Want to live your dreams? Apply red lipstick and then tear open your shirt.
Are you a woman? Stuck in a dead-end job? Pesky dreams just not coming true? All you have to do to transform your life is slink, shimmy, and maybe pour some water on your chest. It’s true. I learned it at the movies.
1) Gypsy
Louise is an awkward young-woman whose dreams of showbiz success are dying on the vine. And then she becomes a stripper. Back then, that just meant trading in your fox furs for some flesh-colored undies and a brazen smile. But still. Instant happiness.
2) Grease
Sometimes the only way to say "I love you" is to completely change who you are. It's the best lesson Sandy learns at Rydell High. She teases her hair, puts on tight black clothing, and starts smoking. Danny gets chills and wants to start multiplyin'.
3) Flashdance
Working all day in a steel mill is hard. But a girl's got to dump the welding helmet and slip into a leotard if she's going to make her dreams come true. (It also doesn't hurt to charm the boss with a lithe torso and off-the-shoulder sweatshirts.)
4) Dirty Dancing
Even the mousiest daddy's girls have a slinky siren in them. All they need are dance lessons and a forbidden romance with a ballroom dancer from the wrong side of the tracks. But watch out: he could put a baby in your corner.
5) Coyote Ugly
Who needs a career ladder to climb, when you’ve got a bar? Violet moves to New York City from faraway New Jersey to be a singer. No, she doesn't practice or go on auditions. She takes off some clothes and gets a job at a trashy bar. Then the singing audition comes to her.
6) Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Janey is new in town – and she’s a little frumpy. How will she ever get on track? Obviously, via sweaty dancing and drum-machines. Then, she can truly realize her dreams.
7) Crossroads
Life is hard when you're not a girl, not yet a woman. It'll all make sense when you go on a road trip with your girlfriends, losing inches of your clothing with each mile. By the time you're performing karaoke in a seedy bar, the epiphany will come: this is as hot as you'll ever be. Exploit it.
8) Burlesque
A small-town girl moves to L.A. with no job, no friends, and no idea how to reach her potential. Don’t forget the secret. All she has to do to get everything she ever wanted — plus a shitload of rhinestone-spangled leotards — is take off her clothes and shimmy.
