I might have said that Heather and I rode the same bus for years, that we both liked football and sang along with Boys II Men, that we shared the kind of easy, endless conversations that later in my life I would recognize as the first signs of a good, healthy crush. I could have said I liked the idea of a girl liking me and I could have said that he was ruining it all with his questions.
I lay on the ground, half hoping that Heather might drive up with her mom and see me on the ground and screech to a halt, jump out of the car and come kneel at my side and take my head in her arms; and the other half of me was hoping she would never come to school again, that I might die right there on the asphalt, and this story along with me.
Girl Fight is a television film that premiered on Lifetime on October 3, 2011. Inspired by true events,[1] the film revolves around a bullied and troubled 16-year-old girl who tries to fit in with a popular group of girls, leading to a brutal beating upon joining the clique.
The film was inspired by a 2008 beating in Florida; a video of some of the beating, released by Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, was used heavily by the news media and the story caused nationwide public outrage.[2][3] Additionally, Anne Heche and James Tupper, who play Haley's parents, were a couple in real life until their split in 2018.
Haley Macklin (Jodelle Ferland) is an academically advanced high school student. She sees herself as an outsider because she has skipped a grade. Her intelligence and well-articulated contributions to class discussions cause her classmates to become jealous. Frustrated that she is left out from a popular group of girls, she posts negative comments about them on a social networking website.
Unexpectedly, she befriends Alexa Simons (Tess Atkins), a popular girl in school who is head over heels for Derek (Rady Panov). Haley offers to help Alexa with her schoolwork. Haley soon breaks the social barrier between her and the popular girls and is accepted by most of them. The girls with whom she does not make a connection are slightly suspicious of her. Haley's behavior changes drastically. She disobeys her parents and is rude to her sister. Her mother, Melissa (Anne Heche) endeavors to make allowances for Haley's attitude and is more lenient than her father, Ray (James Tupper).
One day, the popular girls discover the harsh comments that Haley posted online and they feel betrayed. The girls decide to physically attack Haley, while videotaping it. They also plan to post the images online. Clueless about this revenge plot, Haley is invited over to Alexa's house. The girls are waiting by the door and once Haley steps inside, the girls taunt her, calling her names and savagely beat her, until she falls unconscious, suffering a concussion, a ruptured eardrum, and a damaged left eye in the process. The entire beating is recorded on video with the girls planning to post this online. After the brutal attack, Haley wakes up bruised, bloody, confused, and helpless in front of the girls who continue to taunt her. They then abandon her in a parking lot with a cell phone. However, within a few seconds after the girls flee, a nearby woman comes to Haley's aid.
When Melissa and Ray discover what the girls had done to Haley, Melissa confronts Alexa and her two friends that took part in the beating, Kristin and Taylor, only to be deterred from seeing the footage after the girls make false statements and refuse to give in. Drawing suspicion from Alexa's grandmother, Marylou (Linda Darlow), she attempts to retrieve Taylor's phone to see the footage herself, but Kristin and Taylor hastily escape the house via Alexa's open sliding door. Marylou then tries to get Taylor's phone number from Alexa's contacts list, but is left shocked and disappointed when she sees a video frame of Haley's bloodied and bruised face on Alexa's computer screen.
Haley's parents receive the footage of the brutal beating, now stored in a USB flash drive, from Marylou. After viewing it, Melissa and Ray decide to take serious action against the girls, by alerting authorities. Infuriated that Marylou had given Haley's parents the footage, Alexa flees and goes to Kristin's house. However, her house is traced by police, who arrive and arrest them, along with Taylor and the two other girls that took part in the beating, Becca and Lauren, and are charged with kidnapping and battery, and are later released on bail. Alexa, who had conspired in the beating, is regarded by the media and police as the ringleader. At high school, students cheer the girls for what they did. However, Becca, disturbed after watching the video herself, regrets what she did and discontinues her relationship with the girls. While the kids at school think the girls are "cool", people from around the country have seen the video, causing nationwide public outrage.
While using a restroom, a visibly enraged Alexa confronts and reprimands Haley, but the feud is broken up by Melissa, who is then confronted by Marylou, claiming that Alexa and her friends are each facing a life sentence. Haley thinks that those punishments should be reduced. Although her mother agrees to recommend this, they disagree on the plea bargain the girls' lawyers had arranged, knowing that lighter sentences are the appropriate punishment for the girls. The girls responsible for the attack are tried and eventually convicted: Alexa receives three years' probation, 100 hours of community service, and an order to pay Haley $1,700 in restitution, Kristin receives 15 days' imprisonment and is placed on three years' probation, Becca, Taylor, and Lauren each get one year's probation, with Lauren also being ordered to pay Haley an additional $2,000 in restitution. In addition to the above sentencing, all five of the girls are restricted from any social network sites for the full term of their probation. The film ends with Haley and Melissa, now feeling more relaxed with the girls' convictions, walking out of the courthouse and in front of the press who are about to interview them.
With my father, who has always been my ally and inspiration, I established Malala Fund, a charity dedicated to giving every girl an opportunity to achieve a future she chooses. In recognition of our work, I received the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2014 and became the youngest-ever Nobel laureate.
I travel to many countries to meet girls fighting poverty, wars, child marriage and gender discrimination to go to school. Malala Fund is working so that their stories, like mine, can be heard around the world.
With more than 130 million girls out of school today, there is more work to be done. I hope you will join my fight for education and equality. Together, we can create a world where all girls can learn and lead.
An unspoken version of Wouldn't Hit a Girl; when there's a team with one Action Girl, and there's one female opponent among several men, the two will always take care of each other. She might take out one of the guys, too, but the men will keep to themselves so long as that option is there. It's not universal enough to list aversions, but it's definitely noticeable.
This tends to be the end result of a basically gendered aspect of many superheroes: male superheroes tend to have a generally male Rogues Gallery, while superheroines tend to have female villains. Thus, a Legion of Doom team-up tends to be fought along gender lines. Also, because female characters are rarely The Leader in a team ensemble, her fight against her evil female counterpart is often secondary, while the "real" fight is decided between men.
Of course, in the end, this is really about audience expectations. There is a deep-seated cultural aversion to depicting a man (supposedly the hero) laying the physical smackdown on a woman, even if she's clearly evil and dangerous. It's much easier to just sidestep the issue completely and avoid depicting it.
There are a few standard exceptions to the trope, even in works that use it; a Gonk usually doesn't count as female even if they are (and is thus a valid target for a male hero), and a Non-Human Sidekick or Funny Animal companion usually doesn't count as male, regardless of actual gender (and can thus attack female villains with impunity). Of course, a villainess could always change into a monstrous form to bypass the trope entirely.
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