I've always really liked The Breakfast Club and considered it a favorite of mine. Looking at it under these different class and feminist lenses offered a different perspective. The most obvious one I believe is the depiction of the different classes and social stereotypes. Each character, the nerd, jock, criminal, princess, and basket case represent the variety of common high school stereotypes and cliques. It doesn't really feel like a real depiction of high school, but more an exaggerated version of high school stereotypes. It doesn't have to be accurate, it's the stereotypical characters and their interactions that make it a classic. The ragtag group of strangers from different cliques coming together in a rebellion bond, and understanding that all of their lives are similar. Despite their social class differences and different upbringings, they all were discontent with their home lives. They realized they had nearly as much in common as they differed.
Looking at Molly Ringwald's role as a positive feminist role like the article says seemed more pointed toward Sixteen Candles than The Breakfast Club, but I do see various aspects through The Breakfast Club that the article stated as "the same “individualist, acquisitive, and transformative” values of postfeminism" (Bleach 28). I've never seen Sixteen Candles or Pretty in Pink, so I can't reference those in the sense of feminism. In The Breakfast Club, she's the stereotypical princess who's spoiled by her father, and used as a pawn between her parents. Like the others, she too rebels against her home life, although by shopping. She's the popular girl, but finds the pressures of her social role and her friends too much. By the end, she's more positively represented, but I agree with Anthony Michael Hall's character when he asks what will happen Monday, and she responds that they'll end up ignoring of making fun of each other, that's a shitty thing to do as he pointed out. It's tough to say if by the end she, or any have changed enough. Will the kiss at the end between the two couples lead to anything real? That's something that can be debated, but by the end they all seemed to have grown and discovered something about themselves and those around them.
I had a very similar experience with viewing this film again as well. I never really looked at it this way before, and part of me is sad that now I know what I do. I agree with you in that the characters are very stereotypical but I have to say that in my high school I had some of those exact characters. While I dont know if we had a certified basket case like Allison I can think of a handful of kids that would fit the other roles perfectly. So for me, it was a pretty accurate depiction of high school - as weird as that is. That might of made the film more interesting for me as well. A small part of me still feels like the characters have changed but another part of me really feels that they have not. I agree with you a little - I would like to hope that they have all realized something. I just have come to think that while their eyes were opened to others around them during that day, they will not carry what they heard or learned with them farther then that day. I personally think that on Monday, like Claire said, they will act like they do not know each other. That is a very realistic statement. I have seen it happen before where two distant people share a moment and then later on instead of going up to that person and speaking with them again, they instead just say to their friends 'I talked to them once.' For that reason I feel like these kids may have been impacted in the moment but not enough to truly change their day to day lives unfortunatley.I wish I didn't have such a depressing view on it like I do now, but what can you do, John Hughes is a tricky guy.
ReplyDeleteI'd have really liked to see you talk more about how Hughes is working with stereotypes. It's deliberate, I think, because of how deliberately artificial the staging is--much more like a play than a movie, as somebody pointed out in class. Keep in mind also that "postfeminist" does not mean "feminist"--quite the opposite in fact. It refers to a tendency to think that somehow society has evolved beyond gender issues, or else surface gestures like a makeover somehow standing in for freedom or bonding. In this sense--nobody ever really bonds or escapes their class distinctions, despite one intense afternoon, it's a film very expressive of 80s values. I think stereotypes are also a part of that, in a way I hadn't thought of and I think you could develop a bit more.
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