What was going on in the late 90's?
I've recently discovered the joys of streaming Netflix. This is a big step into the right millenium, as I live in a household without things like Tivo or even old-fashioned cable tv. I feel that now it is my civic duty to watch as many movies and tv shows as I possibly can. Fortunately, I don't have a job or anything standing in the way of my civic duty.
But oh the decisions! I think I've spent more time browsing my options than I have actually watching anything. There are so many categories - do I want to watch a suspenseful comedy? A cerebral horror movie? Netflix seems to think that I do, but I'm not so sure. I am crippled by the sheer magnitude of choices laid out before me.
Speaking of crippled, I ended up first settling on a PBS documentary about FDR. After which, I decided to change it up. Somehow, the movie 10 Things I Hate About You popped up in my recommendations and I went for it.
In case you're not familiar with this title, it's a late 90's teen movie. Now, despite me actually being a teen in the late 90's, I had not yet seen this movie. In fact, I can only think of one teen movie that I saw as a teen, and that was the classic not-really-ugly-ugly-duckling tale, She's All That.
So now, after watching 10 Things, I have seen a total of 2 90's teen movies, so I'm something of an expert on the subject. And I can't help but notice a trend. In She's All That, there is a bet placed among high school guys and one of them has to make this really ugly (attractive but glasses-and-overalls-wearing) girl into the prom queen or something. Apparently, he has nothing better to do. Or more realistically, he realizes that this girl is actually hot and she's just a bad dresser with low self-esteem so she will probably be easy.
In 10 Things I Hate About You, the main female character is an attractive yet sort of manly-voiced girl who NO ONE would EVER date because she's so mean and has such a large vocabulary. But her sister is cute and stupid, therefore very desirable. Their father has an extremely stupid rule that prohibits the girls from dating, but then he revises the rule to say that they can date, but only so long as they both date. Which by the way, if he's actually trying to prevent them from dating, I don't see the logic for this compromise.
Because high school boys have such high standards, the guy that wants to date the nice sister has to pay a dude money to take the other sister out.
I've heard that art imitates life, so this brings me to my question: Is this a common practice in high school? Or was it, say during the years of 1998-1999? It's weird because I was actually in high school during that period of time, and yet I was wholly unaware of any such transactions. But based on these teen movies, I am led to believe that there were a good number of bribe/bet-based relationships.
I wasn't really in the loop in high school, so I don't think it's out of the realm of possibilities that I just missed this fad. But I do think it's kind of weird. I always assumed high school guys dated girls not for sport or money, but for the hope of procuring some poon.
But oh the decisions! I think I've spent more time browsing my options than I have actually watching anything. There are so many categories - do I want to watch a suspenseful comedy? A cerebral horror movie? Netflix seems to think that I do, but I'm not so sure. I am crippled by the sheer magnitude of choices laid out before me.
Speaking of crippled, I ended up first settling on a PBS documentary about FDR. After which, I decided to change it up. Somehow, the movie 10 Things I Hate About You popped up in my recommendations and I went for it.
In case you're not familiar with this title, it's a late 90's teen movie. Now, despite me actually being a teen in the late 90's, I had not yet seen this movie. In fact, I can only think of one teen movie that I saw as a teen, and that was the classic not-really-ugly-ugly-duckling tale, She's All That.
So now, after watching 10 Things, I have seen a total of 2 90's teen movies, so I'm something of an expert on the subject. And I can't help but notice a trend. In She's All That, there is a bet placed among high school guys and one of them has to make this really ugly (attractive but glasses-and-overalls-wearing) girl into the prom queen or something. Apparently, he has nothing better to do. Or more realistically, he realizes that this girl is actually hot and she's just a bad dresser with low self-esteem so she will probably be easy.
In 10 Things I Hate About You, the main female character is an attractive yet sort of manly-voiced girl who NO ONE would EVER date because she's so mean and has such a large vocabulary. But her sister is cute and stupid, therefore very desirable. Their father has an extremely stupid rule that prohibits the girls from dating, but then he revises the rule to say that they can date, but only so long as they both date. Which by the way, if he's actually trying to prevent them from dating, I don't see the logic for this compromise.
Because high school boys have such high standards, the guy that wants to date the nice sister has to pay a dude money to take the other sister out.
I've heard that art imitates life, so this brings me to my question: Is this a common practice in high school? Or was it, say during the years of 1998-1999? It's weird because I was actually in high school during that period of time, and yet I was wholly unaware of any such transactions. But based on these teen movies, I am led to believe that there were a good number of bribe/bet-based relationships.
I wasn't really in the loop in high school, so I don't think it's out of the realm of possibilities that I just missed this fad. But I do think it's kind of weird. I always assumed high school guys dated girls not for sport or money, but for the hope of procuring some poon.
Labels: high school, manly girls
posted by lady at 5:18 PM
1 Comments:
10 Things I Hate About You was a modern take on "The Taming of the Shrew" - which was previously remade as "Kiss Me Kate". The idea that a mouthy girl was un-date-able made more sense before the 90s.
Post a Comment
<< Home