Never Been Kissed

Never Been Kissed was shown on TV today, and what I immediately took notice of was the year that it was released – 1999.

I distinctly remember watching and absolutely loving this film, envious of the “popular” girls, and reflecting upon my school experiences at that time.

I took this movie as the truth. That’s how I was supposed to act in high school, and the “cool” guys were the ones I HAD to date, otherwise I wouldn’t be in the in-group.

Now that I am far out of high school, I still don’t know which came first – the media or society? I wonder if the media saw societal cliques that it could capitalize on? There’s a film that I saw in my Media Literacy Class called “Merchants of Cool,” they kept emphasizing that the media reflects society because of people called Cool Hunters, who find the trend setters and OVERLY stress these “cool” things that teens should be doing or wearing.

In the film, Josie reads her article written for the Chicago Sun Times about her life. She prominently states,“What I ended up finding was myself and that high school hasn´t changed.

There´s still that one teacher who marches to her own drummer.
Those girls are still there; the ones that, even as you grow up, will remain the most beautiful girls you have ever seen close up.
The smart kids, who everyone else knew as “the brains,” but I just knew them as my soul mates, my teachers, my friends.

And there’s still that one guy with his mysterious confidence – who seems so perfect in every way. The guy you get up and go to school for in the morning.”

Which just proves that stereotypes constantly exist, maybe because of the recurring themes in all movies alike: Mean Girls, She’s All That, High School Musical, Grease, Can’t Hardly Wait, Breakfast Club, etc.

I can’t believe how long these stereotypes have been perpetuated. And they are all recurring characters with few familial or personal histories that reflect the ongoing situations at that time…