If you have
watched any teen movie, either happening in high school or even in collage, you
should know her. The sinfully beautiful, outgoing, confident girl, usually complete
with a set of expensive and well-chosen wardrobe and accessories. Not one
calorie too many, not a silk blond hair out of place, nor an imperfection on
her flawless white skin. Her natural habitat is the cheerleading squad where
she preys on lesser members of the female species and feeds off of hunks of
man-meat lining up to lick her feet.
I deeply
despised this girl as a wee 12-year-old girl patiently sitting on the couch and
waiting for her to get what is coming to her so that I can indulge in my own
dark Schadenfreude. However, growing up, she became rather intuiting in her own,
for the lack of a better term, “bitchy” way. What fascinated me is how
different she could be, despite actually staying the same, serving the same
effect. She could be a brunette instead of a blonde, or a star actress in the
school theater club rather than the leader of cheers and chants, an easy skank
or a Christian church club leader. The hate was always the same.
So I decided
to break down what is it about this sort of character that makes me dislike her
with such fiendish delight? The easiest answer would be that she is the
antagonist. After all, if you think of a movie or series where the boy is the
protagonist, the perfect, popular girl is usually the goal. However, many antagonists
can possess such a charm or charisma to still get the audience on their side,
such case with Loki from the Avengers or Joker from Batman. I have never
encountered anyone who liked the cheerleader type of antagonist. Then I realized.
It is not the problem of the character, but rather the lack thereof.
Different
movies give them different levels of motivations and wants, but they mostly
feel as explanations for her unnecessarily mean actions rather than any real
motivation. She in herself is a concept, not a person who could actually exist,
but if that’s the case, why put her in a movie at all?
I believe
it has a lot to do with the way a lot of chick flicks are formulated.
Regardless of how the characters are framed, the protagonist is almost always a
completely average girl or an underdog. Someone film-makers think will be
relatable to the typical female viewer. Someone that feels obstructed by
something or someone, preventing them from obtaining a thing they desire, be it
recognition or affection. Thusly, the cheerleader character becomes almost
object-like as it is created out of the natural need to give heroine obstacles to
overcome. In a sense, she becomes the embodiment of all the heroine’s problems
and insecurities and, indirectly, ours. Her perfection is a result of our
inability to find any of her faults and weaknesses, making us feel powerless against
her.
Try a little
exercise. Put on your shoes from collage, high school or maybe even primary
school and think about a person or rather a girl you felt was always causing
you trouble. Someone that pulled your hair, kept back-talking you or even stole
your boyfriend. Compare her to such a cheerleader character from some chick
flick. Would you say they are similar? Perhaps. Yet, regardless of your answer,
if you would show this particular character to that particular person, she
probably would not see herself in them. Instead, she would sympathize with the
protagonist, as she most likely also has a person she felt strong dislike towards
in that way.
Thusly, I would
conclude that our collective hate for the queen-bee, Barbie-doll cheerleader is
mostly our teenage equivalent of the monsters hidden in the closet. If you
shine a light on her, she will disappear.
Sara
