Clueless Movie Analysis
Clueless About Stereotypes? This day and age people look at media differently, civilians give media producers and directors the right to generalize the population into categories. Not only do filmmakers and directors stereotype races by modifying their existence but also think it is perfectly acceptable. Why is it tolerable for people of different races to be looked down upon because of the ways media portrays them? Every movie makes its way to the top by some how standing out amongst the rest. The 1995 comedy and romance, Clueless by Amy Heckerling, clearly portrayed the White Americans as wealthy superficial and entitled.
This romantic comedy is told about a young American teenager named Cher (Alicia Silverstone) that is still in high …show more content…
school that is trying to set her bar higher than it already is. She has trouble doing so because she has a tendency to look down on others and only worry about herself or she will do something that would benefit her at the end of the day. Cher is also known as the most popular girl in school tries to take the new student under her wing and make her one of the popular girls. Soon Cher realizes that it backfired on her when the new girl in school, Tai (Brittany Murphy), becomes more popular than her. This leads to Cher being so frustrated. It’s clear to the audience, such as myself, that this movie right off the bat would be stereotyping the White individuals in the movie.
For many years different races have been around one another for simply different causes but mainly circling business. The business world brings many nationalities together. But who influences how people see one another when there is no partnership between them. It is safe to say that one thing that all individuals can agree on is that the media plays a large role on the way one views the opposite race. Some may disagree because of pure ignorance but truth surfaces when the time is right. Many times when looking at a African American lady people all of a sudden think “a struggling wife trying to make a living for her family” or when one sees a White woman they all of a sudden think “Beverly Hills housewife”. Matter of fact when one sees an American man the idea of “rich business man” comes to mind and if a person spotted a African American man walking on the street they would think “gangster”. Who does society have to thank for that? The media. What is actually very normal is for the person who is viewing others; they see themselves as better when truth is we all have the same blood running through out veins. As Edward Said mentioned in his piece Orientalism “To these authorities he also defers when it comes to explaining Orientals are the way they are… the crime was that the oriental was an oriental” (Said 39). Stereotyping is easy when its not referred to ones own group. It is safe to proceed to say that when people look at others that aren’t of the same race or color, they simple see themselves as occident rather than the rare orients. Watching this film more than once can open a persons perspective, especially after reviewing minor details of the film it is clear to state that the White-American population in that film was portrayed as the rich and powerful while the others such as the African Americans in the film were sought to be the less unfortunate.
Mentioned before when one thinks of a white pretty young lady that is in high school they start to picture either a cheerleader or the popular “hot” student that is praised by society around her. Cher definitely lives up to those expectations when she constantly is obsessed with what she wears and how she thinks that she is too good for all the boys that are after her. It doesn’t end there, no; Cher is constantly thinking that everyone is jealous of her life and how fabulous she has it due to her daddy being a lawyer. As soon as we see her in need of something the following scene comes when she goes and smoothers her daddy to get it for her. In other nationalities, many people have to work extremely hard for anything that they desire. Media portrays that White folks have it the easiest, even Cher said it in the film, “What’s the point when everywhere we go there is valet” (Clueless). Chances are slim to none to see an African American in a movie waiting for the valet guy to bring him or her their fancy expensive car. The media always throws in little scenes like those because they don’t think its subliminal but when truly speaking if the audience were to pay more attention to little details many people would actually be frustrated. When has there been a film that’s shown a white family member living a struggling life? Those kinds of movies are really rare to the majorities’ eyes.
What tends to be interesting in Clueless is that as though the movie is portraying the white Americans as the rich and powerful we get a glimpse of an African American young lady being almost as equal to Cher.
Dionne (Stacey Dash) plays a key role as a way to break the barrier of the rich and the poor. The media clearly wanted to make her character also rich so it would not seem as though they were pin pointing White American families. Referring back to the article Orientalism, Said mentioned that the occident were to be the dominant and the ones that observes other people while orients are to be the less fortunate in their eyes. In this movie particularly we can see that Dionne is stuck in the middle of the two barriers, who she wants to be and the group she longs to be apart of but does not want to let go of her true identity as an African American young lady. Yes she is rich just like her best friend Cher but she is also African American and she tends not to forget that by the way she speaks throughout the movie. She may be rich but she still knows where she comes from. Her actions and dialogue differs from the way she portrays herself to society. It can be stated that occident are the classier upper-class rich populations and the orients are the ghetto lower-class poor population. Cher and Dionne both qualify to be apart of the occident majority and their friends like Tia and Murray (Donald Faison) are orients and are looked down
upon. Not only does this movie focus on how high class American families tend to be more so in Beverly Hills elite society but it also throws in a few hints of how struggling other nationalities may be or just not at the higher end of society and standards. One scene perfectly stood out to explain the idea of other nationalities being on the lower half of societies standards. Cher’s friend Murray who is African American comes up to the group of friends with his pants hanging below his bottom and is having a dialogue in all slang and not proper English, which would then seem disrespectful and his girlfriend Dionne calls him out on it. It is perfectly clear that there are differences in society levels between the two specific groups of people by the different forms of dialogue. People regularly look at American families and think of how proper they speak and how family oriented they seem and they always carry themselves with higher manners and prestige. On the other hand even when a group views Americans like that, we have media to thank for that. That is what they display for the audience to see. It ends up being all that society knows, it ends up being the social norm. Throughout the movie, viewers will notice how the kids’ word overthrows the parents when smothering is involved unlike in African American families. Speaking of smothering, how many young ladies normally get plastic surgery when they’re only in high school? Better yet, does the location of that questions matter more? Beverly Hills is known to be a rich populated city where everything is high end and classy. It is more normal to see people of families that have been in American for a really long time and can afford large amounts of money than to see lower or middle class families in areas like those. As seen in the movie, Cher’s classmates get excused from their physical education class or even just stand around and constantly worry about their newly done nose jobs. It really comes to show that media affects how the younger generations view themselves and think what should be acceptable of them. There are far to many films in the movie industry that put focus on how White American ladies are so miraculously beautiful and front-page news and it gives the viewers reason to want to change themselves. Stereotyping women is just as wrong as stereotyping between races. As humans, everybody does what he or she thinks society wants of them. It is in our human nature to mimic what we all see as excellence. Individuals might see themselves as unique but it is safe to see ourselves more as clones of one another due to all the media coverage we have grown to idolize. Written in Mimicry and Man, “The menace of mimicry is its double vision which in disclosing the ambivalence of colonial discourse also disrupts its authority” (Bhaba, 88). When everyone is so caught up in changing himself or herself to be at equal or higher standards than someone, who is the one to be known as unique. The American individuals see themselves as the authority figure because of there long lasting stay in Americas and see other races as the colonist towards them, the people trying to adapt to higher standards. This movie has an adequate way of proving this theory that we all try to better ourselves so society will accept us. Cher always points out the lavishing items she owns and also gives us a background of her mansion in order to maintain its importance on her physical being. She states, “Isn 't my house classic? The columns dates all the way back to 1972” (Clueless). She clearly implies that her family has been around for many decades and how they are the vision to the lower class society. Part of being human is seeing fancy homes and items and saying “one day it will be mine” and that is where the mimicking comes to play. Everybody wants what he or she can’t have but it doesn’t stop them from trying. In life, everyone has come to realization that the opposite is needed to high sight the opposite. Murray is important in the movie so that he can highlight Cher. Murrays fail attempts at being high class emphasizes what Cher and Dionne are good at, being classy and rich. Murray can never get to Cher’s level as much as he tried and goes to the same school as her. When looking at these two different types of people, and contrasting them it helps the views seek out the stereotypical aspects of the movie. It’s quite astonishing to see that media has such an influence on society as the years progress. Media can range from television to social networking, but it would be impossible to state that one is better than another. There has been statistics done counting how many hours and minute’s difference races take watching television for the month of November in 2010. The study was done for ages 18-49, which we would think of the younger generations and also including nationalities such as Whites and African Americans. The Nielsen company came to its conclusion that, “individuals that are considered white watched five hours and two minutes a day and African Americans watched seven hours and twelve minutes” (Nielsen). By the looks of it, people are spending sufficient amount of time in front of the television set. The more people are intrigued about the different amount of shows and movies just like Clueless the amount of stereotypes will rise. Humans depend on the media for entertainment but they really do not see the harm it causes. All in all, media should be looked down upon more than praised by society because it is the reason for the amount of false stereotypical comments. No body every willingly takes criticisms that are made towards their race. As a fellow Armenian I have heard many hateful comments that have been made about my nationality because it has been all the stuff that’s been seen on television. Society should not give media the opportunity to stereotype between races and cause insufficient amounts of arguments. Amy Heckerling did an amazing job in sending subliminal amounts of stereotypical comments throughout her film Clueless but it was not hard to spot them when closely looking at it. The newer generations, the younger generations should not allow media all the power they are given. Filmmakers and directors should take in consideration that their viewers aren’t only one certain nationality and that they all vary. Take the torch away from the media producers and get them to understand that stereotyping different races is not and never has been and never will be acceptable.
My blog: http://stereotype-and-youre-a-clone.tumblr.com/
Works Cited
Bhabha, Homi K. "Of Minicry and Man." The Location of Culture. London: Routledge, 1994. 85-92. Print.
Clueless. Dir. Amy Heckerling, Perf. Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy, and Donald Adeosun Faison, Paramount Pictures, 1995. Film.
Said, Edward W. "Knowing the Oriental." Orientalism. New York: Vintage, 1979. 31-73. Print.
"State of the Media Trends in TV Viewing-2011 TV Upfronts." Nielsen. The Nielsen Company, 2011. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. .
This romantic comedy is told about a young American teenager named Cher (Alicia Silverstone) that is still in high …show more content…
school that is trying to set her bar higher than it already is. She has trouble doing so because she has a tendency to look down on others and only worry about herself or she will do something that would benefit her at the end of the day. Cher is also known as the most popular girl in school tries to take the new student under her wing and make her one of the popular girls. Soon Cher realizes that it backfired on her when the new girl in school, Tai (Brittany Murphy), becomes more popular than her. This leads to Cher being so frustrated. It’s clear to the audience, such as myself, that this movie right off the bat would be stereotyping the White individuals in the movie.
For many years different races have been around one another for simply different causes but mainly circling business. The business world brings many nationalities together. But who influences how people see one another when there is no partnership between them. It is safe to say that one thing that all individuals can agree on is that the media plays a large role on the way one views the opposite race. Some may disagree because of pure ignorance but truth surfaces when the time is right. Many times when looking at a African American lady people all of a sudden think “a struggling wife trying to make a living for her family” or when one sees a White woman they all of a sudden think “Beverly Hills housewife”. Matter of fact when one sees an American man the idea of “rich business man” comes to mind and if a person spotted a African American man walking on the street they would think “gangster”. Who does society have to thank for that? The media. What is actually very normal is for the person who is viewing others; they see themselves as better when truth is we all have the same blood running through out veins. As Edward Said mentioned in his piece Orientalism “To these authorities he also defers when it comes to explaining Orientals are the way they are… the crime was that the oriental was an oriental” (Said 39). Stereotyping is easy when its not referred to ones own group. It is safe to proceed to say that when people look at others that aren’t of the same race or color, they simple see themselves as occident rather than the rare orients. Watching this film more than once can open a persons perspective, especially after reviewing minor details of the film it is clear to state that the White-American population in that film was portrayed as the rich and powerful while the others such as the African Americans in the film were sought to be the less unfortunate.
Mentioned before when one thinks of a white pretty young lady that is in high school they start to picture either a cheerleader or the popular “hot” student that is praised by society around her. Cher definitely lives up to those expectations when she constantly is obsessed with what she wears and how she thinks that she is too good for all the boys that are after her. It doesn’t end there, no; Cher is constantly thinking that everyone is jealous of her life and how fabulous she has it due to her daddy being a lawyer. As soon as we see her in need of something the following scene comes when she goes and smoothers her daddy to get it for her. In other nationalities, many people have to work extremely hard for anything that they desire. Media portrays that White folks have it the easiest, even Cher said it in the film, “What’s the point when everywhere we go there is valet” (Clueless). Chances are slim to none to see an African American in a movie waiting for the valet guy to bring him or her their fancy expensive car. The media always throws in little scenes like those because they don’t think its subliminal but when truly speaking if the audience were to pay more attention to little details many people would actually be frustrated. When has there been a film that’s shown a white family member living a struggling life? Those kinds of movies are really rare to the majorities’ eyes.
What tends to be interesting in Clueless is that as though the movie is portraying the white Americans as the rich and powerful we get a glimpse of an African American young lady being almost as equal to Cher.
Dionne (Stacey Dash) plays a key role as a way to break the barrier of the rich and the poor. The media clearly wanted to make her character also rich so it would not seem as though they were pin pointing White American families. Referring back to the article Orientalism, Said mentioned that the occident were to be the dominant and the ones that observes other people while orients are to be the less fortunate in their eyes. In this movie particularly we can see that Dionne is stuck in the middle of the two barriers, who she wants to be and the group she longs to be apart of but does not want to let go of her true identity as an African American young lady. Yes she is rich just like her best friend Cher but she is also African American and she tends not to forget that by the way she speaks throughout the movie. She may be rich but she still knows where she comes from. Her actions and dialogue differs from the way she portrays herself to society. It can be stated that occident are the classier upper-class rich populations and the orients are the ghetto lower-class poor population. Cher and Dionne both qualify to be apart of the occident majority and their friends like Tia and Murray (Donald Faison) are orients and are looked down
upon. Not only does this movie focus on how high class American families tend to be more so in Beverly Hills elite society but it also throws in a few hints of how struggling other nationalities may be or just not at the higher end of society and standards. One scene perfectly stood out to explain the idea of other nationalities being on the lower half of societies standards. Cher’s friend Murray who is African American comes up to the group of friends with his pants hanging below his bottom and is having a dialogue in all slang and not proper English, which would then seem disrespectful and his girlfriend Dionne calls him out on it. It is perfectly clear that there are differences in society levels between the two specific groups of people by the different forms of dialogue. People regularly look at American families and think of how proper they speak and how family oriented they seem and they always carry themselves with higher manners and prestige. On the other hand even when a group views Americans like that, we have media to thank for that. That is what they display for the audience to see. It ends up being all that society knows, it ends up being the social norm. Throughout the movie, viewers will notice how the kids’ word overthrows the parents when smothering is involved unlike in African American families. Speaking of smothering, how many young ladies normally get plastic surgery when they’re only in high school? Better yet, does the location of that questions matter more? Beverly Hills is known to be a rich populated city where everything is high end and classy. It is more normal to see people of families that have been in American for a really long time and can afford large amounts of money than to see lower or middle class families in areas like those. As seen in the movie, Cher’s classmates get excused from their physical education class or even just stand around and constantly worry about their newly done nose jobs. It really comes to show that media affects how the younger generations view themselves and think what should be acceptable of them. There are far to many films in the movie industry that put focus on how White American ladies are so miraculously beautiful and front-page news and it gives the viewers reason to want to change themselves. Stereotyping women is just as wrong as stereotyping between races. As humans, everybody does what he or she thinks society wants of them. It is in our human nature to mimic what we all see as excellence. Individuals might see themselves as unique but it is safe to see ourselves more as clones of one another due to all the media coverage we have grown to idolize. Written in Mimicry and Man, “The menace of mimicry is its double vision which in disclosing the ambivalence of colonial discourse also disrupts its authority” (Bhaba, 88). When everyone is so caught up in changing himself or herself to be at equal or higher standards than someone, who is the one to be known as unique. The American individuals see themselves as the authority figure because of there long lasting stay in Americas and see other races as the colonist towards them, the people trying to adapt to higher standards. This movie has an adequate way of proving this theory that we all try to better ourselves so society will accept us. Cher always points out the lavishing items she owns and also gives us a background of her mansion in order to maintain its importance on her physical being. She states, “Isn 't my house classic? The columns dates all the way back to 1972” (Clueless). She clearly implies that her family has been around for many decades and how they are the vision to the lower class society. Part of being human is seeing fancy homes and items and saying “one day it will be mine” and that is where the mimicking comes to play. Everybody wants what he or she can’t have but it doesn’t stop them from trying. In life, everyone has come to realization that the opposite is needed to high sight the opposite. Murray is important in the movie so that he can highlight Cher. Murrays fail attempts at being high class emphasizes what Cher and Dionne are good at, being classy and rich. Murray can never get to Cher’s level as much as he tried and goes to the same school as her. When looking at these two different types of people, and contrasting them it helps the views seek out the stereotypical aspects of the movie. It’s quite astonishing to see that media has such an influence on society as the years progress. Media can range from television to social networking, but it would be impossible to state that one is better than another. There has been statistics done counting how many hours and minute’s difference races take watching television for the month of November in 2010. The study was done for ages 18-49, which we would think of the younger generations and also including nationalities such as Whites and African Americans. The Nielsen company came to its conclusion that, “individuals that are considered white watched five hours and two minutes a day and African Americans watched seven hours and twelve minutes” (Nielsen). By the looks of it, people are spending sufficient amount of time in front of the television set. The more people are intrigued about the different amount of shows and movies just like Clueless the amount of stereotypes will rise. Humans depend on the media for entertainment but they really do not see the harm it causes. All in all, media should be looked down upon more than praised by society because it is the reason for the amount of false stereotypical comments. No body every willingly takes criticisms that are made towards their race. As a fellow Armenian I have heard many hateful comments that have been made about my nationality because it has been all the stuff that’s been seen on television. Society should not give media the opportunity to stereotype between races and cause insufficient amounts of arguments. Amy Heckerling did an amazing job in sending subliminal amounts of stereotypical comments throughout her film Clueless but it was not hard to spot them when closely looking at it. The newer generations, the younger generations should not allow media all the power they are given. Filmmakers and directors should take in consideration that their viewers aren’t only one certain nationality and that they all vary. Take the torch away from the media producers and get them to understand that stereotyping different races is not and never has been and never will be acceptable.
My blog: http://stereotype-and-youre-a-clone.tumblr.com/
Works Cited
Bhabha, Homi K. "Of Minicry and Man." The Location of Culture. London: Routledge, 1994. 85-92. Print.
Clueless. Dir. Amy Heckerling, Perf. Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy, and Donald Adeosun Faison, Paramount Pictures, 1995. Film.
Said, Edward W. "Knowing the Oriental." Orientalism. New York: Vintage, 1979. 31-73. Print.
"State of the Media Trends in TV Viewing-2011 TV Upfronts." Nielsen. The Nielsen Company, 2011. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. .