{"id":123696,"date":"2025-03-10T07:40:46","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T07:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/american-history\/americanstudies-march-10-2025-spring-breaking-at-the-movies-spring-break\/"},"modified":"2025-03-10T07:40:46","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T07:40:46","slug":"americanstudies-march-10-2025-spring-breaking-at-the-movies-spring-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=123696","title":{"rendered":"AmericanStudies: March 10, 2025: Spring Breaking at the Movies: Spring Break"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

[With one
\nson in college and another about to be, Spring Break is a lot more than just a
\nconcept or a professional reality for this AmericanStudier. So this week I\u2019ll
\nAmericanStudy a handful of cinematic portrayals of Spring Break, leading up to some
\nweekend reflections on being a college Dad!]<\/p>\n

On more
\nand less destructive pop culture stereotypes.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not
\ngonna pretend that <\/span>1983\u2019s Spring Break<\/i><\/span><\/a> was any
\nkind of groundbreaking cinematic achievement, or even that I had heard of it
\nprior to researching this week\u2019s series. The sex comedy, produced and directed
\nby <\/span>Friday the 13th<\/sup><\/span><\/i><\/a> (1980)
\nco-creator and director Sean Cunningham, seems from the clips and reviews I\u2019ve
\nseen (and as always feel free to correct me in comments, although I\u2019m not
\nanticipating a lot of Spring Break<\/i>
\ndefenders here) to be a pretty formulaic, unimaginative, and uninteresting
\ndepiction of various Spring Break and college stereotypes, from sexy women in
\nwet t-shirt contests to nerdy college guys looking to get drunk and score with
\nthose women to straight-laced parents seeking to prevent their kids from taking
\npart in the hedonistic festivities. But the thing with stereotypes, even (or
\nperhaps especially) the lazier varieties of them, is that they can tell us a
\ngood bit about their cultural and social contexts\u2014and so it is with the
\nstereotypes that seem to drive the plot of Spring
\nBreak<\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n

The film\u2019s
\nmore overtly limiting and thus destructive stereotypes seem to be (I know I
\nkeep using that phrase, but I haven\u2019t seen it and I don\u2019t want to pretend
\notherwise!) those related to gender and sex. The most blatant are the
\ndepictions of young women, which from what I can tell fall into two and only
\ntwo categories: the vast majority of them (indeed, all but one), who are
\nnameless and identity-less characters defined only by their sex appeal and the
\nprotagonists\u2019 attempts to score with them; and the one more individualized
\nyoung woman, Susie (<\/span>model
\nJayne Modean<\/span><\/a>), whom nerdy protagonist Nelson (David Knell) meets at a wet
\nt-shirt contest, nearly has sex with during that first encounter, and then
\neventually (like, a day later) does have sex with. But while male characters
\nlike Nelson seem to be a good bit more fleshed-out (pun very much intended),
\nthey are likewise defined in quite thoroughly stereotypical ways, presented as
\ndriven by their basest desires (for women, for booze, for hedonism) in ultimately
\nquite unoriginal and unattractive ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

While
\nthose pursuits provide the protagonists\u2019 and film\u2019s initial motivations, the
\ncentral plotline is actually driven by different and more interesting stereotypes
\naround class, wealth, and power. Nelson\u2019s step-father, Ernest (<\/span>Donald Symington<\/span><\/a>), is a
\nwealthy asshole running for political office, and in the course of the film he
\npursues Nelson to Florida (worried that his step-son will embarrass his
\ncampaign) and befriends a local wealthy asshole (Richard Shull\u2019s Eddie) who is
\ntrying to strong-arm his way into purchasing the hotel where the kids are
\nstaying. Together the two wealthy assholes conspire to bribe a building
\ninspector to shut down the hotel (killing both of those birds with one wealthy
\nasshole stone), but the kids, with the help of an army of fellow partying
\ncollege students armed only with beer and whipped cream, get the better of
\nErnest and Eddie; their machinations are revealed, Nelson\u2019s Mom decides to
\ndivorce Ernest, and the little guys triumph in the end. Sticking it to the Man
\nisn\u2019t exactly a revolutionary premise for an 80s comedy, but these themes of
\npolitical and financial corruption are at least far more compelling and
\nimportant than wet t-shirt contests. <\/span><\/p>\n

Next
\nSpring Break film tomorrow,<\/span><\/p>\n

Ben<\/span><\/p>\n

PS. What
\ndo you think? Other Spring Break films or texts you\u2019d share? <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[With one son in college and another about to be, Spring Break is a lot more than just a concept or a professional reality for this AmericanStudier. 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