A rebel, a princess, a jock, a geek, and a basket case -- all the characters needed in an average movie filled with teen angst, and no movie highlights them better than The Breakfast Club. Each character fits their label so perfectly that they identify themselves with their titles. The movie is also sprinkled with other definitive qualities of a teen film. The supposed "truths" of a teenage life, such as drugs, relationships, defying authority, and even manages to dabble with sex as well. The movie, while being highly entertaining and often considered a "classic," reinforces the stereotype of teenagers being rebellious, and also categorizes characters based on their behaviors and appearances.
The Breakfast Club is about five high school students that all end up having detention on a Saturday for differing reasons. They all have different backgrounds and labels which are pretty much used by the others to define one another. They are all forced to write an essay in which they describe who they think they are. Throughout the film, they begin to question each other and discover more about one another. They begin to see past their different backgrounds, form friendships and relationships, and ultimately create an unbreakable bond you can only form during Saturday detention.
The film makes no effort to address the teenage stereotypes and cliques subtly, and outright labels the characters accordingly. Even by their clothing, the characters' roles were pretty obvious. Claire Standish, dresses in a pink top and a dress, eluding to the fact that she is the prissy "princess" of the group. John Bender on the other hand, dresses in a jean jacket, flannel, and boots, showing his position as the "rebel." The film also touches upon stereotypes of high school girls and sexuality, when Allison, the aforementioned "basket case," asks Claire whether or not she has had sex. When Claire hesitates, Allison states how "it's kind of a double-edged sword," where a girl is either a slut if she has had sex, or a prude if she had not. Another stereotype addressed in the film is that a girl needed to be a "girly-girl" in order to score the guy. Allison, seen as eccentric and odd throughout the majority of the film actually ends up with Andrew, the "jock," but only after a makeover courtesy of Claire. Teenage stereotypes are heavily reflected in the film where two of the most famous scenes from the movie involve smoking marijuana and disobeying authority, activities which are widely attributed to teenagers.
Smoke Scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZMt5jCdxOA
Dance Scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRMrMzw0t20
Leo talks about the stereotypes addressed in The Breakfast Club, a classic 80s movie. He does a great job addressing the princess stereotype, the rebel stereotype, and even the basket case stereotype. I definitely agree with the point brought up about the obvious categories. Claire, the princess, is dressed in pink and lives a rather luxurious life. Bender, dressed in a flannel and ripped jeans, is the typical rebel. I liked the mention about the double edged sword quote and I agree with the controversy of it. The stereotypes teenagers face are rather unfair and your article did a great job explaining that. Great article!
ReplyDelete^Comment from Austin Schreiber
ReplyDeleteLeo,
ReplyDeleteOn your notion where Allison gets the guy after Claire has given her a makeover, contradicts what I believe the filmmakers were trying to say. They wanted to show the stereotypes as bluntly as possible and then illustrate that we can overcome these stereotypes once we get to know the people around us. That is all great until the makeover, where they show her conforming to society.
Nice Job!