A forum for Blog Community #10 of CSCL 1001 (Introduction to Cultural Studies: Rhetoric, Power, Desire; University of Minnesota, Fall 2011) -- and interested guests.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
If high school is the anti-romantic, what is college?
The way high school is portrayed in movies, it makes it seems like it is a living hell. Movies such as "Mean Girls" and "Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion" portray high school as an awkward time filled with misery and ridicule. Cinema has created high school as it's own little world. This extreme anti-romaticism of high school creates a romantic spin on the cinematic experience of college. In the famous movie "Animal House" and many others college is viewed as a catalyst for the transformation from childhood and repression of freedom through one medium: partying. But how accurately do these movies describe our society? And what effect do these portrayals have on our society and culture? These movies take the extremes of high school and college and create a stereotype that give people the wrong impression of what high school and college are. Before I went to high school I was terrified. I taped up my locker because I was positive the seniors were going to harass me. High school was not that experience at all. And college hasn't been the partying experience that "Animal House" portrayed. These movies that romanticize and de-romanticize these educational experiences gives teens the wrong experience and sets unrealistic expectations of what college and high school will be like.
I agree with what you are saying about how films really create stereotypes about college and high school. What is interesting is how some aspects of high school, are romanticized in the same way your saying college is. In most high school movies the parties that the kids go to are completely unrealistic. One of the only movies I have seen that dose not romanticize the “partying” aspect of high school is Superbad. They do not have a crazy party at some lake house with six kegs and a DJ, like they would in American Pie or other movies. They have one friend with a bad fake ID and he buys alcohol for everyone. This is what my high school expericne was more like.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with this posting. Throughout my high school career, parties were not a big aspect for me and I wasn't pressured into doing anything I didn't want to do like how it is emphasized in the movies or commercials. My high school experience was actually quite boring and the classes weren't hard either. Coming to college, I was expecting a lot of drama and parties like in the movie show "Greek." There are many parties, but none are as hectic as the ones in Greek and nobody was out of control. Also, the frats and sorority are not as big of a part of the college experience as the movie had emphasized. College is just a lot of studying and making sure that time is divided between fun and seriousness evenly.
ReplyDeleteI am a huge fan of Mean Girls. However, the partying and the cliques and the drama were nothing like what I experienced during high school. I never experienced any crazy drama or scandalous rumors. In movies, many times college is portrayed in kids partying all night then sleeping through all of their classes or waking up, throwing on a pair of sweats, and heading to class only to sleep there as well. College seems completely different than this because most students take pride in school and working hard. There are some crazy parties around campus, but nothing compares to what is shown in movies.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with this post. I have never gone through any of the typical experiences that high school and college movies often portray. My high school was known to be quite snobby because of the wealth that some people had, but we still didn't really have cliques. It wasn't unusual for an athlete to be friend with a "band geek" or a "popular" person. Sure people stuck to their usual group of friends, but they weren't usually afraid to branch out. College was also the same. Fraternities and Sororities seem like the main thing in all college films, but I would honestly rather find a party somewhere else. They aren't that special or crazy. I would also go through the experiences i've had in my life than the ones you typically see in movies.
ReplyDeleteEveryone else also seems to agree with this post, which I also do. Not only are high school and college different in the partying aspect, but also the relative ages of the actors and people who are actually that age. In the movies it always seems like the actors playing "high school seniors" are about 21-22 and the actors playing college students are older than that. I am about to turn 21 and the seniors in high school movies make me look like I am 15.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with this post along with all of the rest of those who commented however I do think it is important to think about how these movies may construct what high school and college are like. I think some people who see these movies do expect partying when they get to college, I remember freshman year walking past a party where people were on the roof it was so crazy. I wonder where people learned this particular behavior from (possibly movies like that). I also think that the highschool scenes in mean girls may be somewhat justified, although this may not be everyone's experience at a large public school highschool seemed a lot like this and probably even more so like because of the construction of the movies letting us realize that's why highschool was like that (obviously not to the scope in mean girls).
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