Easy A and "Bad Girls" "Good Girls", have very similar content because in the article Tolmna and Higgens talk about how many girls are represented as being promiscuous or a "slut", if they date or have sex with multiple people. In Easy A, Olive was also seen as a "slut" because of a rumor about her being with numerous boys in her school.
In the film homosexuality is presented as being disgraceful and unacceptable. For an example, Olive's friend Brandon begged her to make up a rumor about her sleeping with him, just so that he could be popular and seen as "straight" to the other students in the school. This was also represented towards the end of the film when he came out about his sexuality to his parents by writing a letter and running away. In regards to Brandon and the father, the father told Olive that he would accept her no matter what she did. On the other hand, he continues by saying it was OK because he was once homosexual for awhile and changed, like it was some type of phase that everyone goes through.
The movies overall message about female sexuality is that girls should be innocent, pure and holy, or they are going to be judged and looked down upon as a "easy". I think that Tolman and Higgens would say that this is a good example of "keeping girls' and women's bodies and psyches filled with fear, rendering sexual desire difficult and dangerous" (p.222). In the film Easy A, when it comes to gender and sexuality boys are not seen as bad or "sluts" when they admit to sleeping with multiple girls, but when girls do the same they are "dirty" and "sluts".
The media matters because when girls just like Olive can potentially become confused about what to feel about their selves, when the media and the society is making them believe what is not always true. For an example, in Easy A the rumor about Olive grew out of control when a boy thought that she was accepting money and gift cards for sex and eventually tried to force himself onto her.
No comments:
Post a Comment