{"id":125872,"date":"2025-03-11T07:27:48","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T07:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/american-history\/americanstudies-march-11-2025-spring-breaking-at-the-movies-spring-breakers\/"},"modified":"2025-03-11T07:27:48","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T07:27:48","slug":"americanstudies-march-11-2025-spring-breaking-at-the-movies-spring-breakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=125872","title":{"rendered":"AmericanStudies: March 11, 2025: Spring Breaking at the Movies: Spring Breakers"},"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 the
\nfine, fraught line between challenging and exploiting the objectification of
\nfemale celebrities.<\/span><\/p>\n

First
\nthings first: despite their very similar titles, <\/span>Spring
\nBreakers<\/span><\/i><\/a> (2012) is a much more complex, ambitious, and thoughtful film
\nthan yesterday\u2019s subject, Spring Break<\/i>
\n(1983). Yes, indie <\/span>filmmaker
\nHarmony Korine<\/span><\/a>, who wrote and directed the film, has <\/span>said in
\ninterviews<\/span><\/a> that he wanted to make it in part to make up for his own missed
\nSpring Break experiences (he was apparently too busy skateboarding to venture
\nto sunnier climes), so Spring Breakers<\/i>
\ncould be said to reflect the same hedonistic goals as the earlier film. But as
\nhas been evident since the controversial and groundbreaking <\/span>film Kids<\/i><\/span><\/a> (1995), his first writing credit, Korine is
\nultimately more interested in deconstructing than in celebrating such youthful
\ndesires and pursuits, and Spring Breakers<\/i>,
\nan unremittingly bleak and violent film which he\u2019s <\/span>referred
\nto as a \u201cbeach noir<\/span><\/a>,\u201d is no exception. <\/span><\/p>\n

None of
\nthat is what led the media coverage of Spring
\nBreakers<\/i>, however. The consistent focus was the fact that two of its four
\nfemale leads were <\/span>Selena
\nGomez and Vanessa Hudgens<\/span><\/a>, known at the time as squeaky-clean teen
\nicons (Gomez mostly from a pop music career that had <\/span>begun on Barney & Friends<\/i><\/span><\/a> and Hudgens mostly from the <\/span>High
\nSchool Musical <\/span><\/i>films<\/span><\/a>) who in the film give far grittier and more
\nsexualized performances than they ever had before. That was also relatively
\ntrue for a third lead, Ashley Benson, although her <\/span>role on the TV show Pretty Little Liars<\/i><\/span><\/a> had been
\na bit darker than Gomez\u2019s and Hudgens\u2019 prior work; the fourth lead, <\/span>Rachel Korine<\/span><\/a>, is
\nHarmony Korine\u2019s wife and so had been part of his films for some time already. Between
\nspending a good bit of the film in bikinis, taking part in numerous scenes
\nfeaturing <\/span>sexual
\nsituations<\/span><\/a> and drug use, and eventually killing quite a few characters in a <\/span>violent climax<\/span><\/a>, these
\npreviously and famously Disney-fied actresses thoroughly challenge that image,
\na reversal that understandably drew a great deal of attention.<\/span><\/p>\n

While I\u2019m
\nsure Harmony Korine would say that he cast these actresses due to their talents
\n(and their performances are excellent across the board, to be clear), it seems
\nclear to me that he also did so (at least in part) because he knew the
\ncontroversy over their image revisions would draw more attention and coverage
\nto the film. Which is fine up to a point; but since those revisions again
\nrequire the actresses to do things like wear skimpy outfits for nearly all of
\nthe film, it does feel possible to argue that Korine is both exploiting their
\ncelebrity and objectifying them in the process. In her <\/span>review of
\nthe film for The Guardian<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/a>, critic Heather Long advanced that analysis,
\narguing that it \u201creinforces rape culture\u201d and \u201cturns young women into sex
\nobjects.\u201d But <\/span>Rolling Stone<\/span><\/i>\u2019s Josh
\nEells<\/span><\/a> argued the opposite position, claiming that the film features \u201ca
\nkind of girl-power camaraderie that could almost be called feminist,” part
\nof Korine\u2019s career-long goal of doing \u201cthe most radical work, but putting it
\nout in the most commercial way to infiltrate the mainstream.\u201d A complex duality
\nwhich, to be honest, is really at the heart of the whole concept of Spring
\nBreak in the 21st<\/sup> century. <\/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":"

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