What bothers me in the news these days; everywhere you look people are telling you as a women who you should be. You need to be a feminist. You have to be single, getting married will only harm your dreams. You should strive to be a CEO or scientist: housewife, teacher, etc.; are clichés and holding women back. You shouldn’t care about your appearance, that’s shallow and vain. On and on they go. But here is what I think:
Feminist or Anti-Feminist. Athlete or Fashionista. Housewife or CEO. Nerd or Cheerleader. A Good Girl or a Bad Girl. Damsel or Superhero. Overachiever or Underachiever. Mother Hen or Baby. Wise Crone or Foolish Youth. Spoiled or Humbled. Clingy or Independent. Single or Married.
Don’t let the world label you, real power and strength comes from being yourself.
Go be strong in believing what you believe and being your true self.
30 years ago, one of the best movies was released:
Yep this baby.
Now I know you all are thinking, but it says March 24, 1984. That’s the time in the movie, the film was actually released February 15, 1985.
This film was written by John Hughes in just two days and completely shot in sequence. What also is really interesting about this film is that Hughes actually allowed a lot of ab-libbing in the film. Such as Brian’s reason for a fake ID- “so I can vote”; the whole scene when they are in a circle sharing their feelings; and even the fist in the air by Judd Nelson at the end of the film. Now that last scene is extremely iconic, just like the song “Don’t You Forget About Me”. This song was especially written for the film and was turned down by a quite a few artists, like Billy Idol, to finally be performed by Simple Mind. Of course it became a huge hit for the band and is covered by millions, including Billy Idol. I guess he changed his mind.
So some of you many not be aware of the story, so here is a brief recap.
Five very different students have been sentenced with detention. We have Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy), “the basket case” who just came for fun; Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez), “the athlete”, who received detention for bullying a kid; John Bender (Judd Nelson), “the criminal”, sent there because of his acting up; Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald), “the princess”, caught skipping school to go shopping; and Brian Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall), “the brain”, who brought a flare gun to school.
In the beginning everyone abides by their cliques, Claire and Andrew sit together as they are on the highest level of the totem pole, while the rest sit by themselves. At first they keep their distance and Bender riles everyone, but through the course of the day they all bond together sharing their most personal secrets and working out their dysfunctions.
Allison feels ignored and therefore is a compulsive liar and a klepto, seeking out attention. Andrew hates his overbearing father who is always pressuring him. That is one of the reasons why he was bullying another kid, his father said he wasn’t being manly enough. Bender is abused by his father and ignored the rest of the time. Claire feels confined by the role she is in, as everyone sees her a certain way when in reality she has hardly ever dated and is a virgin. Brian feels so pressured by his family to be perfect and get into a good college, that he contemplated suicide over getting a bad grade in woodshop. Through these discussions, everyone feels much better and is much happier. But at the same time they feel sad and scared that once they are back in school Monday they will no longer be friends and things will continue as they have before.
Before the day ends, they hook up the sound system and have a big dance. Claire and Bender pair up and so do Allison and Andrew. Poor Brian gets stuck writing their detention assignment.
In the end Claire gives Bender one of her diamond earrings so they’ll never forget that moment. Allison steals Andrew’s Captain letter and the two kiss, while Brian gets nothing (poor nerdy guy). And the film ends with Bender’s triumphant arm thrust and Simple Mind’s Don’t You Forget About Me playing in the background.
Now I love this movie. Like freaking love it.
And watch it over and over.
I mean how could you not love it and the messages it covers? First of all you see that labels are nothing, just things we create ourselves to make us feel accepted, when in fact there is a little of everything in all of us.
We all have insecurities:
And that we all are strange. Nobody’s perfect or has it all together.
Yep, I just love this film.
In fact, I am such a fangirl over it that in one of my college courses, a group of us became such great friends and were all so different, yet the same, that we named our collective “The Breakfast Club”. Yep, my fangirl was showing.
So of course being a huge fan, when I saw a quiz to see which character I was, I had to take it. And I got:
Now this surprised me as I would have thought I’d get the Basket Case, Brain, or Athlete before I ever got the Criminal. But, and you guys will laugh at this, a few weeks ago (and right after I took this quiz) I was watching this film with four other friends. We started teasing my friend Gabe that he was Brian the Brain. He started joking that our friend Stephanie was Allison the Basket Case. Then we all started pairing up people and characters. Laurence did sports so he became Andrew the Athlete. And even though Jack was a boy, we decided he was Claire the Princess, or Prince in his case. And that made me Bender the Criminal. In fact, that night I was wearing a plaid shirt, jeans, and black boots; not the exact ones Bender wears, but pretty darn close. Now whenever I see Jack, I always joke around that he’s my girlfriend, or woman as I feel Bender would say.
So this is one fantastic film that I strongly suggest you view. If you’ve never seen it, get a copy and do so as soon as possible. If you have, another thousand viewings is what I recommend. 🙂
The music of today sucks. You know what’s awesome, music of the past, things of the past. Things…of the ’80s!
I love the ’80s. The fashion, the movies, the music…It all is so cool. I would love to go back in time and visit.
This shouldn’t really surprise any of you out there as I’m constantly going on about it. It also should be no real shock that this is one of my favorite songs:
In Love With the ’80s (Pink Tux to the Prom) by Relient K
I can’t find much information on the creation of the song, but it clearly was created by one who loved the ’80s. I just love the music and lyrics of this piece. In fact my senior prom escort joked about getting a powder blue tux, like the one in Dumb and Dumber and I told him he could wear one like that (I think they are cute), as long as it didn’t clash with my dress. He chose to just go in regular black.
So it was Jeremy in 1983,
In his ocean pacific tee,
Who got a bloody knee,
On his skateboard,
In the halfpipe,
In the backyard,
That tuesday night.
And I’m only gonna pierce my left ear,
And I’ve been working on this mustache all summer long,
And my favorite band will always be tears for fears,
And I’m gonna to wear a pink tux to the prom, a pink tux to the prom.
Cuttin class through the first four windows,
He’s drivin fast because he never did a thing slow,
And I look up to my big bro cuz in the eighties all the ladies grabbed his
hands and couldn’t let go.
And I’m only gonna pierce my left ear,
And I’ve been working on this mustache all summer long,
And my favorite band will always be tears for fears,
And I’m gonna to wear a pink tux to the prom, a pink tux to the prom.
Do, do, do-do, do, do, Pink tux to the prom, [x2]
I am gonna wear, a pink tux to the prom,
Live without a care, what can possibly go wrong.
When you’re the president of the breakfast club,
And you’re not hesitant to fall in love,
To fall in love with the eighties, to throw it away
to fall in love with the eighties.
I am gonna wear, a pink tux to the prom,
Live without a care, what can possibly go wrong,
I am gonna wear a pink tux to the prom,
Live without a care cause you threw it away to fall in love, with the eighties..
Do, do, do-do, do, do
A great song that I hope my fellow ’80s fans enjoyed as much as me. 🙂
janeaustenrunsmylife 