A good friend of mine (immediately post-college) grew up in Americus, GA. So many, so many funny stories in common about ‘ne’er-do-well’ classmates who failed to achieve escape velocity. Our favorite Onion article was this:
Much more redneck than my neck of the woods, actually!
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She moved around a little, but last I heard she landed in Asheville. I think you two oughta get along GREAT! I assume you like Star Wars fans who have an artistic streak and a vampire tattoo on one ankle?
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I like all kinds of nerds and weirdos… which is why you find me here.
Asheville is a great town. Haven’t been in years, but it’s a good place to get away from all the rural bullshit… it’s either go there, or go to the ATL. Asheville at least has a bit more of the small town charm that ATL can lack.
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I have to use my perspective as a starting off point. Everyone does. Everyone overvalues their own opinions regardless of how eloquently they express them. I am tasked with refuting a very simplistic idea. Bender is abusive to Claire at points in the movie, they end up making out, therefore the movie contains a message that treating women like shit will have a positive outcome. I think this conclusion is erroneous. I do not have a simple two-part argument to refute it. Where my disagreement starts is my own experience of it, coupled with the fact that I am not stupid and am capable of analyzing narrative in a sophisticated manner. I handle my thoughts in a systematic way in order to reduce error. Error is still produced, but I can have a confidence that I have analyzed my opinion for errors before I produce it. If I turn out to be wrong, which has happened many times, I have gained knowledge. If I am wrong, I want to know, so I can make revisions in my thought process.
When I express my opinion about issues like this, it is almost always born of exasperation, as I spend a great deal of time thinking about what is happening culturally right now in a deep way. I presented my ideas in a blunt manner that came across as smug and arrogant, and this irritated and insulted several women. I deserve the flak I am receiving. I have also not exactly been doing a bang up job of defending my position, because in order to do so I would have to write a book. Which is why I should probably keep quiet. I am going to defend one of my ideas and tap out with an apology.
The Breakfast Club is a movie about dehumanization through stereotypes and personal appearance. All of the characters are guilty of this in one way or another. Bender is the most openly transgressive and the nature of his transgressions lend power to the narrative. His actions have to be capital w WRONG, for his character to have the proper weight. A less “problematic” Bender leads to a weaker movie.
Claire’s response to him touching her inappropriately was righteous anger. She continues to respond negatively to his poor behavior throughout the movie. The scene in which Bender verbally abuses Claire is supposed to be upsetting. You are supposed to be angry with Bender and have empathy for Claire. Claire responds to this abuse by(paraphrased) “Just because you resent me, doesn’t mean you have the right to treat me as less than human.” This is scene about how abuse is wrong, and why abuse is wrong. It’s powerful, the most powerful moment in the movie. It is made clear that Bender feels like a piece of shit afterwards.
So in the end these five kids learn to see one another properly as fellow human beings. They learn about each other and themselves, Bender included. This is probably the best teen movie ever made, and part of what makes it so, is that it does not pull its punches. It doesn’t insult its immature, but not mentally unsophisticated, intended audience. “Reality” is “problematic”. Claire gets romantic with Bender at the end of the movie, but only after Bender stops treating her like shit. It seems that from the female perspective, Claire should not have forgiven Bender for his previous transgressions, but it is not unrealistic that she would do so, and the resolution of their troubling courtship makes narrative sense.
I think the impetus for me to pop off about this, is the whole notion of what is, and isn’t “appropriate” content for media, which I perceive as being an obstacle to the creation of good art. A non-problematic version of The Breakfast Club would be a shitty movie and move no one.
In conclusion, I would like to apologize to everyone for coming across as smug and/or arrogant. I have to stop writing and thinking about this for now.
But if you stop there, and then don’t bother to further extrapolate from that point, that’s rather problematic.
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Art can be moving, and controversial, without promulgating, making light of and encouraging abusive tendencies commonly enacted by (and commonly gotten away with by) the socially dominant.
Thank you. I hope having a good think helps you better see the validity of opinions about art and commodified entertainment (leaving aside the question of just which one of those categories fits a John Hughes movie) commonly expressed by members of subjugated social groups.
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Me too. And I was reading every book with a sex scene I could get my hands on. I hid it too.
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Porn wasn’t readily available back then like it is now, either.
IIRC, I stole my first “dirty video” from my BF’s stash when I was 17.
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Back then, we had to use our imaginations to get off! You try to tell kids these days, with their plethora of interwebs pornos…
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And always on the damn lawn, too!
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Pornos on my lawn
Everybody’s sayin’
What to do when suckin’ lunatics start diggin’ and chewin’
They don’t know that the Soul don’t go for that
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You’re in fine form today, sir; bravo!
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