• There’s a scene in The Princess Diaries where Mia says “You know, in the old movies, whenever a girl would get seriously kissed, her foot would just kind of… pop”. This is interesting for many reasons.
• By referencing “old movies”, the film implies that there is a common culture and way of being. Even if the viewer has never seen the “old movies” they may just believe that the foot pop is an established concept.
• A girl getting “seriously kissed” puts the woman in a passive, receiving end of the action. That their pleasure signified by the ‘popping’ is due to the seriousness of the kiss.
• Also just the image of the ‘pop’ is fascinating. It’s dainty, it’s light, it’s also implicitly unconscious, like the kiss was so good that the foot just had to pop. But is this a thing? Was it a manufactured movement to show audiences in ‘the old films’ that this was an important moment?
• When we consider the popping of the foot whom is it for? Is it for the audience that the action was originally intended? Is it for women in the third person watching themselves? It definitely can’t be for the man doing the ‘serious kissing’ as it’s outside his field of vision.

Notes:

• https://64.media.tumblr.com/2aaef01d3fa2d56d3f058bba2668b958/tumblr_pipnp6WqwP1xlv8m3o3_540.gifv

• https://x.com/BrittanyXVenti/status/1816276365664227759