Female Trouble is a 1974 American independent dark comedy film written, produced and directed by John Waters. It stars Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, and Edith Massey, and follows delinquent high school student Dawn Davenport (played by Divine), who runs away from home, gets pregnant while hitchhiking, and embarks upon a life of crime.

Plot

In Baltimore in 1960, delinquent high-school student Dawn Davenport is very ungrateful when her parents refuse to buy her the cha-cha heels she wanted for Christmas. In a fit of rage, she smashes the presents and topples the family Christmas tree on her mother, and storms out of the house barely even dressed. Dawn hitchhikes a ride with a repulsive, lecherous man, Earl Peterson, who drives her to a dump where they have sex on a discarded mattress. Dawn becomes pregnant, but Earl refuses to support her. She eventually gives birth to a daughter, Taffy, whom she often beats and punishes severely. Dawn works various dead-end jobs, such as a waitress in a diner, and a stripper, and engages in criminal activities such as burglary and street prostitution with her former high-school friends Concetta and Chicklette.