During middle school, my sudden accessibility to hundreds of shows and movies through my new best friend, Netflix, led to a slight obsession with 90s coming of age movies. Through my short period of incessantly watching these movies, I found a pop culture classic featuring Alicia Silverstone that won my heart—Clueless.
References
Rudin, S. (Producer), & Heckerling, A. (Director). (1995). Clueless [Motion picture]. United
States: Paramount Pictures Corporation.
Up to this day, I can watch the movie and recite bits of the dialogue along with my favorite characters, and even recite the main character’s monologue connecting her father’s 50th birthday party to Haitian refugees in the United States. It wasn’t until a couple of times after I first watched the movie that I found out that there was a connection between the pop culture classic and the classic novel Emma by Jane Austen. Due to my love of the movie, I decided to pick up a copy of the book and noted the similarities with fascination.
The similarities between the key plot of both the movie and the book are astonishing. To summarize, Cher Horowitz is a rich Beverly Hills teenager who lives with her single dad. Throughout the movie, she sees herself as a matchmaker, not realizing that one of the guys she is trying to match is clearly in love with her. Afterwards, she finally notices that the guy she is after is secretly gay, and she ends up falling for the person who was a brother-figure for her at the beginning of the film. Now, as for Emma Woodhouse, think Cher but in the 19th century, without the fabulously designed 90s outfits, and with an initial love interest that turned out to be engaged rather than queer. The director, Amy Heckerling, adapted the plot of Emma almost to the point, but giving it a twist by perfectly capturing the zeitgeist of the 90s.
According to Storey (2009), difficulty ensures the status of high culture, “to be culturally worthwhile, it has to be difficult,” (p. 6). Emma’s status as a classic novel written in the 19th century renders it a difficult read for many people, thus becoming inaccessible to the general public and an artifact of elite or high culture. On the other hand, even though the basic plot structure of the movie is almost identical, the style Heckerling uses to depict the story and capture the intended audience is what diverges from the original.
By adapting the movie to what teenagers were wearing, listening to, and saying at the time, Heckerling makes the story more accessible and relatable. Even though there can be a direct description of the movie as pop culture because it is liked by the public, which can be seen through constant references to the movie as in Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” music video and Halloween costumes of the iconic outfits, there is a more interesting analysis in the description of it as a part of what Storey would refer to as “hopelessly commercial culture,” (p. 8).
This commercial culture is exemplified by the very things Cher Horowitz values. This can even be noted within the first few seconds of the movie, in which we see Cher shopping, driving around with her friends, and having fun wearing fabulous outfits while “Kids in America” plays in the background. Once the montage ends, Cher says “Okay, so you’re probably going, ‘Is this like a Noxzema commercial or what? But seriously, I actually have a way normal life for a teenage girl,” (Rudin, Lawrence & Heckerling). This quote directly ties the life of Cher as so perfect as to be taken straight from a commercial. In a different scene, when Cher is about to get mugged, she is reluctant to get on the ground to avoid staining her designer dress. Even though this version of the story is more relatable and accessible to the general public, it implies that girls need to have the most fashionable closet, the fanciest car, and the newest cell phone to find their way to a seemingly perfect life.
Due to its connection to consumerism, Clueless can also be related to Jackson, Vares, and Gill’s (2013) description of Girl Power, which offers girls independence that is “marked by the modes of accomplishment; consumption, (hetero)sexuality, and reclamation of a ‘girlie’ femininity that draws on the discourse of emphasized femininity,” (p. 144). In Clueless, Cher is empowered to do whatever she wants, as long as she is using designer clothes as she rides her Jeep. Additionally, she attempts to cure negative moods with shopping trips and places a great emphasis on her virginity and sexuality. Even though the character may be similar to Emma Woodhouse in that they are both wealthy and manipulative, Cher is the embodiment of a girly stereotype immersed in consumerist culture, as opposed to Emma. As to the basic story itself, both women let their lives be dictated by men, whether it is their father or one of their love interests.
Even though there may be some problematic themes in Clueless, it is a fun film with loveable characters that perfectly adapts themes from an 19th century classic to the world of the 1990s. Through the use of style, Heckerling is able to tell Austen’s wonderfully complex story, embedded with flip phones, plaid skirts, and songs such as “Rollin’ With My Homies” and her ability to do this so seamlessly has me, as Cher would probably say, totally buggin’.
References
Jackson, S., Vares, T., & Gill, R. (2013). ‘The whole playboy mansion image’: Girls’ fashioning and fashioned selves within a postfeminist culture. Feminism & Psychology, 23(2), 143-162.
Rudin, S. (Producer), & Heckerling, A. (Director). (1995). Clueless [Motion picture]. United
States: Paramount Pictures Corporation.
Storey, J. (2009). What is popular culture? Cultural Theory and Popular Culture. 1-16.
Amelia Mauldin
ReplyDeleteResponse to Fernanda Brizuela
I really enjoyed reading your blog post. I too enjoy watching 90s coming of age films every so often on Netflix, Clueless being one of the is quite the pop cultural icon. As someone who has only heard of but never read Austen’s novel Emma, I appreciate how you were able to clearly compare and contrast the novel with the film. Your summaries of both texts were concise and gave readers exactly enough information needed to continue to follow your main argument.
One of my favorite analyses in your piece was your connection between Cher and girl power. I think you did a really great job at explaining how she is the embodiment of this girly femininity (in the context of heteronormative ideals) through both her appearance and her behavior. Moreover, you make sure to connect the two pieces again here, highlighting that both Emma and Cher engage in behavior that somehow works to satisfy a man in their lives.
Additionally, there is acknowledgment of Cher’s socio-economic standing which demonstrated by your writing on consumerism and girl power. You made sure to explain that the movie pushes people (girls especially) to want to engage in this sort of consumerism–– through buying the latest clothes, newest technology, best car, and then some, people can eventually attain an ideal life.
While this is not necessary, if you wanted to take a deeper look at class in the movie, you could have possibly done so by emphasizing Cher’s unique financial standing in comparison to the typical middle-class or lower-class person. You do mention that she is well off, but it is not clear whether or not this is a norm in her own community and how her experiences differ from those in different socio-economic standings than her own. Her family being wealthy allowed her to have the opportunities to behave in certain ways (ie. not wanting to dirty her clothes when she’s about to get robbed instead of prioritizing her safety) that people of other class backgrounds most likely would not. But again, this is something that is really an optional clarification/further explanation.
Overall, your blog post responds to your prompt very well and I enjoyed reading it. Nice job:)!