The Suburban High School Teen Film: The Changing Values and Ideology of the Social Outcast Teenager

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The Suburban High School Teen Film:

The Changing Values and Ideology of the Social Outcast

Teenager

Tessa Jonkers Student number: 10085173 24 June 2016

Thesis supervisor: Erik Laeven

Thesis second reader: Gerwin van der Pol Master Media Studies: Film Studies. University of Amsterdam

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Abstract

In this thesis the shy and insecure social outcast protagonist in recent suburban high school teen films is discussed. The thesis focuses on the changing values of the

protagonist with the following research question: What do the changing values of the protagonists in the recent suburban high school teen films The perks of being a

wallflower (2012), If I stay (2014), and The Duff (2015) teach the teenage audience

about America society? In order to answer this research question the social outcast is first traced back trough teen film history from the 1950s onwards. The following chapter starts with looking at ideology and values. The next sections discuss which values and ideologies can be expected in the protagonists, by looking at the ideology in the teen film, the American Dream, the developmental tasks of the teenager, and gender. The analysis shows how the protagonist is overall concerned with individual values connected to openness to change, self-‐esteem and emotional independence. Therefore it is concluded that the recent suburban high school teen films teach the teenage audience the American political ideology of liberalism.

Keywords

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Introduction

‘‘Welcome to the island of misfit toys.’’ Sam says in the film The Perks of being a

wallflower (2012). Her description of ‘‘misfit toys’’ captures the shy and insecure

character type of a lot of the protagonists in recent Hollywood suburban high school teen films. I have always liked Hollywood teen films because they are easy to watch; most of them contain a simple upbeat story with a happy ending. However my

fascination for teen films has grown since the focus of recent suburban high school films on a shy and insecure social outcast that needs to come out of his or her secure comfort place and go out in the world to experience new things and become more social. This is often accompanied by a flourishing romantic relationship with a teenager of the

opposite sex, that is already feeling comfortable with him or herself, and in a social clique they feel at ease in. The films deal furthermore often with serious themes like illness, substance abuse, underage drinking and bullying, while still keeping an upbeat feeling in the film. The films Now is good (2012), The Fault in Our Stars (2014), and Me,

Earl and the Dying Girl (2015) for example have teenage main characters that have

cancer and die at the end of the film. This treatment of serious themes, while still

maintaining an upbeat feeling, has made me interested in the social outcast protagonists in the suburban high school films. Recent teen films like LOL (2012) and The Bling Ring (2013) are excluded because the protagonists already feel confident at the beginning of the film are not shy and already found their social clique.

Bulman states that films not only reflect but also shape culture. He argues that the Hollywood film industry can be seen as a ‘‘socialising institution’’, they influence how the audience makes sense of life in society, and they both teach the audience who they are and reflect whom they are. He gives three explanations for this relation

between the teen film and society. First the creative artists, often adults, want to express something about their society. There is also a commercial factor, in which the

commercial interests of the film industry reflect American culture. The third one is that the amount of the box office shows how well the film resonated with the audience, and thus reflects society. Hollywood teen films are thus a reflection of American society but this relationship and mutual influence between real American society and the film text however is not straightforward and all embracing. Bulman argues that American society and its shared values are too complicated for this. The focus on a specific social group

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furthermore like the suburban teenager in the film text, does not exclude teenagers or other audience members with different social and economic backgrounds of being influenced by the film text (Bulman 7-‐8). The high school teen films have especially for the teenage audience a teaching potential, as the teenager is still developing his or her identity. They also have a greater learning potential for the teenager than for other audience age groups because the films portray the life of a teenager that goes to school, experiences events and is situated in an environment similar to the teenage audience that is watching them. The teenage audience will therefore relate the most to the

experiences of the protagonist in the films. The research question thence is: What do the changing values of the protagonists in the recent suburban high school teen films The

perks of being a wallflower (2012), If I stay (2014), and The Duff (2015) teach the

teenage audience about America society? By focusing on three suburban high school teen films from the past four years that have a social outcast as protagonist, the similarities of the protagonist’s values will be discussed.

The mutual influence of the film text and society is often studied within Media Studies by looking at ideology. Ideology within media texts has been researched for a long time within Media Studies, but there is not much research on the specific values that are connected to the ideologies. Bulman has linked the high school teen film genre to an ideology of individualism and has connected several values to it (19-‐25), which will be discussed in chapter two. What is still generally missing however, is research into the specific values and especially the changing ones of the protagonists in films and specifically teen films. It is therefore interesting to look at the changing values of the protagonists in recent suburban high school teen films and see what ideologies they can be connected to.

Ghosh explains that in American society there has been a long tradition of what is called the American Dream, which promotes an ideology of individualism; trough hard work and fair play an individual can achieve success independently (7-‐14). This ideology of individualism is reflected in the high school teen film genre, that according to Bulman teaches the audience two kinds of individualisms (7-‐22). It is therefore relevant to see if the American Dream is indeed reflected in the changing values of the teenage

protagonists and if the ideology of individualism argued by Bulman can be found in them. Not the stable but only the changing values of the protagonists will be discussed

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because development is in protagonists but also especially for teenagers of great importance, this will be further discussed in chapter two.

If in the Google search engine the three words ‘‘America High School’’ are typed, the first suggestion for the fourth word is ‘‘holiday’’, the second however is of a whole different nature, namely ‘‘shooting’’. In America there is a history of shootings at schools with the most notorious one at Columbine High School in 1999 and a recent one in 2015 at Umpqua Community College in Oregon (Spooner n. pag). A Federal report released in 2014 furthermore indicates an increase in violence and crime at schools according to Bidwell (n. pag). In light of the growing violence and crime and continuing shootings, it is relevant to look at the values that these recent high school teen films convey to the audience, especially the teenage audience it is primarily aimed at. Does this climate at high schools in America influence the suburban high school teen genre, and will the films as a consequence promote social values of following the rules of society and caring for another (see figure 1)? Or have these developments and events no effect on the high school teen film genre and persists the individualism that Gosh and Bulman discuss in the changing values of the protagonists?

Before going deeper into the teen film genre, the terms ‘‘teenager’’ and

‘‘adolescent’’ need to be explained a bit further. Scholars often use the terms teenager and adolescent interchangeably to indicate the period of life from around eleven to nineteen years (Cobb 3). In media studies the term teenager is often used to indicate this age group and the teen film subgenre has been named after it, therefore this term will be adopted here as well.

What is the Hollywood teen film genre? The teen film genre developed a prominent place in Hollywood during the 1950s with films like Rebel without a cause (1955) and Teenage Doll (1957) and became standardized during the 1980s with John Hughes films like The Breakfast Club (1985). These teen films ‘‘created or crystallized many stock expectations and character types that we find in the canonical work of the teen genre over the ensuing two decades’’ (Kaveney 3). They raised expectations of having a social outcast as protagonist, but also of being situated in suburbs focused on middle-‐class, with stereotypes like that of the cheerleader, the jock and the nerd

(Kaveney 3-‐4). Bulman states that the films always show a rite of passage and personal development of the teenage protagonist. Often symbolized in specific events like the loss of virginity, going to prom, and developing a romantic relationship with someone of the

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opposite sex. The genre can be split up in several subgenres like the teen horror, comedy, musical, science fiction, and drama film. The films in this study fall under the genre labels of mainly drama, romance, and comedy. The focus is hereby on the high school teen film subgenre, with the protagonist going to high school, with at least a couple of scenes situated at that school. Bulman explains the high school teen film genre can be split-‐up between three subgenres the urban public high school, the suburban public high school, and the private high school (6-‐19). The focus in this thesis will be on the suburban public high school situated in American middle-‐class, excluding therefore the poor and rich segment of American society in teenage films. An interesting film for example might have been Dope (2015), which is centred on teenagers coming from a tough ethnic neighbourhood. Like Kaveney states however, films about African-‐

American teenagers and other ethnicities mostly can be seen as a genre on itself, with its own expectations and standards (7). The different social and economic background of the ethnic teenager is also likely to cause a different personal development compared to that of the middle-‐class teenager.

To find out what the changing values are of the shy and insecure social outcast in the suburban high school teen film genre, chapter one will begin with looking at the teen film genre, with the emphasis on the high school subgenre and the social outcast. In the first section of chapter one, the beginning of the teen film genre will be discussed and how it was intertwined with the notion of the teenager, this will indicate how the mutual influence between the two was there from the beginning of the genre. The second

section traces the development of the teen film genre, to see where the social outcast in my corpus originates from, and to look at the expectations that accompany the high school teen film subgenre. In the third section, the three films of my corpus will be situated in the overall wave of teenager films since the 2000s. This will help explain how the three films resonate with the teenage audience, and thus are likely to teach the teenage audience about values and ideology. In chapter two, values will be discussed in relation to American ideology, teenager development, and gender. The first section will discuss what ideology entails because it is a much-‐discussed term, and a graph on values of Vollmer and Randler will be treated, that will be used as the basis value model of individual and social values (see figure 1). In the following section the dominant ideology of the American Dream in American society will be explained and how it promotes an ideology individualism. In section three the theory of Bulman is discussed

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that argues there are two specific kinds of individualisms in the high school teen film that can be connected to certain values. It is interesting to see if the same individualisms Bulman speaks of are still present in the recent teen films of my corpus. In section four the development of the teenager is discussed and which values are expected to change in the teenager during this development. This will explain what value changes are to be expected in the teenage protagonist. The last section of chapter two will describe

Butler’s theory on gender performativity, to explain how gender roles are a performance and how they influence the teenager and his or her values. Butler’s theory on media iterability will hereby also be discussed to show how the media contribute to these gender roles. The section will end by looking at how gender roles and biological development result in different emphasises on certain values of the male and female teenager. At the end of chapter two, a conclusion will provide an overview of all the discussed values of the teenager, which will be presented in one model (see figure 2). In chapters three to five, the changing values of the protagonists will be tracked from the beginning to the end. The appendix will provide a summary of the films. Each chapter presents the analysis of a film of my corpus, and will begin with looking at the values of the protagonist at the beginning of the film. After that the most important events of the protagonist in the rest of the film will be discussed, to see what change in values of the protagonist occur in them. In the conclusion an overview will be given and the analysis of the films will be compared. The comparison will lead to the conclusion of what the overall changing values of the protagonists are in recent suburban high school teen films, and if these reflect an ideology of individualism. This will result in the answer to my research question, of what the changing values of the protagonists teach the teenage audience about American society in recent suburban high school teen films.

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Chapter One: The Social Outcast in the High School Teen Film

1.1 What is the Hollywood teen film genre?

Before the history of the Hollywood teen film can be traced, this section will look at what films can be said to fall under this genre. Most films that are considered teen films

present stories about teenagers for a teenage audience (Driscoll 3). Driscoll highlights narrative conventions that can often be found in the genre:

the youthfulness of central characters; content usually centred on young heterosexuality, frequently with a romance plot; intense age-‐based peer relationships and conflict either within those relationships or with an older generation; the institutional management of adolescence by families, schools, and other institutions; and coming-‐of-‐age plots focused on motifs like virginity,

graduation, and the makeover. (2)

How the genre further is defined, mostly depends on where the scholar places the beginning of the teen genre. Driscoll states there are generally two agreed upon beginnings, one starting in the 1950s and the other one in the 1980s (9).

Kaveney deviates from most teen film scholars in that he places the starting point of the teen film in the 1980s, which leads to a more strict definition of the teen film genre. In his book Teen Dreams (2006) he says that his focus is on films, that show the lives of American teenagers, particularly their interactions taking place in and around high school. These films however only fall under the teen film genre according to Kaveney when they are made in or after the 1980s and fit certain criteria. He is of the opinion that the teen film genre is an outcome of the 1980s John Hughes teen films, which will be discussed later on. Kaveney thinks that Hughes films for the most part set the standards and expectations for teen films to follow in the next two decades. Other films of the 1980s influenced the genre as well but not as much as Hughes films did. He also excludes films that treat teenagers as ‘‘a problem to be understood and solved’’, something films of the 1950s often did (Kaveney 1-‐6).

Although according to Driscoll, Kaveney is not the only one who sees the

beginning of the teen film genre in the 1980s, the beginning of the teen film genre is in this chapter located in the 1950s. Like Driscoll says, scholars who place the genre around this time acknowledge how the genre was influenced by the upcoming notion of the teenager and Hollywood’s awareness of this demographic as film topic and audience

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(9). It is therefore important to briefly look at how the uprising of the teen film genre is linked to the development of the notion of the teenager around the same time. It

demonstrates how the genre and the teenager influenced each other from the beginning of the teen film genre.

The concept of the teenager is a rather recent concept, the teenage years were only recognized as a distinct stage of life with the rise and development of

industrialization and urbanisation. Before that in the early twentieth century, children only had a few years of being a teenager, as they would often leave school at the age of fourteen to start working and many were married and had kids by the time they turned eighteen. The teenagers then, did not need to think about what they wanted to do in life because they probably would follow in their parent’s footsteps. With the ending of the Second World War, kids stayed longer in high school and more attended college, causing an elongation of the teenage years and an uncertain future because of the new

possibilities for the now emerging teenager. High school played an important role in this. Until the 1930s it was mostly attended by the middle-‐class, but in the 1930s it started to serve a bigger segment of the population. This was a consequence of the scarcity of jobs caused by the Great Depression and a greater demand for skilled workers, that both made it more appealing for people to attend and stay in high school (Bulman 34 – 35; Shary 2002 3).

So the relative new notion of the teenager was a product of social, cultural, economic and political developments, which inspired Hollywood to make teen films specifically for a teenager audience (Bulman 35-‐36). It took up to the mid-‐1950s for the genre to really take off; this had several reasons according to Shary. First, Americans could spend more because of the rising post-‐ware economy, which lead them to buying homes and cars and move to the suburbs. This gave teenagers more independence and mobility because they could move around in a car on their own, to leisure activities they now had the money for. The drive-‐in-‐theatre became a popular hang out spot for

teenagers to socialize, the mall with build-‐in multiplex theatres later replaced this. In the 1950s, television as a new medium entered the living rooms of American households. This made box offices drop, motivating Hollywood even more to focus on the teenage audience because they still went to the movies in great numbers. This was made easier by two Supreme Court decisions that would have a continuing effect on Hollywood and in the end increase the output of teen films. The first was the ‘Paramount Case’ in 1948

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that made the major movie studios sell their movie theatres, which gave many small independent studios more access to theatres, in which they showed films for niche audiences like teenagers. The second was the ‘Miracle Decision’ in 1952 that

undermined the Production Code, which allowed studios to portray a bigger variety of moral issues. This in turn attracted teenager to watch films instead of television because it now offered more adult themes. Making the teenager the most desired audience for Hollywood by the mid-‐1950s (Shary, 2005 17-‐18). The emergence of the teenager and the teen film around the same time shows both the way in which the notion of the teenager inspired the beginning of this genre, and how the teenager was attracted to the teenage films because of its content that specifically appealed to them. This two-‐way connection will be explained in more detail, in the account of more recent teen films in section three.

1.2 The development of the teen film genre

This section will look at how the development of the teen film genre was intertwined with the American teenager, and the role of the social outcast in this genre. The focus will be specifically on the mid-‐1950s, 1980s and 2000s-‐untill now, because these were the most influential periods for the recent high school teen films of my corpus.

According to Shary, David Considene’s study in The Cinema of adolescence (1985) shows how before the 1930s there was not a distinctive teen genre. Before and after the Second World War there were some films with youth in it, but in the mid-‐1950s the teen film got a solid hold in Hollywood with the youth delinquency film. Instead of blaming the delinquency on poverty like Hollywood did in the 1930s, in the 1950s delinquency was a result of several other factors like ‘’school, parents, courts, urbanisation,

suburbanisation, and increasingly teens themselves’’ (Shary 2005 7-‐19).

Two films are particularly seen as the beginning and high point of the youth delinquency genre both by Shary and Driscoll, and according to Driscoll many others (Driscoll 28-‐29; Shary 2005 21). The first one is Rebel without a cause (1955), in which the beginning of the teenage social outcast can be seen. In the film protagonist Jim played by James Dean, feels a social outcast because he is the new kid in town and is trying to fit in at high school without conforming to the standards of his classmates. The film shows Jim as a teenager searching for direction in his life, in a realistic instead of a pedantic way according to Shary. That, together with Dean as an icon of cool rebel, made

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the film a symbol for youth trying to discover and owning their identity, a theme still present in the teen films of today (Shary, 2005 21-‐23). Rebel without a cause thus shows how the social outcast was already present in the 1950s, but in a cool and rebellious character, that struggles to fit in with his fellow students and is in search for his identity. The second film often referred to is Blackboard Jungle (1955), but this film focuses more on a teacher who tries to gain authority over his disinterested students, than on a

teenage social outcast.

Although the shy and insecure social outcast is more an outcome of the later prominent high school teen film subgenre particularly its stereotype nerd, that replaced the youth delinquency film in popularity, this does show how the social outcast came into being in the youth delinquency film. This teenage character was a reflection of a time in which America’s economy thrived, it was building a nuclear arsenal, the country struggled with increasing racial conflicts and its youth grew restive. This led to an overall anxiety of the teenager in society, and this fear of teenagers founds its way into popular culture and politics, and thus also the teen film (Shary 2002 4; Shary 2005 20-‐ 25). So the American teenager significantly influenced the 1950s youth delinquent film.

The youth delinquent film would continue to be made into the 1960s, however these films never achieved the status of these two 1955 films (Shary 2002 4; Shary 2005 20-‐25). The 60s and 70s were more diversified in their teen topics and this is often where the subgenres come into focus in teen film histories according to Shary. He argues that from the late 1950s into the late 1960s, there were four prominent teen film

subgenres: rock movies, beach movies, teen horror and teen melodramas. The teen melodrama is most closely related to the later high school genre and its social outcast, although alienation played a larger role in the teen horror, the melodrama films took teenagers struggles serious. Now that the production code was less strict, studios could show teenagers dealing with more serious issues like sexuality and morality, drugs and alcohol. (Shary 2005 29-‐35).

The 1960s were turbulent years for the teenager, as teenagers were sent to Vietnam and were still not allowed to vote under the age of twenty-‐one. This meant more 1960 teen films that explored rebellion on the surface, but in the end treated it lightly, to not incite the teenage audience. The 1970 teenager was more at ease, and Shary argues that with rebellion no longer being a current issue and thus not marketable for the studios, the production of teen films ceased (2005 37-‐38).

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The 1980s however turned out to be a significant period for the teen film,

something Shary, Driscoll, and Kaveney all agree upon. According to Shary the teenager in the 1980s was annoyed with adult authority because of the Republican ‘just say no’ stance on important teenage choices, whereas American teens wanted to experiment with things like sex and drugs (2005 54). Driscoll furthermore claims that teen films in this decade no longer treated adulthood as something desirable or attainable. However as Driscoll explains by quoting Doherty, the teenager in the teen film no longer showed a desire for rebellion or independence from their parents, they could be seen to long for general authority and that of their parents (Doherty 196 qtd. in Driscoll 53-‐54).

Shary thinks that David Cook (2004) offers a strong argument of why the teen film gained such a presence again at the end of the 1970s. Cook explains that 1970s successful science-‐fiction blockbusters marketed to youth like Stars Wars (1977) and

Superman (1978), convinced Hollywood to aim at the teen audience the way they did in

the 1950s. Shary additionally emphasizes the importance of the shopping mall in this period, an important factor that contributed to Hollywood’s renewed interest in the teenager as market force. Hollywood had already realized the importance of multiplexes with multiple screens, to offer more variety and choice to the audience. In the 1980s most of these multiplexes moved to shopping malls, making the teenagers already hanging out there an appealing audience. This not only resulted in many teen films in the 1980s, but also in a greater variety of character types and situations. Hollywood understood it had to keep up with the ever-‐changing teenager interests and styles, to ensure a continues teenage box office. The multiple screens also gave the American teenager a greater choice of films to go to, prompting Hollywood to provide a greater range of settings on screen. Hollywood achieved this by giving already established genres like horror and musicals more dramatic depth. Instead of the teen films of the 1950s, that had a very rigid line between good and evil, the 1980s teen film offered the teenager a greater mix of personal options and more complex moral choices. As a result the teenager was more likely to come across characters and situations they could reflect on, which could help them with their own identity development (Shary 2002 6-‐7; Shary 2005 54-‐55).

The beginning of the 1980s was a new start for the American teen film with several popular horror teen films in 1981 and the film Fast times at Ridgemont High (1982), the first film that successfully combined sex, school and delinquency

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components. A lot of teen films in the 1980s started to show teenagers performing sexual activities, often in a negative way by portraying it as something complicated, dissatisfying and potentially dangerous. The involvement in sexual practices was mostly seen in comedies, in which a teenager sought to lose its virginity. The numerous teen films and their variety in situations led to the beginning of several subgenres and cycles between 1980 and 1985, of which Shary distinguishes six; the horror film, sex comedy film, teen-‐tech science film, revisionist teen film, the African-‐American crime cycle, and youth by John Hughes (2005 56-‐87).

John Hughes had a great influence on the high school subgenre that gained prominence during these years. Between 1984 and 1987 Hughes wrote, directed or did both on six teen films, beginning with Sixteen Candles (1984) (Shary 2005 68). Hughes films were all situated in Illinois suburbs and tended to favour outsiders and underdogs, a tendency that is still present in the films discussed in this thesis. What made Hughes approach so new, was that he took teenagers and their struggles and problems serious, by showing their complex background stories (Kaveney 3-‐46). He also succeeded in portraying the teen experience in a more realistic way from a variety of perspectives, increasing the chance for the teenager to relate to a character (Shary 2005 67).

The Breakfast Club is seen as the most influential film of Hughes oeuvre because

of its ‘‘experimentation, character development, and lasting legacy’’ (Shary 2005 68). In the film, five high school students are forced to spend detention in the school library on a Saturday afternoon. At first glance they each seem to only present a particular

stereotype, but in the course of the film their personal, social and parental struggles are presented, and the audience finds out there is more behind the outward presentation of these characters. The film concludes with the character Brian saying that they all inhabit the five stereotypes they each represent and thus are more complex than they appear at first glance. Shary argues that the five stereotypes are teen stereotypes that can be found in the American teen high school films since the 1950s; bitter working-‐class John Bender ‘‘the delinquent’’, basket case Alison the ‘‘rebel’’, smart kid Brian ‘‘the nerd’’, athlete Andy ‘‘the jock’’, and pretty Alison ‘‘the popular girl’’. Brain is most related to the shy and insecure social outcast in my high school films. He is described by Shary as intellectually confident, but physically and socially awkward (2002 8; 2005 68). At the end of the film Brian has not changed much, he is still comfortable with who he is, and is not trying to change himself under the beauty and coolness standards of high school. So

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he presents the stereotype of the social outcast in my selection of films, that on the social and physical level may not fit in with the popular crowed but does not long for this anyway.

By the late 1980s the teen film again ceased in box office with the rise of the home video and cable television, and the growing up of the teen stars (Shary 2005 56). In the mid-‐1990s the teen film again became more popular, with television providing new teen stars. The teen films of this period would handle a greater range of teen issues, not only focusing on crime and sex but also looking at sexual orientation and gender discrimination. Shary notices a particular shift in the portrayal of female characters. Before the 1990s they often followed boys around ‘‘with their intelligence and confidence often compromised by their longing for a boy or another disruptive circumstance...’’ (Shary 2005 90). In the mid-‐1990s however, with woman in America gaining stronger positions in business, the female characters got more venturous and developed more depth. This stronger image of woman was expressed in a variety of ways in the teenage character, but was most strongly present in what Shary calls the ‘‘tough girl’’ films at the end of the 1990s. In these films girls toughness was expressed trough their delinquency. The tough girl quickly spread into other genres like the horror and comedy. This has resulted in a more complex and independent female character at the turn of the century according (Shary 2005 90-‐94).

This historical overview shows how intertwined the teen film genre was with the American teenager and American society, and how the social outcast was already

present in the rebel of the 1950s and the nerd of 1980s. Teen films from the 2000s until now show however a new type of social outcast, a more shy and insecure one.

1.3 The high school subgenre since the 2000s

The shy and insecure social outcast in recent suburban high school teen films that was discussed in the introduction, is situated in a period of popularity of the overall teen genre since the 2000s. The success of the film series Harry Potter (2001-‐2011) and

Twilight (2008-‐2012) based on successful books has renewed Hollywood’s interest in

teen films in the 2000s. Their success has inspired Hollywood to adapt more books and book series that are aimed at teenage readers, labelled under ‘‘young adult literature’’. The books are turned into big productions most of them in the fantasy, horror or mystery genre like The Hunger Games (2012-‐2015) and Divergent (2014-‐) series, or

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smaller drama and comedy indie films like the films of my corpus. The trend has also caught on in the television networks with shows like The Vampire Diaries (2009-‐) and

Pretty Little Liars (2010-‐). In this new adaptation trend, female characters are given

more stronger and prominent roles, and they are more often at the centre of the

narrative driving the story forward. This development initially began according to Shary with the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-‐2013) television series (2014 x-‐xi).

Hollywood’s use of pre-‐existing books makes economic sense according to Shary because the correct expectation exists that teenagers want to see the film of a book they have already read. The same formula of using texts that already proved to be successful can be seen in the remakes Hollywood is making in the 2000s, of 1980s teen films like

Fame (1980) and Footloose (1984). The neat box offices of recent high school films, and

the fact that they are adaptations of already popular books, shows how the texts resonate with teenagers, which are their target audience. This does not mean the films and books were exclusively visited by teens, but they were aimed mostly at them, and teens responded to this (Shary 2014 ix-‐xi). This shows how much of a teaching potential these films have for the American teenage audience.

To teach or influence teenagers, Lamers argues it is of importance to talk ‘‘with’’ the teenager instead of ‘‘to’’ the teenager. The basic goodness in teenagers needs to be recognised and understood by the older generations in order to establish the

understanding, trust and communication with the teenager, that is needed in order to pass on knowledge and influence their personality and behaviour (Lamers 132-‐134). The teen high school film lends itself for this because it is situated in the world of teenagers.

The recent suburban high school teen films are thus part of a film adaption wave of Hollywood. The box office success of these films show how these teen films resonate with the teen audience and the potential influence they can have on the teenager audience to teach them about American society. The next chapter will therefore look at dominant ideologies and values in American society and in the teen film genre. It will furthermore discuss the values that are expected to develop in the teenager and the role gender plays in this. First however, the terms ‘‘ideology’’ and ‘‘value’’ need to be

discussed in more detail.

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Chapter Two: American Teenage Ideology and Values

2.1 Defining ideology and values

‘‘Ideology’’ is a term that is hard to define but there are several corresponding

components in its definitions. Two definitions are therefore discussed, that combined will provide an adequate definition. Jost et al. give a clear and neat description of ideology, they explain how ideologies form and convey ‘‘widely (but not unanimously) shared beliefs, opinions, and values of an identifiable group, class, constituency, or society...’’ (309). Ideology works both ways, it describes and interprets the world as it is and it envisions how the world should be, so it tells us the proper way to achieve social, economic and political ideals. Thus Jost et al. conclude that various ideologies ‘‘represent socially shared but competing philosophies of life and how it should be lived (and how society should be governed)…’’ (309).

Dolbeare and Medcalf give a similar definition of ideology, they describe it as ‘‘a more or less coherent set of values, beliefs and hopes (and sometimes fears) about how the world does and should work’’ (3). Interesting is that they emphasize the link between ideology and values. They explain how ideology tells people what they see and how to understand what is happening around them, and it helps them decide if something is good or bad. This is because ideology is deeply rooted in values and depends on often unconscious assumptions, according to Dolbeare and Medcalf (3-‐4).

Ideology can thus be said to encompass a set of beliefs, opinions, and values widely shared by an identifiable group of people. This cluster of agreements is both a reflection of the world as it is and aims to visualize the world as it should be. Since the aim is to look at the values of the protagonists, the concept ‘‘value’’ also deserves some further attention.

‘‘Value’’ similar to ideology, is a concept that’s difficult to define, D’Andrade says it is generally connected to the idea of something being good. It is a polysemous word, in that it can refer to different things, of which he lists five; the amount or quantity of some variable, the preference for or utility of something, the price of something, the goodness of something important, the degree to which something is morally right. In his research he decides to use the fourth one ‘‘the goodness of something important’’ (D’Andrade 4-‐ 11). This definition will also be used, because it refers to things people find important

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and positive, so it can be seen as qualities and characteristics that are valued in a teenager.

Vollmer and Randler in their study provide a clear and neat graph of how values are organised, using a study of Schwartz in which he developed a ‘‘theory of the

structure of human values’’ based on data of twenty countries (Schwartz 1992). The graph will form the basis for the rest of the values discussion in this chapter because it provides a neat overview of basic values and is based on extensive research by

Schwartz. Schwartz furthermore ordered the basic values under four higher-‐order values, which Vollmer and Randler have put in a circumplex model (Schwartz 2010) (see figure 1). In this graph, individual and social values oppose each other, with individual values more connect with openness to change and self-‐enhancement, and social values tending to be more about self-‐transcendence and conservation. Within their study Vollmer and Randler furthermore make a distinction between the two genders, in their results they find that boys are more concerned with self-‐enhancement, while self-‐ transcendence is more preferred by girls. The age of the participants was between twelve and nineteen years old with the average age of participants 15,19 years, this thus applies to the teenage age group of eleven to nineteen year olds (Vollmer and Randler 739-‐742). The values connected to the male and female teenager will be discussed more extensively in section five. To find out which values are dominant in American society, the ideology of the American Dream will be discussed.

2.2 The ideology and values of the American dream

In America there has been a longstanding ideology of the American Dream, often referred to as ‘‘The myth of the American dream’’. Gosh argues in her 2013 publication that the American Dream is still present in American society. Since the beginning of American political culture there has been an obsession with creating a perfect society that is brought together under the ideology of the American Dream. The dream is an important part of American national identity, this started with the Puritan émigrés to New England according to Ghosh. It is not however about achieving the dream because it can never be realized completely, it is more about the pursue of happiness that the dream symbolizes. This happiness according to Puritan tradition should be pursued trough work (Gosh 7-‐8).

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Even though the dream is part of American national culture it is still very individualistic. It does not dictate political goals for society, instead ‘‘the dream is an abstract set of values about individual behaviour’’ (Ghosh 14). Although many American may share this dream, it is not a collective vision. Each American will interpret the American dream in his or her own way, depending on her own personal and unique situation. In the end it remains an ideology because it presents a shared ideal of how society should be. The American dream has three constitutive core elements;

individualism, equal opportunity, and success. It is about the success of the individual that is achieved without cheating or unfair advantages (Ghosh 14).

Going back to the Puritan origin of the American Dream, Ghosh further elaborates on what this individualism entails and how it is different from European individualism that is more about egoism and selfishness. He connects the American dream primarily with individualistic values of creativity and ruggedness, which he explains as being self-‐ reliant. In section four it will be argued that self-‐reliance is something that is also very important in the development of the teenager. It is a value that is missing in the Vollmer and Randler graph that can be put on the individual values side of their graph, on the border between openness to change and self-‐enhancement (see figure 1). American individualism is however a social kind of individualism because it is also about morality and equal opportunity (Ghosh 132-‐136). So although the American Dream is foremost about the individual’s success and thus about the individual value of being successful, and promotes the values of creativity and self-‐reliance that can also be placed on the individual values side of the Vollmer and Randler graph. It does not exclude the social self-‐transcendence values in the graph of treating people equally and caring for them (see figure 1). An overview of the values connected to the American Dream can be found in figure two. The following section will discuss two kinds of individualisms that can be found in the high school teen film according to Bulman.

2.3 Individualism in the teen film

Bulman argues that individualism lies at the heart of American society and is something that is valued in all three subgenres of the high school genre. There is an important distinction to be made between the various high school teen films states Bulman that is best explained by looking at the social and economic situation of the students. He argues that the urban public high school film depicts poor youth, the suburban public high

The Suburban High School Teen Film: The Changing Values and Ideology of the Social Outcast Teenager