Can Hollywood really believe that the biggest problem facing high school students is too much stigma around premarital sex? Well that’s what you’d have to think if you watched the trailer for the upcoming movie “Easy A.”
A new and supposedly comedic take on “The Scarlet Letter” is coming to a theater near you that looks neither funny or to have understood Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel it’s based on.
Here’s what I can glean from the trailer. A high school girl (Emma Stone- who was great in Zombieland) pretends to have sex with a male student so as to convince the school he’s not gay. Because she pretends to have sex a bunch of Christianish girls ridicule her mercilessly for being “easy.”
As if.
OK, is that really the problem in high schools today? Too much judgementalism concerning sex? Could you imagine how quickly someone would likely be suspended for even saying anything derogatory about a gay student in most high schools across America? And is there really a horrible stigma that I haven’t heard about associated with premarital sex in high schools. Come on. Give me a break.
I ask you, in any real high school who would more likely be scorned, the girl who set the record for putting the condom on a piece of fruit in Health class or the girl who purposefully stayed at home the day where the part time massage therapist held an assembly for fourth graders?
Anyone normal knows the answer to that question. Unfortunately Hollywood isn’t normal. Because seemingly, according to this movie, the biggest problem affecting high schoolers is Christianity which scares a young man into the closet and outcasts a girl for premarital sex. What year does Hollywood think it is? 1610?
I attached the trailer just so you know I’m not making this stuff up. It’s pretty crude so don’t watch it if you don’t want to.
May 24, 2010 at 11:58 am
Nice post the information you have provided is really unique and also appriciable
May 24, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Matthew – I'll take your word for it.
May 24, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Indeed. They show the scene where she shows up in a black skimpy outfit with an red A on it and frankly I thought it only one step removed from the standard teen clothing choice. When an episode of Family Guy had Meg select a shirt that said "sperm dumpster" on it because the only other choices at the store were "little slut" and "porn star", they thought they were making a joke. Plus, the fake-sex to boost the rep of the outcast is a dinosaur premise. Sixteen Candles anyone?
May 24, 2010 at 4:06 pm
What an awful misuse of one of my favorite stories. The Scarlet Letter is a dark and complex work and arguably the first American romance. This movie is really just an extension of the standard academic interpretation of the work. This interpretation is that the The Scarlet Letter is a feminist work about "girl power." My interpretation is that the novel is an indictment of Sola Fides, especially the Calvinist version. Hawthorne was quite sympathetic to Catholicism, and admired the Sacrament of Confession. His daughter became Catholic, founded a religious order, and is now a Blessed. The idea that The Scarlet Letter is about feminism can only come from an ignorant and superficial reading of the text.
May 24, 2010 at 5:42 pm
You've inspired me, P. Button. I've enjoyed the Hawthorne I've read but somehow never got around to reading TSL. So I'll propose an impromptu online book reading club. If you like me and too cheap to buy a copy and too lazy to go to the library, then Google Books is your friend.
As I was reading I came upon, "the grim and grisly presence of the towns-beadle." and wondered what the heck a towns-beadle was. As best I can tell, a beadle is a herald. This gave me an idea for a band name–The Beadles. Our first album of course would be titled, Meade the Beadles! Commence groaning in 3,2,1….
May 24, 2010 at 6:51 pm
I teach in a public high school in Small Town, Louisiana; where the vast majority of students will happily self-identify as Christian.
I also have an opportunity to interact regularly with the students from the local Cathoic school, most of whom claim to identify with their religion.
However, despite the heavily Christian atmosphere of the town, there is no stigma attached to the students who fornicate.
(To be fair, there doesn't seem to be any stigma attached to those who don't either.)
May 24, 2010 at 7:54 pm
Well, I didn't get a lot of harassment, but I did have several female classmates trying to be helpful tell me that I should just go out and start having sex with anyone who would do me, because it would improve my standing at school. (And yes, they really did think they were doing me a favor by "enlightening" me to the "option.")
May 24, 2010 at 9:24 pm
romishgraffiti- Good idea. You should definitely check out TSL.
Spoiler Alert for TSL:
Elaboration on the literary analysis:
In the Scarlet Letter, the adulterous couple, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, each exemplify different sides of the Justification argument. Dimmesdale tells no one about his sin and wallows in guilt and self pity. His guilt causes an illness that eventually kills him. I believe this is a metaphor for a sinner who has no intermediary between himself and God. Hester however attains some level of peace and goes on to live for many years. She is found out as an adulteress upon giving birth out of wedlock. She is forced to wear a scarlet A on her dress as a public penance. She spends her time doing good works for the poor and taking care of her daughter Pearl. The scarlet letter itself takes on a kind of sacred nature, the townsfolk say that an Indian fired an arrow against it but it fell harmlessly to the ground. Hawthorne compares it to "a cross on a nun's bosom." Hester's body and soul survive her sin because of faith and works, a refutation of Sola Fides.
May 24, 2010 at 10:32 pm
Well, if you watch the trailer carefully, you'll notice that the reason this girl gets branded with the A is not that she had sex with this one boy, but rather that she is having sex with several boys in a very public way (as it's all a ploy to get these guys to seem like they've lost their virginity). She was acting like a very "easy" girl which can get a girl stigmatized in school, a little bit, as I remember things (granted, I studied in a Christian school). This movie seems to be about the double standard as well.
Silly movie, anyway.
And the comments on The Scarlet Letter here are interesting.
May 25, 2010 at 12:15 am
Well, if you watch the trailer carefully, you'll notice…(it's all a ploy to get these guys to seem like they've lost their virginity)
Yeah I caught that which is why I referenced Sixteen Candles, because the concept of pretending to have done something with a nerdy boy to improve his rep at school is at least as old as that movie and probably older. Certainly there is a potential for a good yarn about the hazardous material of sexuality, but unfortunately smart money is on this being basically yet another "stupid Christian hypocrites" flick. Christians are to the modern film what the American Indian was to a '50s western.
May 25, 2010 at 12:28 am
I'm guessing there will be more movies with Christians as the oppressive, judgmental, can't-think-for-themselves villains. Especially, as less and less youth believe in religion this will be the case. Its a very easy target.
Most kids today believe being gay and having sex isn't an issue, but the catholic church believes they are. So it's natural to vilify the minority.
The Greeks and early Romans believed in Multiple Gods… fads come and go. Science and verifications seems to dominates today, at least in developed countries.
May 25, 2010 at 6:49 am
I've been caught- I was a Christian in high school and uni who didn't do those things!
But actually, in high school I wasn't vilified nor did I vilify. In college I do have the distinct experience, however, of a conversation before a rehearsal for some plays (I costumed them all and directed 1) where another student, upon finding out I had no clue about the vast majority of crass language referring to various sexual acts, ridiculed my beliefs (while telling me his uncle was a headmaster at a well-known Catholic school but really was just paying lip-service) and tried to "enlighten" me about all those things I have avoided so as to not demean sexuality. But being a Christian girl in high school, clearly I was the cruel one.
Gimme a break. Yes, people have been cruel to "fallen" people over the years, but there were also kind people and orders of nuns that would help these people, and atleast someone's soul might be saved if they had a hint that they were being sinful, whereas now I know people who actually are otherwise completely devout but see no problem with extramarital sex, contraception, etc.
May 25, 2010 at 7:17 pm
I watched the trailer. I laughed. I cried. I was trying to remember where I'd seen the red-haired chick.
May 25, 2010 at 10:48 pm
Oh my goodness… that was the LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONGEST trailer I've seen in a long time. I realize it's like the same time as every other trailer, but it introduced us to basically every major character and plot point and thematic issue in the movie. A movie that looks dumb, btw, regardless of whether one agrees with it (which I don't).
Anywho… on a tangentially related note, hasn't Nathaniel Hawthorne's daughter been declared a Servant of God?
May 25, 2010 at 11:21 pm
Rose Hawthorne has been declared a Servant of God. I was mistaken when I wrote that she had been beatified. The order she founded still exists and is known as the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne.