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Dec 14, 2002 The other night I was sitting around with a friend watching movies after she had finished her last exam for the semester. We settled on watching 80s movies because we had a number of them lying around the house. We settled on The Breakfast Club (1985) and Footloose (1984). While watching these movies I started to think about a disturbing trend. Many movies and television shows have been placed into a generic catch all category of "teen movies". I find it very odd that only one demographic has been turned into a movie/television category that encompasses so many genera. You might argue that children's movies/shows are a category all onto themselves. This is true but there is one fundamental difference. Children's movies/shows only encompass a small range of genera. Most children's movies/shows fit into either a fantasy, educational or animation type of genera. Think about it when was the last time you saw a children's slasher flick. I have never seen a guy in a hockey mask jump out and stab Kermit the frog to death, have you? Now getting back to my point I think that the classification of "teen movies and shows" is a symptom of a much larger problem. Our nasty society has a tendency to marginalize entire groups of people. It happens all the time. Think about it, when I say terms like environmentalist or anarchist people tend to think of the standard stereotypes. You know exactly what I am talking about. Environmentalists are tree hugging, cumbya singing hippies and Anarchists are violent chaotic freaks. The same could be said for these so-called "teen movies". There is a definite tendency to suggest that any movie or show that has a teenager in it is a "teen movie". There is also the nasty derogatory element associated with the title "teen movie/show". True there are many bad movies and television shows that have teenagers in them. I can think of a whole list off the top of my head: Beverly Hills 90210, Saved by the bell, Dawson's creek and anything with Pauly Shore (you pick). These shows are bad not because they have teens in them but because they lack either good writing and or a decent premise. There are a large number of movies or shows that prominently figure teenagers that are extremely good. For example, The Breakfast Club (1985) has such excellent dialogue that it actually seems quite real. Or look at the Degrassi Series (Degrassi jr.high and Degrassi High), not only did these series have excellent dialog but they dealt with real issues in a very realistic and mature way. I recently read an article in my local newspaper entitled The End Of The Teen Flick? I was expecting to read an article that critically bases teen movies and shows. I was half right. The article explained how many "teen shows and movies" had been scraped, cancelled or where just holding on by a thread. This is exactly what I expected. However, the list of shows and movies placed into this "teen" category were questionable at best. I was expecting to see the usual suspects such as Dawson's Creek, Beverly Hills 90210, Saved By The Bell and Party of Five. Now all of these shows were on the list but there was a whole wack of other titles that surprised me. For example, Friends was on the list even though the 6 main characters are all in their late 20's or early thirties. Boston Public was on the list even though it deals with the teacher's and Administrator's view of running a school. Also on the list was Seventh Heaven. Now I am not a big fan of this show, but I don't see how it qualifies as a teen show. If you had to classify it, it would probably fit under the title of fundamentalist's Christian family vales conservative television. Even though I am no longer a teenager I can still know a double standard when I see one. I would suggest that there is quite a double standard happening here. Have you ever notice that everything that happened pre-1965 is referred to as a classic. True many of these movies and shows are quite good. However, there are some real stinkers that are also referred to as classics because they were created before 1965. Here is a thought experiment for you to try. Imagine what would happen if you took all the "classics" and through them into a new category called "geezer movies". Imagine the up roar that would cause. ------------ Comment on this column in the forum. ------------ |
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