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University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/58486 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. 1 2 RETHINKING THE NORM: JUDITH BUTLER AND THE HOLLYWOOD TEEN MOVIE FRANCES CATHERINE ELIZABETH SMITH A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN FILM AND TELEVISION STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK, DEPARTMENT OF FILM AND TELEVISION STUDIES AUGUST 2013 3 CONTENTS OVERVIEW INTRODUCTION 9 1 – THE TEEN MOVIE AND PERFORMATIVITY 17 2 – THE PROM AND THE HIGH-SCHOOL TEEN MOVIE 97 3 – STAR PERFORMANCE AND FILM ACTING 164 4 – CONSTRUCTING THE PAST IN THE TEEN MOVIE 249 CONCLUSION 323 BIBLIOGRAPHY 337 FILMOGRAPHY 355 4 DETAILED CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 9 1 THE TEEN MOVIE AND PERFORMATIVITY 17 1.1 INTRODUCTION TO THE TEEN MOVIE 17 1.2 GENDER TROUBLE: FEMINISM AND THE SUBVERSION OF IDENTITY (1990) 37 1.2.1 SEX, GENDER AND THE BODY 37 1.2.2 PROHIBITION, THE PHALLUS AND IDEALISED GENDER 41 1.2.3 SUBVERTING THE HETEROSEXUAL MATRIX 47 1.3 BODIES THAT MATTER: ON THE DISCURSIVE LIMITS OF SEX (1993) 49 1.3.1 PERFORMATIVITY, CITATIONALITY AND THE SEXED BODY 50 1.3.2 PROHIBITION, INTERPELLATION AND THE ASSUMPTION OF GENDER 55 1.3.3 NEW POSSIBILITIES FOR SUBVERTING THE HETEROSEXUAL MATRIX 59 1.4 JUDITH BUTLER IN FILM STUDIES 62 1.4.1 PARODY, PASTICHE, CAMP 63 1.4.2 THE CROSS-DRESSED PERFORMER ON SCREEN 67 1.4.3 STARDOM 71 1.5 JUDITH BUTLER POST BODIES THAT MATTER 74 1.5.1 GIVING AN ACCOUNT OF ONESELF 77 1.5.2 UNDOING GENDER 83 1.6 CONCLUSION 94 2 THE PROM AND THE HIGH-SCHOOL TEEN MOVIE 97 2.1 LOCATING THE HIGH-SCHOOL TEEN MOVIE IN GENRE SCHOLARSHIP 97 2.2 CASE STUDY 1 – PRETTY IN PINK (DIR. HOWARD DEUTCH, 1986) 111 2.2.1 INTRODUCTION 111 2.2.2 DOMESTICITY AND DAUGHTERHOOD IN PRETTY IN PINK 113 2.2.3 SUBCULTURE AND PERFORMANCES OF RESPECTABILITY 119 2.2.4 THE VALUE OF LABOUR IN PRETTY IN PINK 126 2.2.5 IDEALISED ROMANCE AT THE PROM 134 2.3 CASE STUDY 2 – SHE’S ALL THAT (DIR. ROBERT ISCOVE, 1999) 138 2.3.1 INTRODUCTION 138 2.3.2 CONSTRUCTING STATUS IN THE HIGH SCHOOL 140 2.3.3 IDEALISED FEMININITY AND “MAKING UNDER” LANEY 144 2.3.4 TRANSFORMING LANEY AND ZACH 147 2.3.5 ALTERNATIVE VALUES AND THE PROM 155 2.4 CONCLUSION 160 5 3 STAR PERFORMANCE AND FILM ACTING 164 3.1 STARDOM, FILM ACTING AND THE JUVENILE DELINQUENT 164 3.2 THE ORIGINAL REBEL: JAMES DEAN IN REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (DIR. NICHOLAS RAY, 1955) 176 3.2.1 INTRODUCTION 176 3.2.2 “YOU’RE TEARING ME APART!” FRAGMENTATION AND THE FAILURE OF GENDER IDENTIFICATION 178 3.2.3 “WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU HAVE TO BE A MAN?” CONFRONTATION AND THE “CHICKIE RUN” 184 3.2.4 ESTABLISHING AN ALTERNATIVE FAMILY 192 3.2.5 PLATO’S SHOOTING AND JIM’S REINTEGRATION 195 3.3 CASE STUDY 3 – GREASE (DIR. RANDAL KLEISER, 1978) 200 3.3.1 INTRODUCTION 200 3.3.2 THE HETEROSEXUAL MATRIX AND THE DUAL-FOCUS NARRATIVE 202 3.3.3 ALTERNATIVE PERFORMANCES OF MASCULINITY 210 3.3.4 THE DANCE COMPETITION 214 3.3.5 PERSONALITY DISSOLVE AND THE CARNIVAL 218 3.4 CASE STUDY 4 – HEATHERS (DIR. MICHAEL LEHMAN, 1989) 223 3.4.1 INTRODUCTION 223 3.4.2 CHRISTIAN SLATER, JACK NICHOLSON AND JASON DEAN 225 3.4.3 HEATHER CHANDLER’S DEATH AND THE “CHICKIE RUN” 230 3.4.4 KURT AND RAM: FROM HOMOSOCIALITY TO HOMOSEXUALITY 229 3.4.5 “GOING TO PROM OR GOING TO HELL”: REFUSING THE HETEROSEXUAL MATRIX 236 3.5 CONCLUSION 246 4 CONSTRUCTING THE PAST IN THE TEEN MOVIE 249 4.1 INTRODUCTION: THE TEEN MOVIE AND HISTORY 249 4.2 CASE STUDY 5 – AMERICAN GRAFFITI (DIR. GEORGE LUCAS, 1973) 265 4.2.1 INTRODUCTION 265 4.2.2 CONSTRUCTING THE PAST AT MEL’S DRIVE-IN 267 4.2.3 JOHN AND THE DEMISE OF THE TEEN REBEL 270 4.2.4 IDEALISED ROMANCE IN AMERICAN GRAFFITI 276 4.2.5 TERRY, DEBBIE AND IDEALISTIC YOUTH 281 4.2.6 CURT, MYTH AND THE SEARCH FOR THE PHALLUS 287 4.3 CASE STUDY 6 – DIRTY DANCING (DIR. EMILE ARDOLINO, 1987) 294 4.3.1 INTRODUCTION 294 4.3.2 DANCE AND THE DUAL-FOCUS NARRATIVE 297 4.3.3 QUESTIONING UTOPIA IN DIRTY DANCING 305 4.3.4 FANTASIES OF ACHIEVEMENT AND THE HOLLYWOOD FILM MUSICAL 310 6 4.3.5 “THE TIME OF MY LIFE?” PROBLEMATISING THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE PAST 316 4.4 CONCLUSION 320 CONCLUSION 323 BIBLIOGRAPHY 337 FILMOGRAPHY 355 7 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 2 – THE PROM AND THE HIGH-SCHOOL TEEN MOVIE 2.1 – A SUBCULTURE: ANDIE (MOLLY RINGWALD), DUCKIE (JON CRYER) AND IONA (ANNIE POTTS) 119 2.2 – ANDIE MAKES HER DRESS 130 2.3 – ANDIE TENTATIVELY ENTERS THE PROM VENUE 133 2.4 – ZACH (FREDDIE PRINZE JR.) NOTICES HIS PICTURE 143 2.5 – LANEY (RACHEL LEIGH COOK) AS “MADE-UNDER” 146 2.6 – LANEY IS TRANSFORMED 152 3 – STAR PERFORMANCE AND FILM ACTING 3.1 – JAMES DEAN’S ANTI-STAR MOMENT 179 3.2 – PLATO (SAL MINEO) AND JUDY (NATALIE WOOD) DISCUSS JIM AT THE “CHICKIE RUN” 189 3.3 – A JAMES DEAN STAR MOMENT AT THE PLANETARIUM 198 3.4 – JOHN TRAVOLTA’S STAR ENTRANCE 204 3.5 – THE T-BIRDS OCCUPY THE PERIPHERY OF THE MALE SPACE 205 3.6 – THE T-BIRDS AND THEIR CAR ARE TEMPORARILY TRANSFORMED 211 3.7 – TRAVOLTA’S COSTUME REFLECTS THE 1970S PRODUCTION CONTEXT 215 3.8 – DANNY (JOHN TRAVOLTA) SHOWS OFF HIS NEW JACKET 220 3.9 – JD (CHRISTIAN SLATER) REFERENCES JACK NICHOLSON WITH HIS ARCHED EYEBROWS AND WRY EXPRESSION 226 3.10 – JD NEUTRALLY OBSERVES KURT AND RAM’S HOMOPHOBIC BULLYING 238 3.11 – JD SHOWS VERONICA THE BOTTLE OF MINERAL WATER CENTRAL TO HIS PLAN 241 3.12 – JD, NOW FULLY PSYCHOTIC, A DIMINUTIVE FIGURE 243 4 – CONSTRUCTING THE PAST IN THE TEEN MOVIE 4.1 – MEL’S DRIVE-IN 268 4.2 – JOHN MILLNER (PAUL LE MAT) 271 4.3 – DEBBIE (CANDY CLARK) AND TERRY (CHARLES MARTIN-SMITH) REFLECT ON THEIR EVENING 286 4.4 – “A GODDESS IN A T-BIRD” 287 4.5 – WOLFMAN AS MYTH 289 4.6 – WOLFMAN AS REALITY 289 4.7 – “DIRTY DANCING” OVERLAID OVER BLACK AND WHITE SLOW-MOTION IMAGES 299 4.8 – BABY (JENNIFER GRAY) AND PENNY (CYNTHIA RHODES) GAZE AT JOHNNY (PATRICK SWAYZE) 314 4.9 – BABY’S INAUGURATION AS A MODEL OF IDEALISED FEMININITY HERALDS A NEW FORM OF COMMUNITY 318 8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor, Catherine Constable, for her continued kindness, support and critique over the last few years. I’d also like to thank Rachel Moseley, whose many insights into the Teen Movie have been invaluable. Finally, thanks must go to Mr Metcalf, for his support, love and companionship. You always know how to make me laugh. 9 ABSTRACT The thesis explores the construction of gender in the Hollywood Teen Movie, often perceived as ‘the odious norm’ of Hollywood cinema with little to warrant serious analysis.1 Although Timothy Shary’s work has done much to promote the genre as an area of academic enquiry, there have been few sustained textual analyses of the Teen Movie. Through close textual analysis of seven representative case studies, this thesis stages an encounter between Butler’s work on gender and the Teen Movie. Butler’s theorisation of performativity denaturalises and deconstructs the assumption of heteronormativity, enabling a detailed analysis of the genre’s ‘sexual coming-of-age narrative.’2 Further, the textual analyses complicate and augment aspects of her theories. Following a review of the literature on the Teen Movie, and an examination of Butler’s oeuvre, the thesis is divided into three sections. Firstly, the prom is explored as a typical narrative conclusion to the School Film. Secondly, the following chapter analyses star performance and film acting in the youth delinquency film. The final chapter examines the genre’s construction of the past in the “nostalgic” teen movie. The original contribution to knowledge is twofold: the thesis significantly expands existing work on the Teen Movie, and uses the depth and range of specific examples from the case studies to complicate Butler’s work. Textual analysis of each film’s construction of heteronormativity demonstrates that this normative and mainstream genre offers a more complex and critical presentation of heterosexual norms than previously appreciated. The thesis rethinks the norm by demonstrating the complexity of normative culture, which demonstrates a range of examples that call for a reconsideration of Butler’s theorisation of gender norms. 1 A Martin, 1989, ‘The Teen Movie: Why Bother?’ Cinema Papers, Vol. 75, No. 12, p. 11 2 J Feuer, 1993, The Hollywood Musical, 2nd Ed., Bloomington: Indiana University Press, p. 125 10 Introduction: Why Bother? INTRODUCTION: WHY BOTHER? In 1989, Adrian Martin presented the issue of analysing the Teen Movie in the starkest possible terms, asking simply, ‘why bother?’3 Fourteen years later, Robin Wood’s essay on the genre leads with the same question, adding that ‘everyone knows these films are trash.’4 Beginning with a somewhat guilty defence of the genre, both critics acknowledge – and arguably uphold – a widespread critical consensus deeming the Teen Movie to be part of the ‘the odious norm of contemporary commercial cinema,’ with little to warrant sustained attention or analysis.5 Justifying his interest in the genre, Martin argues simply that ‘it exists, it’s popular’ provides sufficient reason to investigate the Teen Movie further.6 Certainly, the enduring popularity of these films – and their resulting profitability – cannot be disputed, as the recent Twilight franchise demonstrates.

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