I watched this movie for the first time the other night – It has been on my “to watch” list for a very long time. I LOVED it. I finally know what Molly Ringwald looks like, but actually it was one scene that really got to me:
Allison: Have you ever done it with a normal person?
Claire: Didn’t we already cover this?
Bender: You never answered the question.
Claire: Look, I’m not gonna discuss my private life with total strangers.
Allison: It’s kind of a double-edged sword, isn’t it?
Claire: A what?
Allison: Well, if you say you haven’t, you’re a prude. If you say you have, you’re a slut! It’s a trap. You want to but you can’t but when you do you wish you didn’t, right?
Claire: Wrong.
Allison: …Or, are you a tease?
Andrew: She’s a tease.
Claire: Why don’t you just drop it?
Andrew: You’re a tease and you know it, all girls are teases!
Bender: She’s only a tease if what she does gets you hot.
Claire: I don’t do anything!
Allison: That’s why you’re a tease.
Claire: Okay, lemme ask you a few questions.
Allison: I’ve already told you everything!
Claire: No, doesn’t it bother you to sleep around without being in love? I mean don’t you want any respect?
Allison: I don’t screw to get respect; that’s the difference between you and me.
Claire: Not the only difference, I hope.
Bender: Face it, you’re a tease.
Claire: I’m not a tease!
Bender: Sure you are! Sex is a weapon! You said it yourself; you use it to get respect!
Claire: No, I never said that. She twisted my words around.
Bender: Oh, then what do you use it for?
Claire: I don’t use it period!
Bender: Oh, are you medically frigid or is it psychological?
So the biggest question is; how has life not changed since 1985? How are women still categorised at Slut, Prude or Tease? I’m sure somewhere between then and now, feminism happened, or did that happen before? I’m not great with “History”. Either way, whoever claire decides to sleep with or not sleep with shouldn’t make her a slut, prude or tease. My experiences of this are purely based on TV and film, but I’m sure there are people out there with first hand experience of this. So, along with my mum’s polka dot suit, the word’s “slut, prude and Tease” are best left in the 80’s. Thank you very much.
In fact this film and it’s quotes could inspire a billion blog posts and I feel like I could get very boring with talking about it. For such a simple idea, and what I imagine must have been quite a low budget movie (set essentially in 1 room with 5 actors), it is amazing. Each character, different and unique, with underlying themes running throughout. Despite it being a film about 5 american teenagers in the 80’s, it felt very relevant to me and modern day society. In fact – I think I will continue to talk about this film for a quite a few blog posts… stay tuned.
I'm not crazy.... 