A Female Family
Within Herbert Ross’s 1995 film Boys on the Side, the female friendships that form within the film prove to challenge the existing social structure within society by challenging sexual and racial boundaries in a variety of ways.
When Jane and Robin take to the road together, the two formulate a female bond and friendship begins to form, the longer the two are on the road together. As situation arise to bond the women together, such as fighting against Nick, and saving Holly when being beaten up, a strong bond is formed that crosses racial and sexual lines. Having two women of different races and sexual orientation be such close friends, and fight for each other, challenges the existing social structure currently upheld within society of white, straight female loyalties and friendship.
Also, as Robin, Jane, and Holly form a close friendship on their road journey west, they become each other’s family, which reinscribes what a “normal” family entails. By the end of the time, the women have fought for each other, lived with each other, traveled with each other, and loved each other as a family does. Having three women prove to be a family unit, it reinscribes what in America a ‘normal’ family is viewed as. Instead of a mother, father, and children living together, and caring for one another, Boys on the Side reveals that you don’t have to have a heteronormative lifestyle to compose a family; a family can be a mix of gender, race, and sexual orientation. Boys on the Side portrays and upholds that a family is a unit of people who are willing to consistently fight, and love, those who are closest to them, such as Robin, Jane, and Holly do for each other.