Hair Spray is an interesting movie and it did challenge the typical gender and racial role in 1980s one way or another. However, I noticed that we have so many this kinds of movies in today’s film market and consequently, things that were created to challenge the stereotype now became the new stereotype. For example, it is a very obvious pattern in Korean soap operas and now even in Hollywood movies that beautiful skinny girls who from the upper class are always evil. Blonde became the symbol of mean girls and fat, poor but nice Cinderella always takes everything the mean girl has at the end. It does not make any sense because one’s appearance has no direct impact on his or her behavior or personality. And that is why I think this movie made a lot more sense back to 1988 than it did today.
Hair Spray used the same strategy as “Once Upon A Time in the West” and “Faat Kine” to challenge people’s ideology. It changed the role setting and put the main characters to unusual roles. For example, the leading character is a fat girl who is not considered to be pretty in the reality. However, she is a nice girl who supports the integration of black and white and she finally becomes the beautiful dance queen. Normally, the leading actress in a movie should have beautiful face, well-shaped body and good family background. However, the pretty, skinny and rich girl in this movie is a mean girl who is the enemy of the leading actress.
Although this movie tried to challenge the typical gender role in the society, overall, it did a superficial job from my point of view. The only job they did is to make a fat girl to be the main character and that is it. However, the fat girl is still a superficial girl who cares a lot about her appearance, hair style and dreams of becoming a star. She dyed her hair to be blonde, refused to change her hair style in school and read fashion magazine in class. Everything she does does not make her any difference from those stereotypes the movie wants to remove.
I think the movie did a better job to address the integration of black and white by making characters who support the integration as nice and kind and characters who reject integration as mean and racism. It also has a lot of scenes showing that black and white can have fun together. I like the humors in the movie and the romance in the movie is very interesting.
I thought this film did challenge dominant ideology but also felt it created new stereotypes while not dismissing old stereotypes. Yes, Tracy was a better person than Amber as she was more accepting of others, especially those different than her. But I don't feel she was a good role model to the teenager audience. Never in the film did you see any of the students working on homework or being studious in class. She was superficial and was obsessed with her hair and becoming a star.
回复删除I thought the film did a great job of integrating integration into the film but I felt it wasn't real enough for me. I expected more individuals to be on the fence & not be sure whether they were for integration or segretation. I felt the issue was too black or white(excuse the pun).
I agree with your entire first paragraph but I also think the movies are that way because people are so shallow nowadays that they judge everybody on their appearance. An attractive persons gets away with a lot more than an unattractive one from what I've seen in basically every situation.
回复删除Hairspray did indeed challenge the ideology of the people back then, cause today, big people are seen as beautiful as wall. I'm kind of use to seeing the skinny girl being evil nowadays and its getting pretty old to me.
I too didn't see how the gender roles play a significant part in this movie. The movie was more about integration and following your dreams to me.
Finally we realize that this is a movie repeating, exaggerating, and making fun of the ideology, inorder to challenge it. I feel it is hard to say if the movie is successful or not in this respect; however, at least it is full of fun.
回复删除