Rachel Montpelier
December 5, 2012
COMM 301
Dr. Greene
Women Finding Their Place in Female Friendships: A Content Analysis of Bridesmaids
Women, as a whole, are “under-represented across a wide variety of media” (Collins
291). As an extension, women and their interactions in female friendships are also very hard to
find in the media landscape. However, there are some significant media texts that demonstrate
the complexity of female friendships by presenting multi-faceted women characters. This
content analysis examines the friendships between the female characters in the movie
Bridesmaids by evaluating the conversations the women have throughout the text. The paper
then takes its findings and compares them to the research already available concerning female
friendships in the media. According to the results of the content analysis, the female friendships
in Bridesmaids have conversations about a range of issues that indicate that the women are
mutually dependent on one another and need each other, which suggests that the media is
defining women on more than just their marital status and is actually depicting women finding
their place with fellow women.
Literature Review
In order to appropriately contextualize the research about Bridesmaids’ friendships, it is
important to have an overview of the available research about female friendships. Some of the
most prominent research involving women includes gender stereotypes in the media. This type
of research determines the typical roles women inhabit in movies and television. For example,
Rebecca L. Collins conducted a content analysis of present gender stereotypes, and how the
media needs to change. She argues that “women are under-represented in media, and that when
women are present they are typically scantily dressed and relegated to stereotypical roles”
(Collins 290). These stereotypes include women being depicted as only working in nonprofessional situations and only being defined by their relationship roles (Collins 295).
However, gender stereotyping goes beyond the roles women fill; they also rank men over
women. For example, “women become the perpetual other, valued primarily in their relations to
others, men in particular” (Lauzen, Dozier and Horan 201). In essence, the media shows women
only fulfilling particular roles and manages to make them the other, as something that is only
measured against male roles. Many times, women are not only reduced to stereotypical roles,
they are also depicted only as people to accompany men.
In addition to gender stereotypes, there is research on women’s friendships in the media,
though it is scarce. Alison Winch’s examination of current movies with only female leads shows
that “films relate the ups and downs of intimacy between women, while dispensing a knowing
cynicism towards romance” (Winch 69). However, these friendships are simply not fulfilling to
the women. The women also need “the solvent husband and the Manolo Blahniks, the naturally
conceived baby and the walk-in closet” (Winch 71). This particular research indicates that
female friendships are wonderful, but cannot compare to romantic relationships with men. Also,
there has been research that argues that women’s interactions promote power among female
friendships. An analysis of The Devil Wears Prada states that the movie works on two
situations: “gaining power, experience and confidence, and opportunity in the glamour scene;
and rejecting it all for life in a scummy one-bedroom pitching earnest articles to serious
publications” (Spiker 17). Female friendships are depicted in the media, but they are only a
stepping stone to something more fulfilling—namely heterosexual romance—for the characters.
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In the same vein, an analysis of Mean Girls stipulates that female friendships are usually
categorized as supportive, despite the movie’s depiction of friendships as “tyrannical, bullying
and devoted to a ruthless caste system” (Behm-Morawitz and Mastro 132). The media often
perpetuates images of women acting only as competitors around one another. Also, jealousy
among female friendships has been prevalent in media research, which Erika Engstrom examines
in her book about weddings in the media. Many movies featuring female casts focus on
weddings and perpetuate the ideal of “marriage envy” which is evidence that “the desire for
marriage creates hierarchies among women” (Engstrom 29). Basically, female friends rank each
other on the basis of their marital statuses. The research that evaluates female friendships all
recognize that these relationships are meaningful to the female characters, but they simply are
not enough, or can even be detrimental at times. So far, there is not much research about
supportive, mutually dependent women and their long-lasting friendships. The paper will
consider this current research when it analyzes the female friendships in Bridesmaids.
Method
The method that will be utilized in this research paper is a content analysis, which “can
measure human behavior,” especially verbal behavior (Berger 205). This type of research
analyzes behavior by observing “people talking with one another, by characters in films and
television programs” (Berger 205). Content analyses examine the actual conversations that
people have with one another and the way they behave towards each other. They do not try to
determine or examine the motivations for the types of behavior, or its possible effects (Berger
206). This is the reason a content analysis was chosen to evaluate Bridesmaids.
The goal of this content analysis is to observe the female friendships within the movie
and the conversations that concern only female characters. An operational definition of female
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friendships is a bond between two or more women explicated by conversation. The definition
for female friendships is necessary because it explains the exact nature of the research to the
reader (Berger 209). The bond is studied by conversations between two or more women,
including talk about relationships, politics, popular culture, work, mutual friends/acquaintances,
family, each other, health issues, anxieties, and/or financial issues. Also, the paper will consider
the coding in relation to the previous research conducted about female friendships in the media.
This study is not designed to predict how these conversations and interactions will affect the
film’s viewers or why the writers created these female characters. This paper is only interested
in what is present on the show and a content analysis is the best way to study that.
Research Question

How do movies portray female friendships?
This research question was planned to narrow down the research topic, and to focus the
researcher’s attention during the movie. It is a guide and an outline to what exactly should be
observed and considered during Bridesmaids. The research question only focuses on female
characters, even though there are a few prominent male characters in the movie. This question
aided the researcher in recognizing how the film characterizes female characters and also helped
the researcher create a thesis. Also, the research question helped the researcher create the codes
for the content analysis and will also be useful in determining whether the conversations extends
or opposes previous research on the subject. Using this question, the researcher viewed how
female friends in Bridesmaids participate in much more conversations than action, which directly
contributed to the paper’s thesis.
Situating the Text
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Before the paper describes the results of the content analysis, it is important to describe
Bridesmaids as a text. The movie is about Annie and her recently engaged best friend, Lillian.
The movie spans Lillian’s entire engagement, right until her wedding. It portrays how maid-ofhonor Annie feels to see her best friend grow up and move on, while Annie stays the same.
Other characters, who are also Lillian’s bridesmaids, include Rita, Becca, Helen and Megan. All
of these women interact with one another and participate in meaningful conversations. The
audience of this text is most likely women, probably between their teens and their thirties.
Women are probably the audience because the movie features mostly women as main characters,
and delves into the complexity of female friendships. The researcher will focus only on the
conversations between the women in this movie, in order to determine the nature of the female
friendships. Conversations can reflect the basis of the women’s friendships and can also reveal
the women’s true feeling towards each other. The conversations featured in Bridesmaids are the
subject of the paper’s content analysis and also provide information about female friendships in
movies.
Results/Analysis
This content analysis focuses on conversations between women including romantic
relationships, popular culture, work issues, mutual friendships/ acquaintances, family, politics,
each other, health issues, fears, and/or financial issues. The study found that the women of
Bridesmaids spoke about all of the topics, besides politics. The appendix at the end of this paper
thoroughly describes the criteria for each category. The leading category is conversations about
each other and it represents 26% of the total discussion between two or more women in the film.
There are 35 instances when the characters talk about each other, including the scene in which
Annie makes a toast for Lillian’s engagement, when she describes their childhood together
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(Bridesmaids). Annie tells Lillian “I’ve known you my whole entire life…you really helped
shape who I am as a person” (Bridesmaids). This statistic suggests that the women in the movie
are dependent on each other, and genuinely are friends. Their conversations featuring shared
memories and experiences make up the largest portion of their conversations. This supports
prior research, which states that “female friends supply significant emotional and moral support”
(Winch 69). Bridesmaids’ women’s concerns with one another demonstrate how female
friendships can be supportive in films. Furthermore, the women’s frequent conversations about
shared memories and experiences demonstrates that the women find their place together, and not
with the men in their lives.
A close second is the category of popular culture, which makes up 23%, or 30 instances,
of female conversation. The talks about popular culture suggest that the women have varied
interests, and have plenty to talk about with each other. The characters discussing movies,
shared interested, television shows and music demonstrates the complexity and the similarities in
their friendship. Some researcher could take issue with this analysis and could believe that
“manipulative and mean behaviors” define female friendships in film (Behm-Morawitz and
Mastro 132). The women of the movie are not inherently competitive and are comfortable
enough with each other to share personal aspects of their lives and interests. Shared interests
dominate the conversations, not competition, and prove the comfort the women find with one
another.
Also, conversations about relationships represent 12% and 16 instances of the total
conversation between the women. This number is close to the 11% and 15 instances that are
categorized as health issues, as well as the 10% or 13 instances that discuss mutual
friends/acquaintances. The fact that these three statistics are so close is very significant. In the
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media, “female characters are more likely to have identifiable marital roles,” and are usually
more focused on romantic relationships and men (Lauzen, Dozier and Horan 202). In effect,
women are often only defined by their marital status and often are depicted as only being
concerned with relationships, or lack thereof. The female friendships in Bridesmaids completely
overturn this rule in the media. The women do talk about relationships, but only at about the
same rate as health issues and mutual friendships. The conversation certainly is not dominated
by romance and marriage, and this goes directly against some of the most pervasive norms of
female characters. The women are more comfortable speaking with each other than men.
After conversations about mutual friends, there are conversations about family. These
talks make up 7%, or 9 instances, of the total discussion between the female characters in the
film. This statistic demonstrates that the women have varied, multi-faceted conversations, but
also shows that they are relatively unconcerned with the topic of family. Also, conversations
about financial issues only represent about 6% of the total conversations. There are only 8
instances of that type of talk in Bridesmaids, despite Annie’s depression over her failed bakery,
Cake Baby, and her lack of income (Bridesmaids). While the friends in the movie discuss the
topics of family and finance, it is clear that they do not dominate the women’s conversations or
interests. However, these numbers do oppose a common theme in the media. Women are
“more likely to be depicted in relationship roles,” whether the relationship is familial or romantic
(Collins 295). The female characters relative disinterest in their families overturns that norm.
Women are usually defined by relationship roles, but Bridesmaids’ female characters are not.
Finally, the least discussed topics are fears, work and politics. The female characters
discussed their fears and anxieties only 4 times, which represents 3% of the total conversation.
Also, they spoke about their work only 3 times, which denotes 2% of the total discussion. Lillian
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only mentions “I can’t wait to never work for a psychopath again” when she talks about her job
(Bridesmaids). The women did not speak about politics at all. This confirms the notion that
women are usually not defined by work in the media. As Julia Spiker describes in her study,
there are few working women role models in the media, and Bridesmaids is not an exception
(Spiker 17).
The fact that the women spoke about their work in only 3 instances confirms that
they are simply not as concerned with work, as with other categories of conversation. The
women’s overwhelming interest in each other and pop culture indicates that they have found a
comfortable place with each other.
Strengths and Limitations
The most significant strength of this study is that it provides insight into the female
friendships within Bridesmaids. The categories of what actually defines female friendship have
the ability to be applied to other texts, which can be evaluated in other content analyses. In other
words, a person could study different movies with the categories included in this content
analysis. The content analysis’s strength is that provides a view of friendship through
discussion, not just through proximity between the characters. Also, the researcher does not
“‘intrude’ on what is being studies and thus does not affect the outcome of the research” (Berger
213). The researcher’s presence did not shape the results of the content analysis in any way.
Along with strengths, there are also limitations in this content analysis. The most
significant limitation is the possibility that there are too few categories of conversation that
portray female friendship. There could be other categories of discussions that are ignored or
forgotten in this study. Also, there could be indicators besides conversation that define
friendship. This is a limitation because the paper only uses discussion between the female
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characters as proof and demonstration of female friendship. The constraints of the coding and
definition of friendship are the two most limiting elements of this content analysis.
Discussion
The content analysis of Bridesmaids demonstrates how conversation constitutes female
friendship and examines what these friends discuss during the movie. From the results of the
study, it is clear that the women in the movie know a lot about each other, and are mutually
supportive. In addition, it seems that the women in the movie find their place with each other
through their conversations. They do speak about men, but most of the conversations are about
each other and shared interests. The topics that the women actually talked about in the movie
include relationships, popular culture, work, family, mutual friends/acquaintances, each other,
health issues, fears, and financial issues. The fact that these women have conversations about
this wide variety of conversation categories indicates that their friendship is multi-faceted, and
there are many mutually interesting conversations between them. Also, the results reflect that
the women virtually have no discussion about politics. This research paper shows that the
women are completely interested in one another’s lives, but they are totally unconcerned or
uninterested in each other’s political opinions.
In addition, the movie completely goes against the rule of media stipulating that women
are defined by their marital status. Although the movie centers on an engagement, the
“traditional, mythic themes about love” and marriage are nowhere to be found (Engstrom 245).
The ladies in Bridesmaids are more concerned with each other and popular culture than they are
about relationships and romance. Many times movies depict the “primary intimate relationship
between two women” being “rerouted as a heterosexual one” (Winch 77). Bridesmaids opposes
this norm because the women find their place with each other, not the men in their lives. The
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women are connected in many ways, are mutually supportive of one another, and are more
concerned with each other than anything else. Overall, the women are very interested and
supportive of their friends’ lives and interests, and their conversations are completely indicative
of that notion.
Future Implications/Conclusion
The results of this content analysis are very interesting and indicate future implications
for this study. The fact that these women’s conversations are dominated by memories and shared
experiences—or talks about each other—is very significant. This demonstrates how female
interactions are revolving less around dating, men and love. Frankly, the women are much more
concerned with their friends than they are their lovers or husbands. However, this study also
shows that women engage in conversations about popular culture, each other, work, family,
mutual friendships, health, fears and financial issues, though they completely avoid political
discussion. This reveals how the female characters of Bridesmaids are more likely to talk about
themselves and their specific friendships than about anything else. In the context of the movie,
friendship focuses most on each other, and likes and dislikes, rather than politics. In any case,
this content analysis proves that the women in Bridesmaids have friendships based on an array of
conversations. Their supportive, dependent friendships are evident from their discussions and
ensure that the women find their place with each other. The women define themselves by their
shared experiences with one another and not their marital statuses.
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Appendix
CONTENT ANALYSIS CODING
Code
CR
CW
CF
CFA
CPO
CPC
CEO
CH
CA
CFI
Operational Definition
Conversations between 2 or more women that
discuss relationships or other romantic issues
(crushes, dates, lack of boyfriend, marriage,
etc.).
Conversations between 2 or more women
concerning work and employers (description of
work, current jobs, old job, ambitions, etc.).
Conversations between 2 or more women about
mutual friends or acquaintances (characters that
all the women know or know of).
Conversations between 2 or more women about
the female characters’ families (mothers,
fathers, brothers, sisters, children, etc.).
Conversations between 2 or more women about
politics (current government reform, politicians,
laws, elections, political parties, voting, social
issues, the economy, etc.).
Conversations between 2 or more women
concerning popular culture (references to
celebrities, movies, TV shows, art, the Internet,
clothing, books, food, etc.).
Conversations between 2 or more women
concerning each other (their own friendship,
opinions, apologies, memories, etc.).
Conversations between 2 or more women
concerning health issues (sickness, treatments,
doctors’ appointments, etc.).
Conversations between 2 or more women
concerning anxieties or fears (what the
characters are afraid of).
Conversations between 2 or more women
concerning financial issues (job loss, the ability
to afford things, income, bills, etc.).
Representation of Female
Friendship Conversation (%)*
12%
16 instances of CR
2%
3 instances of CW
10%
13 instances of CF
7%
9 instances of CFA
0%
0 instances of CPO
23%
30 instances of CPC
26%
35 instances of CEO
11%
15 instances of CH
3%
4 instances of CA
6%
8 instances of CFI
*133 (100%) total instances of 2 or more women in a conversation.
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