“we’re sexy, we’re cute. we’re popular to-boot.” sound familiar? of course it does. it’s the opening jam of the classic, all-american cheerleading movie – bring it on. i’ll be the first to admit, I love bring it on. as a cheerleader myself, I can watch the competitions go on for hours. but now that I’m older, I can’t help but question the morality of it.
part 1: hometown.
eliza, those digs aren’t too shabby
- we have rancho carne, ca – a made up town – predominantly white. and predominantly rich. I blatantly remember wanting to remodel my bedroom after kirsten dunst’s room. or wishing my parents were never home like eliza dushku. and can we just stop for a second and reminisce on her backyard? lush green grass and the never-been-touched swing set. each girl has a new car, one girl refers to her dad as an ATM, and they’re cliquey ‘no uber-dykes’ culture just proves their ignorance.
oh no white girl, you did not
- think of the opposing team, in east compton, ca – more of a real town even though it shares its zip code with the actual compton, ca. 82% of this east compton community is from a hispanic or latino descent. over 1/3 of the population is black. and bring it on writer jessica bedinnger doesn’t stop there. the cheerleading squad is so poor, they have to write to ‘paulette’ (the wannabe oprah), begging for money so they have a shot on espn. the concept itself is honest and really wants the viewer to go with the underdog. but why does this all-black squad have to be so underprivileged? is somebody hinting at something? in fact, there’s even a part where one of the east compton girls threatens to hit a rancho girl. is that stereotypical? do all black girls want to fight? I don’t think so.
and if the producers of bring it on realized this predominant stereotype – why would they let the 4 white girls drive to east compton on a friday night flawlessly? oh right, because the average age of the audience is 13.
let me know how you feel – comment below or tweet me @coolshtbybritt
…..stay tuned for part 2 in the next few days
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