Alexa Brown

WST 421 Online B Session

4/12/15

Riding in Cars with Boys (2001) is a biography/comedy/drama film about a girl,

Beverly (Bev) Donofrio, who gets pregnant at the age of 15. The film depicts her life as a
single mother after an unsuccessful marriage with the father of the child, who is a drug
addict. The film was released in 2001. This is significant in that it is when teen
pregnancies were becoming more prominent in media. The depiction of Beverly is a clear
example of consumer and subversive girlhood because of her ideas of the female body
and because of her pregnancy at such a young age.
Beverly Donofrio is a boy-obsessed teenager at the beginning of the
movie. When she gets pregnant at 15, she marries the father of the child and they start
their lives together. Being so young and unable to afford pay for housing, the two live in
public housing. When their son is around 5 or 6, the Bev and the father decide it would be
better for him to leave because of his addiction. This leaves Beverly to raise her child by
herself. She then struggles to make money as well as take care of her son. There are many
themes of resentment and disappointment, but overall, the determination of Bev to make
something more of her life brings a happy and hopeful theme to the film.
Beverly is the protagonist in this film. Her struggle is to raise her child while also
trying to achieve her dreams. She often resents her son because she feels he is always
getting in the way of her dreams. Because of her pregnancy, she was not able to finish her
high school education, go on to college and become a writer. Bev is an example of

consumerism girlhood because of the ideas she has about being a girl or woman, as an
eleven-year-old, as well as an example of subversive girlhood because of her pregnancy.
At the beginning of the movie, Bev and her father are picking out a Christmas tree
and have a little talk in the car. When he asks her what she wants for Christmas he is
surprised to hear her say a bra. She wants a push-up bra because she thinks it will get the
attention of her crush. This idea comes form the consumer side of girlhood. In Oh the
Bliss; Fashion and Teenage Girls, Kelly Schrum states that [Dress] demonstrates
increased access to fashion as a tool for constructing ones image as well as
consciousness of the power to manipulate social status through appearance (135). This
quote brings to attention the importance that companies have put on clothes for teens and
young girls in identifying themselves. Bev wants a bra because she believes that is what a
boy looks for in a girl and believes it will enhance her body. Many young girls are
hounded by ideas about beauty and it shapes their view of their bodies. Their natural
body is no longer good enough to attract or impress others. Even girls as young as Bev
deal with these views of the female body and it is very typical for Bev to be concerned
with her body at such a young age.
Later on in the movie, Bev gets pregnant at the age of fifteen. She, at that
moment, becomes an example of subversive girlhood. She grew up as the ideal girl. She
came from a middle-class family, she was white, she was even blonde. But the
consequences of one night completely changed her life and future, as well as her
girlhood. She could no longer go to school, she spent her time taking care of a baby and
she married the father of her child. It is stated in Deviant (M)others: The Construction of
Teenage Motherhood in Contemporary Discourse that teenage mothers are vilified,

not because the evidence of poor outcomes for teen mother and their children is
particularly compelling, but because these young women resist the typical life trajectory
of their middle-class peers which conforms to the current governmental objectives of
economic growth through higher education and increased female workforce
participation (Huntington, Wilson 59). This means that teenage mothers are looked
down upon by others because they may not be contributing or thought to be able to
contribute as much as the ideal woman or man. Like many teenage moms, this is what
Bev faces. She doesnt get a scholarship because she had to bring her son with her to the
interview for it. She seemed too distracted to be successful and therefore was not a
probable investment. Fay is another good example of the subversive girlhood. She, like
Bev, gets pregnant as a teenager, marries and then divorces the father of her child, and
must raise her daughter as a single mother without graduating from high school. Both of
these girls may fit the stereotype of the welfare depended teenage mothers, but Bev defies
this stereotype by going back to school and eventually becoming a writer like she always
dreamed.
While Riding in Cars with Boys is about a single women and her son, she
exemplifies the consumer and subversive girlhoods while in her teen years. In conclusion,
Bev is a representation of that adolescence that does not follow the normative ideas of
society. Bev is affected by both of the ideas associated with the different types of girlhood
and it is clear the affects of both on her as a young girl and teenager.