If you’re a woman, then the cause to legalize marijuana wants you . Most activists working with the Marijuana Policy Project are men, Laura Greenback writes in High Times . But they want to change that. So Greenback is doing some soul searching about why women aren’t gunning for ganja. She offers the theory that women “feel the pressure to be seen as strong workers and perfect mothers, so we shy away from getting behind something our coworkers and PTA members might see as ‘out there.’ ”
Another possibility: We just don’t have any strong pot-loving women role models. Stoner flicks are notoriously dudes only, save a stray female friend here and there, like Charlyne Yi in Knocked Up . Perhaps Peggy’s foray into to reefer on Mad Men will make pot as cool as well-defined waistlines , but until then, we’re struggling to think of strong female role models who do the dope. We’ve been kicking it around over e-mail, and here’s what we’ve got so far:
Noreen offers Jennifer Aniston in Friends with Money , but points out that “she’s not having very much fun.”
Ellen says “Annie Hall in Annie Hall , but the point was quite different … It was more like she needed pot to have sex with him because she was losing interest in the relationship. It was more about him being neurotic.”
Rachael brings up Weeds , which she says has “a feminist angle” because Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) deals drugs but “stays sober while the buffoonish men around her smoke pot and act like children.”
June’ s response: “And when former neighbor Celia Hodes, who started out as a clamp-down-on-crime puritan got her taste of drugs, she immediately became a full-on, falling-down, whoring-herself-out-to-score addict. Hell, you know she had it bad-she even lost a front tooth. It’s hard to see a message here other than women and drugs don’t mix.”
Dana says Smiley Face is “a great female stoner odyssey.” And there’s also just about everyone from That ‘70s Show .
Still a pretty anemic list, compared to the full catalog of pothead dudes prancing around-or, sprawling out lethargically-on the big screen these days. If there were a truly awesome, hilarious film about lovable, relatable pothead girls, would that change things? Or is Greenback right that women’s hesitance to be strong weed supporters is more rooted in our need to be perfect overachiever types, which runs so counter to the pothead ethos of lounging around and eating Cheetos?
