“Hate us ‘cause we’re beautiful, but we don’t like you either. We’re cheerleaders!”
Movies that surround adolescence lifestyles are very popular in today’s pop culture. From shows like Glee and Gossip Girl to movies like High School Musical, American Pie, and Bring It On, people are constantly confronted with another teen movie. Teens are an interesting group of people to pay attention to. They’re going through some of the most important years of their life and everything that occurs is amplified to the tenth power. Teens are often portrayed as very dramatic, shallow, over sexual and insincere. Bring It On is an adolescent movie that includes the perfect representations of the many stereotypes surrounding teens.
Bring It On is a story focused on a predominately white cheerleading squad at an upper class high school. The Rancho Carne Toros are national champions and are preparing for their 6th title. Torrence Shipman, played by Kirsten Dunst, is named captain shortly before the squad discovers that their reign is a complete lie. Their former captain was stealing cheers and routines from a predominately black inner-city cheer squad in East Compton. Of course, being the typical overdramatic teenagers, the Toros become very distressed and unsure of what to do. The squad faces ups and downs on their journey to the national cheerleading competition, where they finally earn the 2nd place title, losing to the East Compton Clovers.
While Bring It On focuses on having a great story line and entertaining its viewers, it also makes sure to focus on numerous demographics. There are people of every race, sexuality, and socioeconomic class. Just as any other typical high school movie, Bring It On also includes the extreme versions of different personalities. This film uses plenty of satire. In a way the teens are made fun of by the use of their extreme behavior. Gender, race, and sexuality are represented in a variety of ways throughout the film.
Race is one issue that is a factor in the film. The Rancho Carne Toros are a predominantly white squad whereas the East Compton Clovers are a predominantly black squad. The Clovers have never had the opportunity to compete for a national championship because they could not afford it. The Toros ripped off their cheers and they remained the underdog. The Clovers squad had attitude and cheers and routines that were exciting. It is stereotypical for blacks to have attitudes and rhythm and that is something that Bring It On plays to the extreme. This was especially seen when Torrence visited the school of the East Compton Clovers and was threatened forcefully by the Clovers. This was also seen when a few of the girls from the East Compton Clovers visited the Toros football game and embarrassed the girls by performing the same cheer. The white characters in the film are all upper class teens and this is something that was discussed in class (Brown). When characters are placed in a film, there usually is not a main character that is a person of color. Bring It On did not have a main character that was a person of color, but the movie did have a mixture of races including Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians which made the movie relatable to many people.
Sexuality is also another issue that was portrayed in the film. There were relationships between cheerleaders, Torrence had a love triangle, and there was a Gay male on the squad. It was stated in the Power Point that bad girls are usually depicted as slutty, whereas good girls are usually interested in relationships (Brown). This is something that is seen right away. Torrence is in a relationship with a former cheerleader who is going off to college. He archenemy on the squad is Courtney. Courtney is never seen with a boyfriend and actually allows a male cheerleader on the squad to perform sexual acts while they are cheering. Courtney is the bad girl in the movie and these are obvious slutty acts that are looked down upon. Although Torrence was the good girl and she did have a boyfriend, she began developing a relationship with someone else. This was not frowned upon in the movie, but actually praised because of the simple fact that Torrence was a good girl and her boyfriend was not around. The final bit of sexuality that Bring It On focuses on is the male cheerleader on the squad Les is Gay. Les is in the movie simply to introduce homosexuality, but it is not discussed wholeheartedly (Brown). Les has a short encounter with another male, but it is simply that, an encounter. I believe that Bring It On followed many of the representations that other movies do as well when it comes to sexuality.
The final issue that was touched upon in bring it on was gender. Being that cheerleading is a predominately female activity, Bring It On focused mainly on female issues. An article that was discussed this quarter was The “Can-Do” Girl Versus The “At-Risk” Girl by Harris. Harris discusses the difference between girls from different backgrounds, which is very relatable to this movie. Torrence is a can-do girl. She lives in a very nice neighborhood and goes to a great school. She has access to great resources and challenging school courses that will prepare her for college because that is something that is mandatory in her family. The girls from East Compton are obviously At-Risk girls because they are not given all of these privileges (Harris). The girls in Bring It On were very strong and empowering girls. Although they did have teenage breakdowns and sexual experiences, they continued to fight for what it is that they wanted, a national championship
Sources:
"Introduction To Youth Studies" by Adriane Brown, PowerPoint
"The "Can-Do" Girl Versus The "At-Risk" Girl" Excerpt from Future Girl by Anita Harris, pages 13-36
