BY Garrett
October 13, 2008
3,494 views
5 Comments

Sex Drive is another in a long, long, long line of raunchy sex comedy movies in which teenage boys, usually ‘nerdy’ ones struggle to get laid. These comedies are often litanies of humiliation (which is not to say they don’t have a certain charm) in which funny young men show us just how much you can wring from a fart gag.

But what about the girls?

Traditionally, the women in these films are either virginal paragons, a dream girl who is often revealed to be unworthy of our geeky protagonists love, or a best friend, often nursing a secret crush for one or more of our heroes. Then there are all the beautiful girls who pose conflicts, serve as cruel gags (the ‘gross’ fat girl being a perennial favorite) and punchlines. Women in these films aren’t driving the humor, they’re ignored at best and targets at worst.

Tina Fey gave us “Mean Girls,” but that didn’t have the singular focus of girls ‘getting some’ or dealing with the hysterical humor and weirdness that young adult sexuality always entails. There’s talk of a “Sex and the City” for teenagers and “Gossip Girl” has your requisite soap opera dramatics, but where’s the funny?

Is the notion of empowered, sexually aggressive and funny teenage girls just too much for American audiences to handle? “Juno” showed us just such a girl, though dealing more with the consequences of sex than the actual getting it on.  10 years on, is the image of Alyson Hannigan bestride Jason Biggs shouting “Say my name, bitch!” still mind-blowing?

Where are our teenage girl sex comedies?