Great Moments in Female Bonding

From 'Little Women' to Taylor Swift and Beyonce, we track history's best examples of girl power.

Images loading...

1868 Little Women, Big Message

While Dad’s off fighting for the North, Marmee and the resourceful March sisters form a tight, loving unit of their own.

Everett Collection

1869 Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony Join Forces

Stanton has the big ideas, Anthony the organizational skill. Together, wild corsets can’t keep them down.

Corbis

1907 Gertrude Stein & Alice B. Toklas Defy Convention

Who needs Hemingway? These belles toll for each other. The longtime pair are famed for their Paris salon.

Corbis

1952 Lucy & Ethel: Faster than a Speening Bonbon

The pals share the wackiest of schemes, most memorably a stint on a supercharged chocolate-factory conveyor belt.

Getty Images

Mary & Rhoda Prove There's (Single) Life After 30

 

Sweet Mary turns the world on with her smile; sly Rhoda wields a wisecrack like a shiv. Together, they’re gonna make it after all.

Everett Collection

1985 The Color Purple: Sisters Doing It for Themselves

In Alice Walker’s acclaimed novel turned movie, set in Georgia in the early 1900s, a supportive circle of women overcome male brutality.

Everett Collection

1985 The Golden Girls Reveal the Secret of Eternal Youth

Nothing retiring about these roomies. Their verve comes from matching wits and hatching schemes—i.e., being best buds.

Everett Collection

1986 Princess Diana & Duchess Fergie Shake Up the Palace

These merry wives of Windsor break royal rules with antics that include dressing up like bobbies to crash Prince Andrew’s bachelor party.

Getty Images

1993 Generations Come to Terms in The Joy Luck Club

Over mah-jongg and dim sum, traditional tiger moms and their Chinese-American daughters make peace with the past and with each other.

Everett Collection

1997 Barbara Walters's The View Breaks the Daytime Mold

These powerful, diverse and highly opinionated women don’t agree on much—except that they relish talking and tangling.

Corbis

1998 Carrie Bradshaw & Pals Shatter Taboos in Their Jimmy Choos

Raise a cosmopolitan to the Sex and the City BFFs, so key to one another’s lives that Big and the other guys seem like fifth wheels.

Getty Images

2001 Elizabeth & Debbie Forget Eddie Fisher

Proving they’re so over that messy love triangle, Taylor and Reynolds film the TV movie These Old Broads.

Getty Images

2002 Frenemies Velma & Roxie Dance Away From Murder

Chicago’s antiheroines battle for headlines and a lawyer but find success as a two-person act.

Everett Collection

2003 Madonna Kisses Britney at the Video Music Awards

What’s a little lip-lock between icon and pop tart? Just a coupla chanteuses getting chummy.

Getty Images

2008 Sarah Palin Meets Her Doppel-Ganger (Tina Fey) on SNL

None dare call it friendship; only their suits are in sync. What unites them: the ability to hold the spotlight and excite a crowd. 

Fey: NBC Universal. Palin: Associated Press

2009 Beyonce Rescues Taylor Swift from Kanye West

Pros show up bros: After the rapper interrupts Swift’s VMA speech, Beyoncé gives her airtime.

 

Want MORE? Check out our friendship profile of Paula Deen and Katie Lee.

 

Don't miss out on MORE great articles like this one. Click here to sign up for our weekly newsletter!

Corbis
First Published October 25, 2011

What’s your reaction?

Comments

Post new comment

Click to add a comment