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What’s an HBIC? It’s an acronym we use with fondness and admiration for a "head bitch in charge." These are the women who were leaning in before Sheryl Sandberg even filled out her first Harvard application. They innately know how to be the leader of the pack and the trendsetter everyone else wants to copy. They demand recognition when it’s not given, and if things aren’t going their way, they do something about it.
If it sounds like we’re describing one main HBIC, well, we are! Clueless came out 20 years ago this month, and Cher Horowitz — HBIC of Bronson Alcott High School — is on everyone’s mind. What other high school student successfully got her teachers to change her grades every single marking period? Who else could arrange for the inept Mr. Hall and well-meaning Miss Geist to fall in love through a series of well-placed sonnets and a few Thermoses of gourmet coffee? Who coordinated the Pismo Beach Disaster Relief drive and made it a massive success? One Cher Horowitz, of course.
Though she is the brilliant creation of writer-director Amy Heckerling, Cher comes from a long line of cinematic HBICs, and many more would follow in her stead. These women are some of the best characters to ever grace the silver screen — but cross them at your own peril. HBIC’s don’t like to surrender their crowns.
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