Coming of Age

I absolutely love coming of age movies, where a character (or characters)
grow from being an adolescent to an adult. My personal favorite being Stand
by Me. I've heard the question asked before: Why aren't there more female
coming of age movies?" It does seem that most coming of age movies are
from boy to man. Let me give you some reasons why I believe this to be so.

First, I would say that male coming of age stories are probably simpler to
tell because male attributes are much easier define. I think we usually associate
things like being independent, a provider and a protector with "manliness."
(This is not to say that women aren't independent, providers and protectors
they just generally get associated with men, wrongly or rightly.) However,
what attributes do we automatically associate with women? This is much
harder to define. And the qualities we do attribute to women are not politically
acceptable in Hollywood. For example, women are nurturers. The folks in
Hollywood want to deny that most (not all) women have a nurturing nature.

So it is easier to tell a story of an immature, irresponsible bachelor who learns
his one night stand is pregnant and steps up and becomes a man that takes full
responsibility for his new family (like in Knocked Up) than it would telling
a women coming to age story because it is politically incorrect to attribute any
particular quality to a woman.