Was going to complain about the lack of Real Genius, but ultimately didn’t have to.
It’s so blindingly obvious, but it never occurred to me that some teen films of the '80’s–in particular Real Genius and Weird Science, but also The Goonies (wait, is that a teen film?) and even, to a lesser extent, Dirty Dancing and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off–celebrated being a geek or nerd. Most of the others, to some extent, celebrated being an outsider.
I would say they don’t make 'em like that anymore, but I need to take a breath and calm down before I start yelling at the cast of Kick Ass and The Perks of Being A Wallflower to get off my lawn.
Ahh. lots of teenage crushes in there… even a man-crush or two in there…
Oh, and I was never a fan, but would one really consider Flashdance a teen movie?
Don’t You Forget About this tribute to ‘80s WHITE teen movies
I wonder how long whiteness will go unspoken. How much longer will white Americans continue to position themselves as just “Americans,” as the “real Americans”?
“Flashdance” and “Risky Business” were both rated R, so (theoretically) most teens weren’t supposed to be able to see them. How strictly enforced this was varied from place to place, I think. Probably still does.
If you want I can go ahead and start calling myself a “real American”, or even “last of the real Americans”.
Well, if you’re a white American, you’re part of a group that already center-stages itself as the real Americans.
Noooooo, not before lunch!! Well, not after either, actually.
I have to recommend ‘The Last American Virgin’. A typically 80s teen movie that takes a rather untypical turn.
I never thought of Flashdance as a “teen movie”, even though the main character was supposed to be 18 (I think?) it seemed like more of an adult movie. Whereas Risky Business involved high school kids, so it obviously seemed more of a typical teen movie.
I noticed some in this supercut that I didn’t recognize, though, and I was sure that I’d seen all the typical 80’s teen movies.
That’s a good point… And of course, there is the epic fail in Sixteen Candles of the Asian exchange student… That was probably the lowest point of any John Hughes film… Like Asian stereotype to the level of Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
[ETA] AND THE END OF BACK TO THE FUTURE WHERE ALEX P KEATON SHOWS THE BLACK BAND HOW TO ROCK OUT??? What in the actual fuck???
Also, Wil Wheaton recently posted this on his tumblr:
Fairly certain that real Americans tend to be red Americans. The rest are mostly tourists.
Violent, land stealing, small-pox-blanket-giving, genocidal tourists?
This felt weirdly like what would flash before my eyes as I was dying.
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