Bagels and Cereal
May. 25th, 2010 12:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixieI watched The Breakfast Club for the first time in my life tonight. I know, I know, unamerican, alien baby dropped in a field, etc. etc. One day I'll make a list of all the pop culture standards I missed the boat on and get around to watching them.
Anyway. The best thing about that movie was Ally Sheedy's haircut, and yet...it was still strangely compelling. Perhaps after teaching college freshmen for a year, I have more sympathy for high schoolers. Or perhaps after teaching college freshmen for a year, I have more sympathy for the principal, particularly when he's telling the janitor how horrified he is that these kids will one day be running the world.
I think I would've appreciated the emotional highs and lows more had I seen this at sixteen; instead, the whole grinding-to-a-halt-so-everyone-can-cry-for-a-while section came off as unintentionally hilarious. I was glad when the flare gun bit got it back to something resembling comedy.
The ending made me cringe somewhat, with the whole NO ONE WILL LOVE YOU UNLESS YOU'RE CONVENTIONALLY PRETTY message that Andy and the newly-made-over Allison falling into each other's arms sent. Not to mention that she was more more striking and attractive pre-makeover. Bender and Claire I saw coming a mile away, and it was pretty entertaining the way they did it ("Remember how you said your parents use you to get back at each other? Wouldn't I be outstanding in that capacity?"). Bender in general was like the train wreck you can't look away from--he was horrible, but full of fascinating energy.
So tell me, was this at all representative of high school in the 80s, or high school in general? 'Cause I went to nerd school for grades 9-12, and more and more I realize how very unusual my high school experience was, at least compared to popular representations of it. Well, okay, yes, part of this is me--I was so uncool that by comparison I made Brian look like a hep cat, as the kids say. But I don't remember all this brouhaha about whether one had or had not had sex, don't recall such well-defined cliques (nerd school, remember--we all fell into the bright kid category, so differences were muted), don't think there even was such a thing as detention, let alone shop. I don't seem to remember much ado about boyfriends/girlfriends (this could be because 2/3 of the student body was female), and there never seemed to be this adversarial relationship between students and teachers/administrators that always gets depicted. Not that I would have liked to have had any of that as part of my high school experience, but I have to admit that it feels much like I grew up on Mars.*
* OR MAYBE I DID. *whistles X-Files theme*
Anyway. The best thing about that movie was Ally Sheedy's haircut, and yet...it was still strangely compelling. Perhaps after teaching college freshmen for a year, I have more sympathy for high schoolers. Or perhaps after teaching college freshmen for a year, I have more sympathy for the principal, particularly when he's telling the janitor how horrified he is that these kids will one day be running the world.
I think I would've appreciated the emotional highs and lows more had I seen this at sixteen; instead, the whole grinding-to-a-halt-so-everyone-can-cry-for-a-while section came off as unintentionally hilarious. I was glad when the flare gun bit got it back to something resembling comedy.
The ending made me cringe somewhat, with the whole NO ONE WILL LOVE YOU UNLESS YOU'RE CONVENTIONALLY PRETTY message that Andy and the newly-made-over Allison falling into each other's arms sent. Not to mention that she was more more striking and attractive pre-makeover. Bender and Claire I saw coming a mile away, and it was pretty entertaining the way they did it ("Remember how you said your parents use you to get back at each other? Wouldn't I be outstanding in that capacity?"). Bender in general was like the train wreck you can't look away from--he was horrible, but full of fascinating energy.
So tell me, was this at all representative of high school in the 80s, or high school in general? 'Cause I went to nerd school for grades 9-12, and more and more I realize how very unusual my high school experience was, at least compared to popular representations of it. Well, okay, yes, part of this is me--I was so uncool that by comparison I made Brian look like a hep cat, as the kids say. But I don't remember all this brouhaha about whether one had or had not had sex, don't recall such well-defined cliques (nerd school, remember--we all fell into the bright kid category, so differences were muted), don't think there even was such a thing as detention, let alone shop. I don't seem to remember much ado about boyfriends/girlfriends (this could be because 2/3 of the student body was female), and there never seemed to be this adversarial relationship between students and teachers/administrators that always gets depicted. Not that I would have liked to have had any of that as part of my high school experience, but I have to admit that it feels much like I grew up on Mars.*
* OR MAYBE I DID. *whistles X-Files theme*
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no subject
Date: 2010-05-25 05:38 pm (UTC)(Also, if you recall the fact that we are talking about the 80s here, it was pretty damn true that no one would love you if you weren't conventionally pretty. Really. It was a product of the insanity of the "greed is good" decade. If you were going to be greedy about everythig else, you weren't suddenly going to stop while you were shopping for a date. Just sayin'.)
no subject
Date: 2010-05-25 06:46 pm (UTC)Nerd school. Neeerrrrrd school. If you screwed up too much behaviorally or even failed a class, you'd be kicked right back to the high school you were zoned for. We didn't have anyone like Bender at my school.
People probably did care about sex and I just didn't notice, but there was definitely never this OMG YOU'RE A VIRGIN!!! stigma. This may well be because it was uber-religious Nashville. Likewise, by the time I would have noticed any kind of relationship developing between people, it was probably over. Plus, given the gender disparity, these relationships likely tended to occur with people at other schools, and anyway we all had so much work to do for classes that it really seemed like everyone was perpetually single and didn't have time to care about that fact.
I remember we had one guy who commonly subbed whom we all hated because he was a jerk, but beyond that I liked my teachers even when they were giving us tremendous amounts of work, and I got the impression my friends did as well.
We had fewer than 700 students, so maybe there just wasn't critical mass to form cliques; I interacted with every member of my graduating class at least a few times over the four years. People fell into groups of friends, but no one ever refused to acknowledge anyone else's presence, or at least I never saw that happening.
and kinda wonder what other pop culture references fly right over your head as a result
Many, I'm sure. But I'm your girl for 19th and 20th-century BritLit references!
Re: 80s greed: interesting. I can see it. But it seems at odds with the whole "don't judge by appearances" point of the rest of the movie.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-26 01:42 am (UTC)Oh, we had...quite a few!
I don't remember a public stigma in the movie (in my defense, if I'm wrong, it's been quite a while since I've seen it--every so often I'll watch some of it if I come across it on TV, but otherwise it's been at least several years). I do remember more of a whispered query among the girls, at least, which is what I remember from high school. I hope I had a good poker face, 'cause I sure tried to shrug and dodge and pray like hell nobody ever actually made me answer.
We had fewer than 700 students, so maybe there just wasn't critical mass to form cliques
Oh no, you had plenty. My graduating class had 120 students, so we had about 600 kids, maybe less, and we had cliques aplenty. So did the private school I taught at, which had 470--including grades 6-8.
it seems at odds with the whole "don't judge by appearances" point of the rest of the movie.
Ah, but see, that only applies if you're a guy... ;)
no subject
Date: 2010-05-26 03:45 am (UTC)Ha! The critical mass for cliques is three people: two to form a clique, and one to be ostracized. (I have a Ph.D in Teen Girls!)
no subject
Date: 2010-05-26 03:00 pm (UTC)*snerk* I seem to remember this from sixth grade. In one class, I was seated across from these two other girls, who immediately decided I was uncool or something. My problem, though, was that they didn't ostracize me enough. I wanted them to ignore me all the time, not ignore me 75% of the time, and steal my pencil/book/paper the rest of the time.
(I have a Ph.D in Teen Girls!)
Gaaaaaaaah. (Actually, I think the 10-12-year olds are so, so, so much worse.)
no subject
Date: 2010-05-30 05:01 am (UTC)Ha! It's like they knew!
Actually, I think the 10-12-year olds are so, so, so much worse.
Tweeeeeeeeeens, noooooooooo!!