netflixnfeminism-blog

[netflixnfeminism-blog]

Badass Characters: Volume I

In honor of International Women’s Day 2017, let’s talk about our female representation through popular movies and television shows - one’s that we like. The most popular television shows on right now consist of the Big Bang Theory, Supernatural, Criminal Minds, SVU, etc. Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz has a PhD and quite the lucrative job at a pharmaceutical company while appearing to be quite soft and feminine, a contrast you don’t find often represented. You can be feminine as fuck and educated as fuck and rich as fuck. But what feminist isn’t at least a little disappointed that the androcentric writers of the Big Bang Theory has her married to Howard - who consistently harassed women, made sexist jokes and is a firm representation of benevolent sexism. Amy Farrah Fowler is a neurobiologist obsessed with Sheldon loving her and Penny’s main character attribute is “ditzy”. Supernatural has like, zero, women, except for Satan’s mom and God’s sister, Criminal Minds has Derek Morgan whose “talk to me, baby girl” makes me cringe. And then there’s SVU, which tries so hard to represent all political viewpoints that it gives you whiplash - and for a show that is mainly about rape victims, it doesn’t always feel that feminist.

Although there’s a lot wrong - there’s still some good. Hence, the beginning of the new series I’m doing (probably - if I remember to keep posting these) highlighting some cool as fuck characters that deserve to be appreciated and have their character development applauded. Without further ado: Badass Characters Volume I

No. 1: Leslie Knope //  Parks & Recreation (2009-2015) // “You know my code, hoes before bros. Uteruses before duderuses. Ovaries before Brovaries”

Parks & Recreation was pretty cool for several reasons: 1) it affirmed to the audience that local government is truly accessible; if those weirdos in Pawnee could state their peace, so can you. 2) guised as a mockumentary and comedy, the show highlighted sectors of government, using its platform of comedy to educate its audience about their own government and political process. 3) Leslie. Knope. 

Amy Poehler plays Leslie Knope, a devoted gal pal, a declared feminist, a hard worker, a woman who literally, like, LOVES waffles. She spends a lot of conscious effort disbanding the “boy’s club” of politics, she never lets a remark about “a woman’s place” and gender roles go unrefuted. Leslie Knope uses sarcasm to call people out on their privilege, sneaks out of the hospital when incredibly ill to attend a meeting and redefines the adjective “hard working”. Perhaps a line that is so easily drawn and disappointing with female characters that are presented as feminist is that they seem unsupportive of women who do embrace traditional roles - a group of women that Leslie also continuously protects. She calls Men’s Rights Activism “ridiculous” and “nothing” and takes criticism of her feminism well - as evident of her leadership of the Pawnee Goddesses when she corrected herself in not allowing young boys to join her wilderness group of Pawnee girls. 

Although Parks and Recreation is presented as silly - important issues are addressed through the medium of Leslie as she battles sexism in politics, having to dodge questions about her appearance while campaigning. Classism and obesity are battles that are fought through comedy, with Leslie Knope and group of lovely gal pals. Plus Galentines Day is the best. 

No. 2: Olive Penderghast // Easy A (2010) // “Yes. Yes, I am a big, fat, slut”

Easy A is easily classified with Mean Girls & The Duff to be a fairly fun commentary on being a teenage girl. What makes this heroine pretty badass is her shamelessly embracing female sexuality, standing up for the right for a girl to do whatever the fuck she wants with her body while embracing such a wit, intelligence, integrity and maturity. Olive Penderghast is strong and independent. A lot of Hollywood depictions of high school kids tend to ignore that they are, indeed, children and that not everyone is having sex with each other all the time. That’s what makes Olive unique in the teenage girl movie world - she’s a virgin. Olive spends weekends alone singing pop songs that she would publicly shame (her hypocrisy is another quality that makes her pretty cool and well developed, I think) and although she stands up against the notion that everyone’s judging each other all the time - she kind of is judging people all the time. Rhiannon’s parents are too hippy, Marianne is too Christian and Micah’s kinda dumb. 

The fact that Olive embraces judgement and stands up against slut shaming in her Ojai Valley high school without hesitation regardless of whether or not people were accurately representing her remains to be brave. She decides to exploit her reputation for profit to prove to the school that she couldn’t care less about their antiquated opinions on sexuality. Olive proudly displays an A on her clothing in allusion to the Scarlet Letter. 

Olive proves to be selfless, sacrificing her reputation for a greater cause and even to save a teacher’s job. She’s opinionated, she likes to study and learn, is independent and sweet; she corrupts the smart/attractive binary by spouting relevant facts and literary terms while being tirelessly courted. Olive both understands and loves herself - but also feels the pressure to hide her unconventional traits, and encourages others to do the same. Olive isn’t perfect at all - but who actually is? 

It’s part of what makes her so bad ass. 

No. 3: Tiana // Princess & The Frog (2009) // “It serves me right for wishing on stars. The ONLY way to get what you want is hard work.”

The most important in this edition of Badass Characters, in my humble opinion is Tiana’s role as a Disney princess. The main character attributes of Tiana are her ambition, determination and hard work. No one is going to prevent Tiana from owning her own restaurant or from pursuing her dream of being a professional chef; “fairytales don’t come true, you have to make them happen”. The idea of dating and dancing is declared trivial to Tiana; why let anything get in the way of owning Tiana’s Place? AND - an even bigger bonus - she was actually written by a person of color. 

Her persistence and frame of mind highlights the difficulties of coming from a poor and primarily black community in New Orleans, Louisiana. Tiana is intelligent and independent in a climate that deems her none of those things at all; she’s denied the opportunity to own her own restaurant after being told “a little woman of your background couldn’t handle it”.Tiana’s clever, capable and caring. As a workaholic, she’s put through trials and eventually turns to the wishing star. She later regrets this act, narrating to herself that her dream will only surface as reality through hard work; not depending on a frog/prince/arrogant as all hell man. 

There are problems with the movie as a whole, as Tiana’s life wishes are answered when sent a man and the movie depicts voodoo as an evil (among many others). but I find Tiana to be extremely refreshing. 

Young girls are looking up to a determined woman of color - learning that they can do anything they want to if they work hard enough. And in a political climate like ours today, it’s important to be reminded that things will only change with our persistence; with our ambition, determination, and devotion. Tiana teaches us nothing should get in the way of our goal; that we are independent and intelligent, caring and super fucking funny.

[netflixnfeminism-blog]

TBH movies are pretty balanced now... there's basically the same amount of girl movies and guy movies!

TBH the point is that we’re even making “girls” & “guys” movies! 

[netflixnfeminism-blog]

“I Want To Be Good, Life Just Isn’t Letting Me” // Gilmore Girls (Kind of) (2000-2007, 2016)

a commentary on Jess Mariano & deviant society

Probably one of the most prominent ways to show how people treat deviant members of society is through Jess Mariano and the reaction of the supposed-progressive audience of Gilmore Girls. People frequently discuss how Jess had never loved Rory, not in the same way of her other boyfriends. He was immature, a bad person, disrespectful, wild and he was not the kind of boy Rory should be with.

In a backwards sense of stereotype within teen movies and television shows, Rory was the only one who truly understood Jess (I guess) (Like Landon understanding Jamie in A Walk To Remember). Lorelai saw him as a disaster, Stars Hollow saw him as a menace, his own mother saw him as a lost cause and his father never even took the opportunity to get to know him within the first seventeen years of his life.  Why?

Jess was very similar to Lorelai in many ways, for example, he was hardworking and knew the meaning of money, rather he grew up in a single parent low income home (apartment, more likely) in New York City and Lorelai was reared in wealth and privilege. Once pushed out of town by his mother for being “uncontrollable” at sixteen (a mother who he exposes before her wedding that always put the men in her life before him // Liz was even quoted as calling TJ and Luke her “two boys”, not even mentioning her son), Jess was feeling more like a burden to Stars Hollow (where he only stayed because that is, conveniently, where Rory Gilmore lived). Seeing public school as a waste of his time and not having the financial means to attend college or a private school that would challenge him intellectually, Jess saw the opportunity to work his way up and got a job at WalMart.

Jess working at WalMart is a prime example of the hypocrisy the United States has towards people of low socioeconomic status and the contribution of a poverty cycle. The town of Stars Hollow looks down on Jess for “mooching” off of Luke and not respecting the hard work that goes into caring for him, however, once Jess attempts to become independent in the world and leave the town that looked down on him, the town mocks him for his employment at WalMart and joins in solidarity for being angry that he earned money to buy himself a car (which his own guardian assumes he stole). Lorelai also found herself in the small town with an infant daughter and worked herself into independence as a maid for the Independence Inn, however, was able to integrate herself into town better than Jess Mariano due to her socialization and readiness for the world (compared to Jess’ neglectful childhood and authority issues that came with it).

Only compared to Logan (who shows his intelligence through his manipulation rather than his character), Jess was probably the smartest guy Rory dated. However, Jess also flunked out of high school and found himself homeless in Santa Monica, California after rejected by his father (“You have nothing? I have nothing!”). Maybe the best way to describe Jess was that he had nothing. Before moving into the apartment above Luke’s Diner, the child probably had no one in his life caring for him. His mother Liz, saw greater importance in her love life (probably reacting to the tragic rejection after Jess’ father left the day he was born) than her son and he found rejoice in literature for probably an entirely different reason than Rory did (who was encouraged to be the best she could be from her mother). Jess raised himself and he learned to resent his authority figures for failing him. He was given a life of hardships, poverty, loneliness, and nowhere to go.

Except, I guess Stars Hollow. From personal experience, I can understand the frustration with having raised yourself without guidelines and much of an authority presence then being thrown into having rules and someone to babysit you. Luke probably saved Jess from becoming a criminal (“who is quoted as saying my mother told me not to go through a ladies bag… at least not until you were a few blocks away”), as he was beginning to steal some silly things from lawns and beer from fridges, however, I don’t see how anyone could not feel anything but empathy for Jess when he projects his life’s experience on to adults (note The Social Construction of Reality Theory of Sociology). Once Jess can associate a part of himself with Rory, he treated her with kindness, fairness, and eventually with the only way he could project love. The fact that people could not see that this was what was happening in Jess was quite frustrating, especially with the love for Logan (who, despite his wealth and adoration of fans was arrested multiple times, once with our very own Rory, who the town was fearing would be influenced by the big-bad Jess… but also loved Logan...).

Fans fifteen years after the introduction of Jess, after his comeback proving he knew Rory more than anyone beside her mother and who wrote a fiction novel (also follow a sociological trope that oppression is documented in art) is still regarded as bad (after he was attacked by a swan and got a black eye, people assumed he was in a fight, when things go wrong in the town he’s scapegoated).

We treat people who we define as different differently.

Why? It’s a crazy world we live in.

Alyson

[netflixnfeminism-blog]

Can you do a review for Bridge to Terabithia? I love you're reviews!!

Thanks so much for your interest! I will add Bridge to Terabithia to my list of movies to review, but it may be a while, since the movie itself is not on Netflix and I do not own a copy haha

[netflixnfeminism-blog]

I’m Major, I Roar, I Swear I’m Not A Whore! // Bring It On (2000)

passed tests: Racial bechdel test, Gender bechdel test, attempts to pass LGTBQIA+ bechdel test

rated 5.9/10 on IMDb

Movies directed at girls tend to be severely disappointing. Bring It On carries on with the tradition of teaching young girls that their looks are most important while objectifying the two main and feuding squads, the Toros and the Clovers, and introducing the movie with a racy and sexual cheer including high pitched screeching, wooing, and discussing women’s bodies as if their sole purpose were for the public eye. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWLdsqhYVxM

Watching the movie, though, I thought I’d find much more wrong with it than I did. In reality, it’s just super boring. Another blonde cheerleader is depicted as a morally perfect, beautiful, funny, sweet protagonist. She’s having to quickly change her cheerleading squad’s perspective and new cheer routine before they get to the finals, after discovering their old captain was stealing routines! This movie used to be one of my favorites as a kid, every time it was on TV I would be glued to it. It’s pretty uneventful though.

A kind of irritating nuance to not only this particular Bring It On movie, but all of them, is the unrealistic amount of male cheerleaders. I’ve been living in Southern California my entire life, where this movie takes place, and although I’ve never been a part of the cheer-vironment, I know for a fact we don’t just have that many male cheerleaders. Both of my high schools were all female squads, and I saw very few male cheerleaders during football games (but I guess those are just practices). Why wasn’t this addressed? That cheerleading is so feminine that there’s no men? Why wasn’t there a fight for male cheerleaders? Why did we just pretend like there’s so many to go around, instead of addressing a real issue? You couldn’t say that people were transferring to RCH because of the prestigious squad, and that’s why there was a weird amount, because they were everywhere.

Let’s talk more about the male cheerleaders in the movie though, because even though there was an unrealistic amount on each squad, they didn’t pretend to ignore the battle of hypermasculinity that these boys are facing.  In the scene where Torrance breaks up with her college boyfriend, Aaron, the girl he was cheating on her with is not disgusted by the fact that he had a young, sweet, innocent girlfriend at home, but that he was a male cheerleader. Jan and Les are the two main male cheerleaders for the San Diego based squad, the Toros, and they show pretty early on that they aren’t receiving positive attention from their football player peers. Two players frequently call them fags, to which Jan gets extremely upset. A mocking chant by the same two players “Jan’s got spirit, yes he do! Jan’s got spirit, how ‘bout you?”, shoves Jan over the edge, to which he mocks their masculinity for having severely lost their football game.

As a sociologist-in-training, I’m going to guess that the constant gender policing for Jan and Les is the reason that Jan was such a fucking asshole (assuming that the Bring It On creators actually developed any of their characters that much.. prob not). Jan is constantly making felt like less of a man, which is why he has to justify to himself that he’s still masculine, even though he’s cheerleading (which for some reason is feminine? are we ever going to discuss the actually fucked up patriarchal society we live where a system of boys playing sports and girls cheering them on in short skirts is the norm?) . When Missy, the transfer student, is seen being aggressive, standing up for herself, Jan finds this hilarious. While lifting Courtney, he actually maneuvers his way in attempt to feel her vagina, to the point where she falls. And when Jan tells everyone that this a normal occurrence for him, they just laugh. Because casually touching a woman in the most inappropriate of places is everyday stuff to these women on the cheer squad? (tell me again we aren’t in a culture endorsing rape). Jan is seen helping a fellow cheerleader stretch out her legs, and upon seeing this, after ridiculing male cheerleaders the whole movie, one of them announces “maybe we should join the squad…”, the  other without hesitation calls him a fag.

Jan and the asshole football players are easily not the only people sexualizing the cheerleaders on both the Toros and the Clovers. Every other squad shown has less revealing uniforms than both leading squads, yet we still hear Courtney shaming the squads for having such slutty uniforms. The MC is heard saying “you know, in high school, I couldn’t get a cheerleader to talk to me, now I’m surrounded by them. and any sport that combines gymnastics, dance and short skirts, is ok by me”. It’s absolutely disgusting that this middle aged announcer could sit at his desk and publically sexualize high school aged girls, and receive giggles in return; which follows a male cheerleader catcalling the Toros, asking if they “wanna see (his) spirit stick?”.

Torrance’s squad has a car wash to fund their way to finals, and don’t hide they are attempting to sell sex appeal from minor girls. Jan goes around video taping the ordeal, asking his peers to pour water on themselves, whilst wearing tiny bikinis and high heels to wash cars. Cliff, the ultimate love interest, wanders into the car wash while staring at Torrance’s body as she washes a car. When his sister, Missy (the aggressive transfer student) comes up to him, he shames her for “ooogling her goodies for money”.

The girls are shamed for being girls constantly, even though this movie is FOR girls. They must lose weight, they must look good in their uniform, they have to be really peppy, and they are constantly calling each other sluts. Torrance’s little brother without reprimand calls her insane, and a bitch, all while sexualizing Missy. Cliff sees absolutely no value in cheerleaders, if you aren’t girly, the movie calls you a dyke, Torrance’s personality is so un-nuanced that she even says “I am cheerleading”, and Courtney giddily tells Torrance that she’s Cliff’s eye candy, as if it was something we all want to be. It’s just kind of a bummer that girls are watching this movie and feeling like they have to have a body like Torrance, Isis, Courtney or Jenelope in order to be valued. And valued meaning an object for the men in your life.

Of course, Bring It On, wouldn’t be such a successful movie if it was a blatantly sexist script featuring some cute girls. It does some things right. All members of the squad have individual personalities, they aren’t clumped into one big squad of girl/gay boys as it could have been The San Diego squad could definitely be more racially diverse, however there were two asian and one hispanic cheerleaders. The Clovers were an East Compton squad that was primarily African-American, which scared me at first that they were racially dividing towns in southern California, however, white girls and hispanic girls were included in the background of the squad. It’s pretty irritating that the trailers of the movie made it seem like the Clovers were going to have actual plot in the movie, when in reality they don’t get nearly enough recognition. Isis was probably the best character in the movie, who was compassionate, sweet, hardworking, independent, brave and a natural leader. I even played with the idea that the entire movie was a metaphor for appropriation, but I really have no right to be a spokesperson for people of color. The gender and racial Bechdel tests were clearly passed very early on, and the movie attempted to pass the LGTBQIA+ bechdel test, as Jan, a gay cheerleader for the Toros met a boy from a rival squad named Tim. It was supposed to be assumed that Tim was gay as well, but with out having firm representation, I’m still going to write it off as a failure to pass.

All in all, Bring It On is just w/e (the song Cliff wrote for Torrance though, that was solid and I want it). However, maybe it’s fucking time we stop making movies promoting the idea that you’re popular, worthy and loved only if “guys wanna touch (your) chest!”.

Alyson

[netflixnfeminism-blog]

“You Play Ball Like A Girl” // The Sandlot (1993)

Bechdel test results: Failed gender bechdel test, race bechdel test, & lgtbqia+ bechdel test

Rated 7.8/10 on the Internet Movie Database 

The Sandlot is a classic baseball movie which everyday references have stemmed from, making it a household name. It follows the legend of The Sandlot, using interesting allusions, imagery, and effects to depict the story of The Greatest Pickle of All. If you ever even slightly liked baseball, you’ve seen The Sandlot over and over again, and are able to recognize “you’re killing me smalls” and reimagine the scene where Ham uses the greatest insult of all; “you play ball like a girl”.

But what The Sandlot is really about is boys. Directed by a boy, written by a boy, watched by boys, idolized by boys, showing boys playing the boy sport of baseball. I attempted to pick out problematic quotes and actions within the film, but it wasn’t as abundant as I predicted, because there’s literally just no women in the movie. 

Not literally, there’s two. One of them is the main character Scott’s mother, and the other is Wendy Peffercorn. I’m not actually sure what the point was of even including the mom, as she’s not even a consistent character. She has few lines, and I think is just included to justify the relationship of Scotty Smalls and his step-dad Bill. I’m not even sure she has a name. She makes Scott wear a jacket, do dishes, shows concern about his social life, and asks Bill to spend time with her son. She also makes dinner. Whatever. 

So really, there’s only one female character, and she represents all that is wrong with The Sandlot; a film that is supposed to represent boyhood in the early 1960s, paralleling it to boyhood in general. Wendy Peffercorn is introduced into the film when the boys admit they’d rather accept the insult offered by Benjamin “The Jet” Rodriguez, and be known as “a panty-waste who wears their mama’s bra” than play baseball on the extremely hot day, only after Squints saw her on the street and obsessed over her dress, leading Yeah-Yeah to make fun of him. 

 At the pool, the boys do plenty of things that are fucked up towards women. If you’re not going to include women or girls in the movie, the least you could do is be decent when discussing women. But that’s not the case. Smalls explains that the pool was partly about swimming, partly about staring at the ladies, and it was “the next best thing to reading a playboy magazine”. Women who are also hot and also want to cool off at the community pool are reduced to objects, and compared to models who actually pose for sexual pleasure; but “if anyone of them came up to anyone of us, we’d be petrified.” Benevolent sexism runs hard in this scene, as they put women on pedestals of beauty and intimidation, treating them like goddesses to look at rather than human beings. I mean, Wendy Peffercorn is literally dressed so similar to a 1960s barbie.

Before I dive into Squints’ stunt, I’ll offer a hypothetical. Imagine a young eleven year old girl fantasizing over the over-age  lifeguard, sexualizing his actions while he puts on sun lotion, claiming that “he don’t know he’s doing”, only to be told “he knows exactly what he’s doing”, as if his lotioning was in attempt to draw the eleven year old girl to him. Imagine if that little girl proclaimed “i just can’t take it no more!”, prompting the only girl in her group of friends to not be able to swim, to jump into the deep end, baiting the lifeguard to come to her rescue. 

 Imagine if while that lifeguard was attempting to save her life through mouth-to-mouth, she grabbed his face and shoved her tongue down his throat. She’d be considered wild, and people like my dad would probably tell me that she’s going to be a slut when she’s older, and not contribute anything to the world. She’d be shamed for her stunt, for humiliating and sexually harassing the lifeguard who was only attempting to save her life. 

Reversing the genders of the young girl and lifeguard, to be Squints and Wendy Peffercorn is a word-for-word depiction of the same event. I find it insulting that a movie that caters to young boys, guising itself as representing boyhood can so casually refer to an event contributing to a rape culture, objectification of women, and both hostile and benevolent sexism in a scene less than ten minutes long. Squints is not shamed for his actions, however, pride is instilled in him, as the narrator describes it as “cool”, because he had “kissed a woman, he kissed her long and good.”

Let’s also discuss the fact that after Squints’ retirement of the Sandlot, he bought the drug store and married no other than Wendy Peffercorn. Because “Squints stood a little taller that day”; it was the day “he became a man”. Why would there be any reason as to why Wendy wouldn’t want to marry the eleven year old boy who sexually harassed her as a teenager, and objectified her for three consecutive summers? 

The completely women-inclusive cast of The Sandlot, doesn’t really even show much diversity with their two women characters. Both women fall into their respective gender roles, as Smalls’ mother is shown being a typical housewife, and Squints’ wife, Wendy Peffercorn, is alluded to as have had nine children with the boy who harassed her.

If one were to ignore the inadequate treatment and representation of Mother Smalls and Wendy Peffercorn, The Sandlot still doesn’t get great marks in passing for a great movie. Girls are sitting on the sidelines, but are never shown playing, Smalls is gender policed when giving a hint that he might like Bambi, a seemingly feminine movie, and Yeah-Yeah compares the ridiculous notion of Smalls joining the team to him bringing his sister along.

And of course the fact that playing ball like a girl was the worst insult of all, even compared to crap-face, dirt-licker, jerk, idiot, moron, scab eater, butt sniffer, puss licker, fart smeller, poop and toe jam eater, bobbing for apples in the toilet, buffalo-butt breath, and, of course, pee-drinking crap-face. Maybe you could argue that David Evans and Robert Gunter innocently wanted to depict boyhood; but as a woman, it’s pretty fucking irritating that you’re teaching young boys that the worst insult is to be a girl. 

 AND even with two people of color being featured as the two best players on the dream Sandlot team, The Sandlot still fails the Bechdel test in accordance to racial diversity. Kenny DeNunez and Benny Rodriguez seem to be the best pitcher / hitting duo on the team, and yet they never even speak to each other. The closest The Sandlot comes to passing arrives in the final scenes, as Mr. Mertle and Benny are speaking. However, they never speak without Smalls with them, and even if Smalls had left, they never speak about anything besides Babe Ruth and Smalls’ Greatest Pickle of All. 

My cousins and I were about to watch The Sandlot with my grandmother, who had never seen it yet just recently, and when she asked what it was about, my cousin simply responded “boys”. It’s just boys playing baseball, and going through boyhood, and maybe my picking of a movie that is directly made for boys and being angry that there’s no girls seems silly, but our boys are idolizing the boys in The Sandlot whose two main POC don’t even talk to each other, and who objectify and sexually harass women, and if it hadn’t taken place in the 1960s, it’d probably still be a pretty similar movie, sadly. 

But, of course, we cannot ignore the creation of The Sandlot 2 (2005) featuring the merging of the existing Sandlot team of the 1970s with the softball team, sticking up for themselves when someone says playing like a girl was an insult. However, this movie is not nearly as popular, and after the introduction of femininity to the boyhood feeling of The Sandlot, people like my dad say it lost all appeal. 

If this movie had tried even a little bit to not actually be so frustrating for women, then I would love it. It has a goofy appeal as it parodies a neighborhood legend, caricaturing many people and scenes, and having a sweet, naive and rare unreliable narrator with bright colors giving it an innocent feeling. But, remember kid, there’s heroes and there’s legends. Heroes get remembered, but legends never die, and The Sandlot’s lack of effort to be inclusive to all audiences is extremely frustrating, as it’s proven to be a legend after twenty-three years of boyhood followers.

Alyson

[netflixnfeminism-blog]

Dictionary

sociological terms to note //

androcentrism: the practice, conscious or otherwise, of placing male human beings or a masculine point of view at the center of one's worldview and its culture and history.

altruistic suicide: commit for the benefit of others; i.e falling on a grenade

anomic suicide: reflects an individual's moral confusion and lack of social direction, which is related to dramatic social and economic upheaval.

benevolent sexism: the patriarchal expression of sexism, where men express protective, yet restrictive, attitudes towards women.

counterculture: a way of life and set of attitudes opposed to or at variance with the prevailing social norm

differentiation: the distinction made between social groups and persons on the basis of biological, physiological, and sociocultural factors, as sex, age, or ethnicity, resulting in the assignment of roles and status within a society.

double bind:  the ‘victim’—the person who becomes psychotically unwell—finds him or herself in a communicational matrix, in which messages contradict each other, the contradiction is not able to be communicated on and the unwell person is not able to leave the field of interaction

ethnocentrism: evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one's own culture.

feminine apologetic: when females compensate for their athletic skills by appearing to be more feminine. This can be done by wearing make-up, looking pretty, talking about husband and kids.

gender norms: a set of “rules” or ideas us the way women and men “should” look and behave

gender pay gap: the relative difference in the average gross hourly earnings of women and men within the economy as a whole.

gender policing: the imposition or enforcement of normative gender expressions on an individual who is perceived as not adequately performing, through appearance or behavior, the sex that was assigned to them at birth

gender roles: a set of societal norms dictating what types of behaviors are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on their actual or perceived sex.

hate crime: a crime motivated by racial, sexual, or other prejudice, typically one involving violence.

heteronormativity: denoting or relating to a worldview that promotes heterosexuality as the normal or preferred sexual orientation.

heterosexual male gaze: the way visual arts are structured around a masculine viewer. It describes the tendency in visual culture to depict the world and women from a masculine point of view and in terms of men's attitudes.

high culture: he set of cultural products, mainly in the arts, held in the highest esteem

hostile sexism: an antagonistic attitude toward women, who are often viewed as trying to control men through feminist ideology or sexual seduction

hyper-masculinity: the exaggeration of male stereotypical behavior, such as an emphasis on physical strength, aggression, and sexuality.

internalized racism: the internalization by people of racist attitudes towards members of their own ethnic group, including themselves; this can include the belief in ethnic stereotypes relating to their own group.

internalized sexism: involuntary internalization by women of the sexist messages that are present in their societies and culture; the way in which women reinforce sexism by utilizing and relaying sexist messages that they’ve internalized.

liberal feminism: an individualistic form of feminist theory, which focuses on women's ability to maintain their equality through their own actions and choices.

objectification: the seeing and/or treating a person, usually a woman, as an object

occupational segregation: the distribution of people across and within occupations and jobs, based upon demographic characteristics, most often gender.

patriarchy: a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it.

popular culture: culture based on the tastes of ordinary people rather than an educated elite

queer theory: focuses on mismatches between sex, gender and desire

radical feminism: a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical reordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts; seek to abolish patriarchy by challenging existing social norms and institutions, rather than through a purely political process.

rape culture: a setting in which rape is pervasive and normalized due to societal attitudes about gender andsexuality

second shift: the household responsibilities that a wife and mother takes care of, aside from working her paid job, add up to at least 40 hours each week.

self-objectify: regular exposure to objectifying experiences that socialize girls and women to engage in self-objectification, whereby they come to internalize this view of themselves as an object or collection of body parts

sexual harassment: harassment (typically of a woman) in a workplace, or other professional or social situation, involving the making of unwanted sexual advances or obscene remarks.

socialist feminism: focuses upon both the public and private spheres of a woman's life and argues that liberation can only be achieved by working to end both the economic and cultural sources of women's oppression.

slut shame: the act of criticising a woman for her real or presumed sexual activity, or for behaving in ways that someone thinks are associated with her real or presumed sexual activity.

subordination: putting one thing below another––a subordinate is someone who works for someone else, and to subordinate means to place or rank one thing below another.

white collar crime: financially motivated nonviolent crime committed by business and government professionals / a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation

white feminism: brand of feminism centered around the ideals and struggles of primarily white women

[netflixnfeminism-blog]

“You’re a Tease & You Know it; All Girls are Teases” // The Breakfast Club (1985) // Part 1

Bechdel Test results: Passed Gender, Failed LGTBQIA+ & Race

Rated 7.9/10 on IMDb

Through a brain, an athlete, a princess, a basket case and a criminal, John Hughes attempted to tackle high school cliques and stereotypes in Shermer, Illinois, 1984. Rebellious John Bender and silent Allison repeatedly call out Andy, Claire and Brian on their class privilege, jock Andy refuses to give Bender an excuse to be an outright ass, Claire polices all bullshit, and Brian reminds everyone to be themselves, bringing light to some mental health issues. But The Breakfast Club wasn’t created without being problematic.

Honestly, there’s no way of knowing what John Hughes intended to be in the movie, and what was his own sexist inclusion. Because even though Allison and Claire discuss the double edged sword of female sexuality, or known in sociology books as the double bind, he did absolutely nothing else positive for women in the movie claiming to be addressing the wrongs of society. Clear signs point to expressing rape culture, endorsing a patriarchy, sexual harassment, and plenty of self-objectification of Claire and Allison. Where do you even begin with how shitty women are portrayed in The Breakfast Club?

Out of the seven characters in Shermer High School that day, two of them are women, which is slightly under thirty percent of the cast. Which isn’t the most problematic thing in the world, except that one of the teenage girls doesn’t even speak until thirty three minutes into the film; promptly explained by Bender as “she doesn’t talk sir.”. All after Mr. Vernon, or Dick, if you will, looks directly at Claire when he tells the group not to talk, and Bender threatens at least twice to expose his penis; once in explaining that he had to pee, and the other in threatening to rape Claire.

John Bender frequently attempts to show his dominance over Brian Johnson, including his demand that he moves seats in the first scene, and the first time he addresses him directly, telling him, “Why don’t you close the door and we’ll get the prom queen impregnated?”. Bender’s vulgar comments to Claire don’t end; he says things such as “you couldn’t ignore me if you tried”, calling her a “cherry” throughout the entire movie, explaining to her that all she is is a fat girl and  “there are two types of fat girls”, one’s that are born to be fat, and others who get married, pop out a few kids, and then get fat. Bender regularly harrasses Claire, and alludes to raping her, or forcing her to pay attention to him, and regularly objectifies her.

Perhaps the most alarming, aside from blatantly calling for group raping of Claire, is after Claire gives Bender her middle finger, it leads him to tell her, shamingly, “such obscene finger gestures from such a pristine girl.” She then continues to reply to his harassment, to which prompts him to say “Are you a virgin? I’ll bet you a million dollars that you are. Is it going to be a white wedding?... Have you ever kissed a boy? Have you ever been felt up? Over the panties, under the bra, blouse unbuttoned…”, shaming Claire for her virginity.

Andrew consistently attempts to stand up for Claire, which is problematic in of itself, showing a parallel of hostile and benevolent sexism. In this particular scene, Andy tells Bender, “you don’t talk to her, you don’t look at her you, you don’t even think about her.”, (even though Claire has shown frequently in the movie that she was not afraid to stand up for herself, calling Bender a coward on multiple occasions), to which Bender replies “I’m trying to help her”. These two lines of dialogue express perfectly the feelings majority of men have regarding women, and makes this entire movie fairly disappointing. Why did Andy have to be the hero? Why wasn’t Claire her own hero, as she has clearly shown that she could have been?

I have six pages of notes on why this movie is problematic, and most of them are Bender’s remarks to/about Claire. He insinuates that Claire is his lunch, comparing her to meat/food, ridicules Claire for eating sushi, but finding him repulsive, telling her that his “image of (her) is completely blown” when she applied her lipstick with her breasts and telling her to stick to what she knows (i.e nail polish), and “just wait for your fucking prom!”.

Yet, Claire still is shown sticking up for Bender. She doesn’t tell Vernon when Bender releases a screw from the door, preventing it from staying open, prevents Andrew from calling him out or eventually fighting Bender, and hides him under her seat when he was supposed to be in the closet, but snuck back to the library when he “forgot his pencil”. When I first saw this movie as a junior in high school, this is the only scene that made me uncomfortable and was the scene that originally changed my perspective of the entire movie. Because without this scene, I may still think that The Breakfast Club showcased diversity and was a great way to illuminate on issues of the generations watching it. However, there is no justifying Bender staring into Claire’s panties as she defends him. There’s no justifying him touching her legs, and sticking his head in between them; and there’s absolutely no justifying how mortified she was after, while all four of her peers laughed, and Bender saying “it was an accident, sue me”.

pt II: http://netflixnfeminism.tumblr.com/post/143848321328/youre-a-tease-and-you-know-it-all-girls-are

pt III: http://netflixnfeminism.tumblr.com/post/143848126068/youre-a-tease-and-you-know-it-all-girls-are

[netflixnfeminism-blog]

“You’re a Tease and You Know It; All Girls Are Teases.” // The Breakfast Club (1985) // Part 2

Of course, there’s the infamous discussion of the double-edged sword / double bind of female sexuality in the ad-libbed circle of the five detentioners. Allison bates Claire to admitting she’s a virgin, explaining, “if you say you haven’t you're a prude, if you say you have you’re a slut… or are you tease?”. Allison had previously admitted that she wasn’t a virgin, that she had slept around, specifically with older men, to which Claire slut shamed Allison for. “Doesn't it bother you to sleep around without being in love? Don’t you want to be respected?”, Claire lectures Allison, to which Allison replies, “I don’t sleep around for respect. That’s the difference between you and me.” Claire is clearly repulsed by Allison and makes her feel less than, telling her, “not the only difference, I hope.”

And then we all hoped that was where the conversation ended; Allison beginning the conversation of sexual freedom in women, and admitting that sex was just sex, and not a tool for respect. But, looking at all of the other bullshit John Hughes allowed in the movie, of course this wasn’t going to be allowed to be uncorrected. Once Claire finally admits that she is, in fact, a virgin, the fact that Allison follows suit, explaining that she also is a virgin, and that “it’s ok if you’re in love”, is so disheartening as Allison had the opportunity to be represented outside of gender norms / gender roles.

Allison had a lot of opportunities to represent feminism, or counter-female culture, but instead was represented as crazy. She doesn’t speak for the first thirty three minutes of the film, and when she does it’s the most odd things being said. Her lunch is an eclectic variation of foods, she constantly takes the group off guard, and flip-flops in every conversation. Allison being eclectic would have actually been so cool, and refreshing, if she weren’t treated like shit and represented poorly.

When the group eventually retires to the back of the library to smoke with John, Allison is reluctant and makes her debut in the scenes when she reveals that she stole Brian’s wallet. “He’s got a nude-y picture in there, I saw it!” she proclaims to Andrew. And even though Allison was standing in front of Brian and Andrew, talking about Brian, and even though they were uninterested in what she was saying, and had basically ignored her throughout their time in detention together, Andrew’s reaction is “Oh, let’s see it!”. His interest in a photograph of a nude model, although he had a clear disinterest in what Allison and Claire had to say in the film, is objectification of women. Which is unsurprising with the rest of problematic situations in The Breakfast Club.

Allison’s character makes me sad. Claire views Allison as unworthy, and less than her throughout the movie, admitting that if  Allison came up to her at school, she’d make fun of her and walk away. At the end of the movie, Claire is seen giving Allison a make-over. When the transformation is complete, Allison’s style portrays a standard fashionable female in the 1980s, and it isn’t until then, that Brian and Andrew find her desirable. Allison walks through the library, and notes Brian staring at her, with his mouth open, and (as if the fact that Brian and Andrew didn’t think twice about Allison until this wasn’t enough of poor treatment of women), Allison thanked Brian for objectifying her in this way. Andrew and Allison then are seen flirting, and in the very last scene, are shown kissing.

The makeover compulsion of Andy and Allison being drawn together still doesn’t compare to  the revolting fact that John Hughes found it necessary to have Claire and John end the movie with a passionate kiss, even after previously Claire predicted Bender would be ashamed of her,  if their friends saw them together, “you’d probably tell them we were doing it so it’d be okay that we were together”, and Bender’s only selling point of himself was that it’d be a good way to anger her parents. The last thing that I would feel if I were being threatened, harassed, and treated generally with hostility is attraction to the man. But man-made Claire, the prom queen, bubblegum, “activities” girl, wasn’t actually created to represent a real girl. She’s supposed to be cute, peppy, but kind of annoying. She ditched class to go shopping, which is what landed her in detention, she has a mouth on her, she’s a “tease” but, believes “in one guy and one girl (because) that’s the way it should be”. She’s depicted as the stereotypical girl generated by the media to be hated on by the women, especially when she says, without a sense of sarcasm, “Do you know how popular I am? I am so popular, everyone loves me so much at this school”, but is supposed to be adored by the men. Claire is objectified to the point of representing herself (and feeling of self-objectification) through her diamond earring, which she gives to Bender in the final scene.

pt I: http://netflixnfeminism.tumblr.com/post/143848754878/youre-a-tease-you-know-it-all-girls-are

pt III: http://netflixnfeminism.tumblr.com/post/143848126068/youre-a-tease-and-you-know-it-all-girls-are

[netflixnfeminism-blog]

“You’re a Tease and You Know it; All Girls Are Teases.” // The Breakfast Club (1985) // Part 3

While Allison and Claire are depicted unfairly, John, Andrew and Brian were far more developed and multi-faceted. John is an asshole, but he’s also a victim of abuse, and when faced with actual conflict, he repeatedly backs out. The football jock Andrew is also sweet, but protective over the women, and is under a lot of familial pressure. Brian’s conservative but desires equality, judging no one for their intellect rather their character, and while being hesitant, tries the new things he’s presented, whom also seriously contemplated suicide. Compared to the underdeveloped female representation, androcentric ideas are further instigated through putting interest on the three teenage boys and their hyper-masculinity.

The boys never fail in gender policing each other’s actions. Bender attempts in humiliating Andy by announcing that as a wrestler, he wears tights, and Andy’s remarks become defensive (“No, I do not wear tights. I wear the intended uniform”), as Brian sits in the back laughing at him. After Bender’s attempt to emasculate Andrew, the athlete himself retaliates by calling the criminal a faggot, and eventually their paralleled masculinity leads to a fight. When Andrew wins, of course, Bender doesn’t admit defeat, however, reveals a weapon.

The Breakfast Club consistently shows Bender asserting dominance, all while policing masculinity in the other boys, especially Brian. In the first scenes, Bender forces the brain to move tables, which Brian is shown to have moved back to when Bender was removed from the library, refuses to address him by his name, bullies him during his lunch, and humiliates him for being a virgin. John also lights matches with his teeth, emphasizes that he’s not monogamous, and is seen celebrating his romance with Claire in the final shot, with the iconic fist-in-the-air ending.

The few adults in the film emphasize gender-policing and hyper-masculinity just as Bender does. Vernon calls the group “girls” as an insult, tells Andy that he “expected a lot more from a varsity letterman”, and challenges John multiple times throughout the movie, threatening him on occasion. John’s father abuses his son physically, while Andy’s father has detrimentally affected his son’s mental health. “Guys screw around,” he tells his son in the beginning, however, disciplines him on getting caught. Once Andy had committed his detention-deserving act (taping Larry’s butt cheeks together, an act of dominance in of itself), he admits to have been concerned for the humiliation Larry would have to endure from his father, (“All I could think about was Larry’s father, and Larry having to go home, and explain what happened. And the humiliation. The fucking humiliation must be hell. Must have been unreal… How do you apologize for something like that? There’s no way. And it’s all because me and my old man. I fucking hate him. He’s like this mindless machine that I can't even relate to anymore… “I won’t tolerate any losers in this family””)

Segregated masculinity and femininity proved to be important to the brain, athlete, princess, basket case and criminal. The parallels towards the group’s reactions to Claire’s virginity, double-edged sword conversation ending with a proclamation by Andrew that “You’re a tease and you know it. All girls are teases” and Brian’s shameless lie that he’s “laid lots of girls” illustrates the different standards that are set for men and women. When Bender proclaims that he didn’t believe in “one girl and one boy”, Claire shrugs it off as a part of his masculinity, but tells Allison that she’ll never be respected for sleeping around, especially with an older man such as her shrink.

Whilst sitting in the circle, Andrew admits he would drive and appear at school naked for a million dollars, which the group applauds and finds charming and funny. However, when Allison admits to being open to the same situation for the same amount of money, the idea is no longer funny, but revolting to the group. In the same discussion, Allison discusses her mental health issues admitting that she’s a compulsive liar and that she goes to therapy, to which Brian responds “obviously she’s crazy if she’s screwing her shrink”. Nevertheless, when Brian admits to having severe depression, having debated suicide, the group is much kinder, telling him “suicide is never the answer”, only introducing comic relief when finding it goofy that the gun Brian brought to school shot off in his locker.

But despite this shit, this movie will forever hold a place in my heart. During my junior year of high school, I was a part of the school’s newspaper, a job only four other people could have admitted. We called ourselves The Breakfast Club, and I represented the Allison of the group, given that we have the same name. Brian as a walrus is still my header image for majority of my social media, and the movie is anything but short of relatable quotes, like “when you grow up your heart dies”, or “we’re all little bizarre, some of us are just better at hiding it”. But I also think admitting that we should stop romanticising the messages of the movie is an important step for our society, I think that people having the ability to recognize the shitty things portrayed in this movie, will begin more people to think more of their own socialization. Because what you watch growing up matters. You might think I’m crazy for writing an essay on what I think The Breakfast Club really is, but you probably saw the movie as you wanted to see it - in the simplest of terms, in the most convenient of definitions.

Does that answer your question?

Sincerely yours,

Alyson.

pt I: http://netflixnfeminism.tumblr.com/post/143848754878/youre-a-tease-you-know-it-all-girls-are

pt II: http://netflixnfeminism.tumblr.com/post/143848321328/youre-a-tease-and-you-know-it-all-girls-are