face when her journalism teacher chooses to submit articles written by her male classmates. Determined to prove that she is just as good as the boys, Terry takes on a new identity at a rival high school as a boy simply to submit her article. The article is the easy part. While in drag, she falls for her male friend, becomes the target of the high school bully and is in the romantic sight lines of an unwanted female admirer. All of that happens before she reveals her true sex.

Do I recommend them? Girls Just Want To Have Fun is certainly a lighter film than Just One Of The Guys, but there is a universal theme of teenage rebellion that resonates with audiences of all ages. You also have to take into consideration that these movies are 30 years old, but there is something kitchy about the mid 1980’s.

To answer you question, yes.

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