I feel like most movies about female friends derive their

The words of Susanna Fogel—“I feel like most movies about female friends derive their conflict from an extension of the high school movie rivalries, or there’s some petty grievance: a competition over a guy or a wedding date or something. And I don’t relate to any of that.”—are a cry for deeper truth in storytelling. They reveal the hunger for depictions of women that rise above pettiness and rivalry, to show instead the strength, complexity, and nobility of true friendship. For the bonds of women are not always fragile threads torn by jealousy—they can also be pillars holding the weight of life’s storms.

The mention of high school rivalries speaks to a pattern that has long diminished female voices, reducing their conflicts to trifles rather than reflecting their real struggles, triumphs, and sacrifices. To confine women’s narratives to quarrels over a man or a wedding date is to strip them of the dignity of their true experiences. Fogel’s words demand a breaking of this cycle: to tell stories not of trivial competition, but of loyalty, solidarity, and courage.

History itself gives us luminous examples. Think of Antigone, who defied a king not out of rivalry, but out of devotion to her brother and to divine law. Or of Queen Elizabeth I and her trusted advisor Catherine Ashley, whose bond was not built on petty grievances, but on mutual trust through perilous times. These women were not reduced to caricatures of envy; they stood as figures of power, resilience, and loyalty. Their stories remind us that women’s bonds, when told truthfully, are as heroic as any tale of warriors.

The competition over trivialities in art reflects more the limitations of the storyteller than the truth of the subject. When narratives are bound in stereotypes, they rob us of the chance to glimpse the depth of human connection. Fogel’s rejection of such depictions is an appeal to artists to rise higher—to portray friendships that mirror the sacred ties of sisters, comrades, and allies. For in such stories, generations find strength.

Therefore, O listener, take heed of this teaching: demand that the stories told reflect not only the shallow rivalries of life, but also its noblest alliances. A friendship is not merely a battlefield of jealousies, but a fortress of mutual care, forged in fire, tested by time, and crowned by trust. Let storytellers remember this, and let us too remember, for in honoring the truth of friendship, we honor the truth of humanity itself.