Heathers, a 1988 black comedy film directed by Michael Lehmann, presents an exaggerated model of social status in high school. The titular Heathers are a group of three girls- Heather Chandler, Heather McNamara, and Heather Duke- who control the school. In the terms of Marx, they represent the powerful bourgeoisie who rule over the proletariat- in this case, they are illustrated by the unpopular students. In the world of Westerburg High School, you are either popular or not, and there is no inbetween. To Nietzsche, this is an example of a binary opposition. Veronica, the main character, is someone who is hailed by both sides and is unsure of where she belongs. At the same time, another student named J.D. presents a different solution to her …show more content…
Marx wrote that they were, “Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, [standing] in constant opposition to one another…” (473-474). In other words, within these two roles, there has always been one in charge, and one expected to obey. The upper class are the rulers, so they are the ones who can control the lower class. Though Marx had an economic base in mind, the ideas reflect the complicated social structure within in a high school. In the movie, the three Heathers are more than just popular; they are considered the superiors of every single student and have total control over the school. No one dares try to harass them because they are both admiring and afraid, so their status as the elite is completely accepted. They are the Heathers, representing the powerful …show more content…
Her old friend Betty clearly wants to rekindle their friendship, but the Heathers are determined to keep her in their grasp. Althusser wrote that: “all ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects” (245). In other words, an ideology, or a certain outlook on the world, tries to take an individual and transform them into being a subject who completely follows that ideology without question. Althusser compares this process to a policeman, quite literally, hailing someone simply by calling out for
money left in the family and they are living a poor and unhappy life without enough money
Sabrina Rubin Erdely’s “School of Hate” is about a young girls experience growing up in a deeply conservative American state. Brittany Geldert has to endure the bullying that is unleashed upon her. No matter how traumatic the experience, it is ignored by the teachers. They betray Brittany by turning the other way on these issues. The wrong religious mindset appears to take paramount no matter how scandalous the ¨Bullying on LGBT¨ issues is in a modern day America. This is a great injustice to the people who have to endure this.
This work has a lot of relevance to today; for one thing, there is still poverty. Poverty is a hardship that millions of people must face everyday. And relating to poverty, there is still discrimination between social classes. Hunger is very prominent today. This is another problem that millions must face. Also, in relation to the book, many people have problems with alcohol. And many people still make fun of one another, and succumb to incestuous pleasure.
No one would talk to her, recess was spent in anguish, and she would find garbage and spoiled food in her book bag. As she progressed into 5th grade, some of the social atmosphere began to shift in subtle but profound ways. Being accepted into a clique is all that matters. Instead of being admired for class participation, as in earlier years she was laughed at and labeled as “teacher’s pet.” She said the rules were simple “shun or be shunned—if you weren’t willing to go along with the crowd, you would become the reject.”
...lms these students get away with murder and still go on to college. This simply does not happen in real life; therefore, looking to Hollywood films for the true colors of schools is not in the best of interests. We have to realize that directors produce these films in their vision of American culture. We as Americans always look to the American Dream of sometime “making it.” The films neglect to see the loser’s point of view, meaning Hollywood films only look to a positive ending because it is in our nature to believe in the American Dream. This book allows our society to actually look past the films fantasies and observe the true inequalities in school. Although Hollywood films do correctly show how urban, suburban, and private students behave in schools, they do not show the true outcomes of real life.
This film contains some classic examples of the kinds of real life issues adolescents deal with. Issues such as popularity, peer relationships, family/sibling relationships, sex, and struggles with identity are all addressed in this ninety-minute film.
Robbins, Alexandra. The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive after High School. New York: Hyperion, 2011. Print.
The high schools are made up of cliques and the artificial intensity of a world defined by insiders and outsiders. (Botstein pg.20) The insiders hold control. over the outsiders because of good looks, popularity, and sports power; the teacher. and staff do nothing to stop them, the elite.
Power, especially in the hands of females, can be a force for immense societal changes. Director Sciamma plays with the role of power in the lives of the four girls, predominantly in the character of Lady. Lady’s sense of control, stems from winning hand on hand fights, but the opinion of the men around her lays the foundation of this empowerment. The more fights Lady wins, the more the men appear to respect her, yet as feminist Simone de Beauvoir explains “[n]o matter how kindly, how equally men treated me when I tried to participate in politics, when it came right down to it, they had more rights, so they had more power than I did (Simone de Beauvoir - The Second Sex- ix),” the “power” Lady obtained was provisional. Lady’s power was directly tied to the opinion of the men around her, in this scene, a portion of the boys sits on stairs physically higher than Lady, invoking a sense of power hierarchy and control. The boys only valued Lady when she successfully participated in the their world of violence, but this participation came with boundaries as “[w]omen can never become fully socialized into patriarchy- which in turn causes man to fear women and leads then, on the one hand, to establish very strict boundaries between their own sex and the female sex (Feminist theory 142).” The men had never truly incorporated Lady into their group, she had just
Despite an inappropriate music-video sequence and a phony up-tempo finale, The Breakfast Club offers a breakthrough portrait of the pain and misunderstanding which result from the social hierarchy created by youth themselves. The lookers and the jocks are popular and can do whatever they want — except relate to those outside their social circle of winners.
The novel “Women Without class” by Julie Bettie, is a society in which the cultural you come from and the identity that was chosen for you defines who you are. How does cultural and identity illustrate who we are or will become? Julie Bettie demonstrates how class is based on color, ethnicity, gender and sexuality. The author describes this by researching her work on high school girls at a Central Valley high school. In Bettie’s novel she reveals different cliques that are associated within the group which are Las Chicas, Skaters, Hicks, Preps, and lastly Cholas and Cholos. The author also explains how race and ethnicity correspondence on how academically well these students do. I will be arguing how Julie Bettie connects her theories of inequality and culture capital to Pierre Bourdieu, Kimberle Crenshaw, Karl Marx and Engels but also how her research explains inequality among students based on cultural capital and identity.
Angela’s Ashes, by Frank McCourt is a genuine memoir that vividly tells the story of a young, Irish Catholic boy during the 1930’s and early 1940’s. Frank’s memory of his impoverished childhood is difficult to accept, however, he injects a sense of devilish humor into his biography. He creates a story where the readers watch him grow beyond all odds and live through the pinnacle of the miserable Irish Catholic childhood. “People everywhere brag and whimper about the woes of their early years, but nothing can compare with the Irish version: the poverty, the shiftless loquacious alcoholic father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire; pompous priests; bullying schoolmasters; the English and the terrible things they did to us for eight hundred long years”(McCourt 11). His interaction with his family proves that despite the hunger and pain, love and strength come out of misery. Although the book tells the experience of an individual, the story itself is universal.
In this film we see many typical high school behaviors such as cliques, cattiness, and popularity (or lack there of) issues. Many scenes in this movie have an array of stereotypes. Sometimes they are clearly stated and others just seen through attitudes of the actors/actresses character. Also through out we follow the main clique “the plastics” and they have this image they have to uphold. Be perfect, skinny, the best at everything, and in sync with everything they do; or they wont uphold their status. I chose this film because I think it shows a lot of what we have learned in this course and how it is in real life. Clearly the film is exaggerated but much of
This story takes place in a New York City school in Manhattan, in the nineteen- sixties. The book covers the span of one school semester form September to February.
Despite Frank McCourt's horrid poverty, tiresome starvation and devastating losses, Angela's Ashes is not a tragic memoir. It is in fact up lifting, funny and at times triumphant. How does Frank McCourt as a writer accomplish this?