Creative Project

"Graduation (Friends Forever)"

And so we talked all night about the rest of our lives
Where we're gonna be when we turn 25
I keep thinking times will never change
Keep on thinking things will always be the same
But when we leave this year we won't be coming back
No more hanging out cause we're on a different track
And if you got something that you need to say
You better say it right now cause you don't have another day
Cause we're moving on and we can't slow down
These memories are playing like a film without sound
And I keep thinking of that night in June
I didn't know much of love
But it came too soon
And there was me and you
And then we got real blue
Stay at home talking on the telephone
And we would get so excitedand we'd get so scared
Laughing at ourselves thinking life's not fair
And this is how it feels

[1]
As we go on
We remember
All the times we
Had together
And as our lives change
From whatever
We will still be
Friends Forever

So if we get the big jobs
And we make the big money
When we look back now
Will our jokes still be funny?
Will we still remember everything we learned in school?
Still be trying to break every single rule
Will little brainy Bobby be the stockbroker man?
Can Heather find a job that won't interfere with her tan?
I keep, keep thinking that it's not goodbye
Keep on thinking it's a time to fly
And this is how it feels

[Repeat 1]

La, la, la, la:
Yeah, yeah, yeah
La, la, la, la:
We will still be friends forever

Will we think about tomorrow like we think about now?
Can we survive it out there?
Can we make it somehow?
I guess I thought that this would never end
And suddenly it's like we're women and men
Will the past be a shadow that will follow us 'round?
Will these memories fade when I leave this town
I keep, keep thinking that it's not goodbye
Keep on thinking it's a time to fly

At the time I did not realize how important this day was.  I remember the biggest problem of this day was that there was a power outage and I could not finish curling my hair.  I thought that that was the end of the world!  Just as Catherine Driscoll said in girls, “Fashion provides a range of already sanctioned codes for coherence and recognition to be cited by the girl in pursuit of identity” (p. 345).  I paid no attention to the countless people I proved wrong that I would actually graduate.  Earlier on in the year I remember my guidance counselor meeting me in her office and asking when I was planning on graduating.  I said, “June.”  She gave me a look and told me that was nearly impossible.  I had three full years of science to finish that semester, two years of history; I was on track with English and Math.  Needless to say that Senior Year was not going to be my typical Senior dumb, flakey girl.  At one point a month before graduation my friend looked at me and said, “I didn’t really think you were going to finish this year, I can’t believe you are leaving me here.”  I was always known for being a slacker, but I really wanted to graduate on time.  I had to prove everybody wrong.  I was in the same room for science class five hours a day and on Tuesday I was there for nine hours.  To “walk” at Minnetonka you had to be zero credits short.  Some other schools would let you walk if you were going to finish in the summer, but this was not the case for me.  I remember turning in my last science test.  I was in four different subjects with four different books and was taking tests like there was no tomorrow.  My teacher graded the test and I passed.  I was done with high school despite what everyone thought.  I went to two different high schools, so I got to have two graduations.  The one at the big public school I did not care about.  My last name starts with W, and there were hundreds of people that walked before me.  At my alternative school graduation, it was quite different.  The teachers gave out awards to the best student in each subject.  You could tell that my teacher was even surprised that he was saying this, but with a huge grin he says, “The best science student award goes to… Courtney Williams.”  You could tell that my teacher, myself, and the rest of the audience was quite surprised. 

When I was in 5^th Grade Vitamin C came out with the song “Graduation.”  I always joked about how I wanted that song to play at my graduation.  It’s an awful pop song, but it made me very happy.  After the awards were given out my teacher put together a slide show was presented and as they got to my slide The Vitamin C song started to play.  That’s when I knew I was really out of there and that I had of actually beaten all the odds.  As Driscoll explains in the introduction of girls this was the genealogy of girlhood, my map, my route of how I had made it to graduate on time.  “A genealogy is a history that does not look for causes and points of origin so much as a map how things and ideas are possible within a given context” (p. 3).    

Blog Number 2

I was about 13 years old when Bend it Like Beckham came out.  I did not go see the movie then.  I had heard it was a movie about girl soccer players, which was of not much interest to me.  However, I was pleasantly surprised the other night when I watched the movie.  It is about so much more that a girl’s soccer team.

            The two leads in the movie are both teenage girls living outside of London.  Jess is obsessed with David Beckham, plays soccer in the park with her male friends, and her heritage is Indian.  Jules plays on a girl’s soccer team, dreams of playing soccer in America, and lives the typical English life.  The girls meet when Jules sees Jess playing soccer in the park and invites her to try out for her team.  At this point in the story it seems as if the two girls only have their love of soccer in common.

            However, considering that they come from two dissimilar cultures and religions, I was astonished to realize that these 2 teenage girls really had a lot in common, especially their home life.  Both mothers first concern seemed to be that their daughters had a boyfriend and or be married.  In Jess’s home her older sister, Pinky, was about to be engaged and married and the whole household evolved around those events.  Jess’s mother encourages her to find a boy just like her older sister.  When the movie begins, Jules mother is dragging her through a lingerie store to find bras to enhance her figure to attract a boyfriend.  Both girls act disgusted and uninterested in their mothers prodding.

            Jules and Jess are both are embarrassed by the things they mothers say. It’s the typical clash between mothers and teenage daughters.  When Jess goes over to Jules house for the first time, Jules’s mother is surprised to see that her daughter’s friend is of Indian heritage.  Jules mother is polite to Jess, but she makes references to Jess’s heritage, giving her back-handed compliments.  Jules is so embarrassed by her mother’s behavior towards Jess.  Jess is embarrassed by her mother at the fitting for Pinky’s wedding dresses.  When her measurements are being taking Jess’s mother makes fun of how flat she is in front of Pinky and the seamstress.  Neither one of the mother’s seems to know not to cross certain boundaries where their daughter’s are concerned.             

Both of the girl’s families were shocked when they thought they had discovered, wrongly, that they each had a daughter who was a lesbian.  That information in turn lead to a broken engagement for Pinky, which depressed the whole family.  Even that erroneous information was too much for the English mother.  At first, Jules mother accepted that fact that her daughter might be a lesbian, but when she saw the girls hugging she went crazy.    At Pinky’s wedding, Jules mother created quite a scene in front of the bridal couple and guests.  She verbally attacked Jess and Jules had to drag her mother back to the car.----- check on this.  So in reality no matter how liberal we assume the English are, the families in the end both have the same reaction.    

            Each girl had a touching moment with a parent, who changed their way of thinking just to make their daughters happy.  Jules came home one day to find her mother learning about the game of soccer.   so she could be more of a part of her daughter’s life.  She finally realized this would include her more in her daughter’s life which would really make Jules happy.  Jess’s father also changed to make his daughter happy.  He allowed Jess to leave right in the middle of Pinky’s wedding reception to play in an important game.  Jess’s dad realized that just because he had a bad experience playing soccer in England he should not use that to curtail Jess’s dreams.

            In viewing this movie I realized how really similar the two cultures were when it came to their families.  Jules comes from a Western, liberal background and Jess from an Asian, conservative background.  Parents from both cultures embarrass and push their daughters into lifestyles the parents think are best.  However, when it came to the happiness of their teenage  girls, each had a parent that changed their own ways to accommodate the interest of their daughter.  Maybe cultures are not so really after all when it comes down to the basics.  They  love their children and wants not only what’s best for their children, but in the end they want their children to be happy.

Blog Number 1

Blog Assignment #1

There seems to be a change in the way in which teenage girls are being portrayed in movies, if Ten Things I Hate About You, Juno, Whip It, and Easy A are examples of things to come.  Up until very recently the popular adolescent movies ranged from finding buried treasure to excelling in sports to teenage gangs.  The protagonists in all these movies were teenage boys.  If there were girls in any of those movies they were secondary to the story.  The teenage girls were friends, girlfriends or tag along sisters.  The point of view of these young women was never shown, even though the actions of the teen boys affected their lives.  The teen age boys behaved like they were the princes of their kingdom, and they were treated like royalty by all. 

Th The movie industry made these teenage male driven movies, of course, because they felt they would be money makers.  The film marketers knew they would be able to draw in millions of teenage boys to see themselves portrayed on the big screen.  However, the movie industry was also reflecting society.  Females were seen by society as the "weaker" and "passive" gender.  Even though the feminist movement began in full strength in the 1960's, it took decades for the movies to reflect the changes in society.  Even today we still hear such Oscar winners as Halle Berry and Meryl Streep say that it is hard to find a movie with a leading role for them.  Hopefully, with this current influx of teenage girl driven movies that lament will end and this new generation of  "girls" will have many "women" roles open to them.  As Catherine Driscoll states in "girls", "Youth has been consistently important to cultural analysis because it presents a crucial point of cultural reproduction and cultural change.  Youth names a field in which society reproduces itself and makes changes through the incorporation and exclusion of individuals and groups in relation to social systems that precede and contextualize them" (p.10).    

      The first movie I remember seeing in which I felt empowered was "Ten Things I Hate About You."  Even though that movie is based on Shakespears's "Taming of the Shrew", the teenage girl was definitely the leading character.  In the play the "Shrew" is a female, but her character is not the protagonist.  In the movie, Kat is the leading character.  She has standards which she adheres to no matter what her father, peers, or school officials tell her what is the "right thing" really is.  Kat does not represent the obedient teenage daughter of earlier times.   Also, in the movie "Whip It", the lead character, Bliss, follows her inner voice.  Her mother wants her to be a demur young lady, while Bliss does what interests her, joining a roller derby team.  At the end of both of those movies the parents have accepted the choices their daughters have made for themselves.  I feel these movies reflect the real teenage girls of today, pursuing their interests, not going down a path their parents have planned out for them.

      Probably the most realistic movie I have seen about a contemporary teenage girl was "Juno."  Of course it was written by a female, but it shows that the movie industry is willing to makes movies about an unashamedly pregnant teen.  Even the relationship between Juno and her parents is refreshing.  They do not tell her the "right:" thing to do, they let her make her own decisions without parental pressure.  This same kind of parental  acceptance is found in "Easy A."  The audience sees that Olive's parents love her and care about her, but they let her make and live with her choices.  This is also a societal change the movies are reflecting, parents accepting the way daughter are choosing to live their lives.  In "Easy A", Olive is shown as being in charge of defining who she is.  Although my one complaint about the movie is that after she confesses to all over the internet about her scheme, a teenage boy is there for her to lean on.  However, this one complaint is still small, compared to the days when the male would have entirely fixed the situation.  The movies are definitely beginning to represent teenage girls as the independent, capable and smart people they are.     

       Mary Celeste Kearney's article, "Producing Girls - Rethinking the Study of Female Youth Culture", states, "Because of the success of the feminist movement in decreasing discriminatory practices based on sex, as well as in empowering females of all ages, the numbers of all girls completing high school and college education is greater than ever before, and there are more opportunities for girls who want to move outside the traditional female roles of wife and mother and the conventionally feminine spaces of the domicile and shopping center" (p.289). These changes as stated by Kearney are being reflected today in the movie industry.  We see teenage girls going off to Ivy League schools, joining the roller derby, be unashamedly pregnant, and facing the consequences of their own actions.  These certainly are opportunities not considered to be part of traditional female roles.  The movie industry is to be giving some credit for now producing these kinds of movies, however it is not only because this media recognizes societal changes.  This industry also recognizes the fact that they can make lots of money from millions of teenage girls buying tickets to see a reflection of themselves on the big screen.                   

Works Cited

Driscoll, Catherine. Girls. New York: Columbian UP, 2002. Print.

Kearney, Mary C. Produicing Girls. Girls Make Media. Print.

 

       

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Week of January 24th.

Week of January 24 Working Class Childhoods

Readings from Without a Net: “Introduction”; Allison (15-20); Hernandez (49-58); Polyestra (67-74); Varian (161-166); Piepzna-Samarasinha (199-206). Additionally, read at least one other essay of your choice from the book.

Week of January 17th.

Week of January 17 Girlhood in Historical Context

Driscoll, “The Girl of the Period” 15-46

Kearney, “Delightful Employment: Girls’ Cultural Production Prior to the Late Twentieth Century” (D2L)

Week of January 10th.

Week of January 10 Perspectives on the Study of Adolescence

Driscoll, “Introduction: Toward a Genealogy of Girlhood” (1-12)

Raby, “Across a Great Gulf? Conducting Research With Adolescents” (D2L)