Women's friendships: life-affirming sisterhood or hotbed of mean-girlness? From pop culture to politics, galpals are all the rage right now, so why aren't they taken more seriously? With help from girls at Camp Farwell and friendship author Kayleen Shaefer, Caroline and Cristen discover an age-old battle against besties that often keeps us from passing the IRL Bechdel Test. Plus, a pep talk for making friends from comedian and writer Erin Gibson.

Pre-order Unladylike: A Field Guide to Smashing the Patriarchy and Claiming Your Space at unladylike.co. Follow Unladylike on social @unladylikemedia. Sign up for our newsletter at unladylike.co/newsletter.

Hear our bonus episodes exclusively on Stitcher Premium! Use promo code "UNLADYLIKE" at stitcher.com/premium for a free month trial.

This episode is brought to you by Beyond Meat [http://beyondmeat.com/unladylike], Vrai & Oro [http://truthandgold.com/unladylike], ZipRecruiter [http://ziprecruiter.com/unladylike], Pier1 [http://pier1.com] and Daily Look [http://dailylook.com/unladylike with code UNLADYLIKE].

Get the future of podcasts.