Loose cannons : White masculinity and the vulgar teen comedy film
- Authors: Speed, Lesley
- Date: 2010
- Type: Journal article
- Relation: The Journal of Popular Culture Vol. 43, no. 4 (2010), p. 820-841
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Although infamous for its focus on adolescent sexual strivings, the vulgar teen comedy film has been the subject of little sustained analysis. Yet there are numerous reasons to examine more closely this teen subgenre, of which the most prominent examples are Porky's and American Pie. The vulgar teen films of the early 1980s and late 1990s exemplify contemporary Hollywood production strategies and reflect changes in youth's social and economic status. In particular, the pivotal early 1980s cycle reflects a crisis in young, middle-class men's presumed right to behave hedonistically on other people's territory. Such films as Porky's, Losin It and Spring Break revolve around characters whose belief in their hedonistic freedom is oblivious to the social implications of their actions. A waning male, middle-class privilege is evident in the failure of the male sexual quest in Porky's and prefigures the subsequent suburbanization of teenage sexuality in American Pie. Vulgar teen comedy films thus reflect the changing social status of male youth.
Reading, writing and unruliness : Female education in the St Trinian's films
- Authors: Speed, Lesley
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Cultural Studies Vol. 5, no. 2 (2002), p. 221-238
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: This article examines how the St Trinian’s films (1954–1980) engage with shifts in the social organization of gender and class, while celebrating the defiance of social constraints on women. Focusing on the films’ depiction of unruly female behaviour, the article addresses the historical and social dimensions of the films in relation to carnival, adolescence and education. The films express public responses to the increasing public significance of female youth, and celebrate the predominantly female environment of the girls’ school.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003002837