How was student agency depicted in the film you watched? You might describe and react to student agency in the film or compare characters in the film and whether/what kinds of agenda they possess. Feel free to also suggest topics for discussion when we meet to discuss.
In this film, the teachers are relatively unimportant to the story and mostly function as devices to further the plot. The movie focuses on a group of girls tackling sexism at their school through a zine named Moxie. The main protagonist is relatively uninteresting, a straight white woman who decided to try to lead a feminist revolution at her school after discovering her mom's past. The others have more interesting interests, given their intersectional struggles like race-based misogyny and queerness.
ReplyDeleteMoxie - Autumn Winston
DeleteStudent agency is shown differently in Clueless through the characters. Cher has a lot of social agency since she is able to influence teachers, control trends, and manipulate the atmosphere around her but at first her agency is seen as more connected to popularity and appearance than genuine autonomy. Tai begins with little agency doing Cher and Dionne's bidding but eventually rebels and makes a few decisions for herself. Cher also changes at the end from trying to control the lives of others to bettering herself, which is a more valid type of agency. This leads us to the inquiry of whether Cher's ability to influence people is actual agency or simply manipulation, and how privilege and popularity shape what it means to have agency in the film.
ReplyDelete- Presley
(Sawyer) In The Breakfast Club the students main conflict was over control of their agency. Each student had to set aside the ideas pushed onto them by the social molds they each fit into to better understand each other as individuals and their similarities that all drove them towards the act of defiance that landed them in detention. I thought the notion of individuality we discussed was prevalent in this movie as each character are based off of an archetype but struggle with the pressures others put on them to fit in to what that mold should be. There is also an element of social class divide in the film. As we’ve seen with many other films, the poorest student is initially the most defiant to authority and the setting was mostly suburban middle-class high school which I believe was discussed by Bulman. I did find it interesting however that the poor and rich students did face the most similar at home problems. I also found it an interesting choice that the janitor was very intentionally portrayed as far more in touch than the teacher/principal was and would like to discuss why that was.
ReplyDelete( School of Rock ) - At the beginning of School of Rock, Dewey held all the agency. The students knew they had a school routine that they wanted to maintain. However, Dewey wanted nothing to do with education. He was only present as a substitute to get money for rent ( in his mind). The only time the kids were involved in anything educational was when the principal came to release them to music class, which showed she had further agency over Dewey and the children. Building up to the climax of the movie, the agency dynamic began to flow more towards the children. Dewey started taking suggestions on which songs they should play and if they wanted to change their role in the band. Ultimately, the agency landed in the students' hands at the end of the movie, with them choosing the name of the band as well as deciding to go to Battle of the Bands on their own and even pulling Dewey to perform one more song for the crowd. - Jayla Alston
ReplyDeleteIn Moxie, while the main character was the one that started the feminist revolution and held some agency as she incited other girls to revolt against the school, the new girl and the Moxie members held a lot of agency as well. They experienced the problems themselves and helped support the other girls. The new girl also inspired the main character to start the revolt in the first place with her confidence and unwillingness to back down. - Kayla
ReplyDeleteIn The Breakfast Club, student agency shows up in the way the characters start pushing back against the labels people give them. At first, they’re stuck in their roles, but as the day goes on, they realize they’ve got more control over who they really are. Bender keeps standing up to the principal, showing he won’t just sit back and take it, while Claire opens up about the pressure from her parents, which shows she wants to break out of those expectations. By the end, when they all connect and share their real selves, it proves they don’t have to be defined by adults or school labels they get to decide for themselves.
ReplyDelete(whoops it cut me off) This reminds me of Freedom Writers, because the students in that movie also find their voices and learn to challenge the roles society placed on them. At first, they’re divided by race, class, and stereotypes, but through writing and sharing their stories, they take control of how they’re seen. Just like the teens in The Breakfast Club, they realize they don’t have to live up to what teachers, parents, or the world expect they can use their own agency to rewrite their future. Both films show that when students are given space to be heard, they can break free from labels and start to define themselves in their own way.- Laney
DeleteJoaquin) The movie Clueless undermines the typical view or evil persona of rich kids
ReplyDelete(sorry, idk what happened) - and their egos. What Clueless does is show that privileged kids can grow, reflect, and make ethical decisions. The agency lies within the rich kids who don't let their wealth and image depict who they are. They look past social values or materialism and choose good over their ego.
DeleteFerris Bueller's Day Off
ReplyDeleteIn the movie, the students fully control their lives. The main character Ferris Bueller had the agency and moved the whole movie along. He changed perspectives of the character's of the film. Another character, Cameron, gains agency in the movie. Cameron was someone who was scared of getting in trouble, and by the end of the movie, he pulled a 180 and took action that became a big plot twist. We can also see Ferris Bueller's sister going from hating his brother to helping his brother out by covering for him. Ferris created this movement that by the end of the movie changed characters' minds.
-Alpha Aquino
Student agency is portrayed in significantly different ways between the two films I watched, Lean on Me was set in a low ranked urban high school and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was set in a suburban, more privileged setting. The stark contrast between the two films allowed me to further think about what student agency looks like. Ferris Bueller’s day off centers around the students' individual agency, where the protagonist, along with his friends, skip school and spend the day in the city. While the teenagers often act impulsively and irresponsibly, their actions are a reflection of their freedom and ability to make their own decisions.
ReplyDeletematt - Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The students hold the agency in this movie, but specifically Ferris Bueller. you also see multiple other characters gain agency throughout the movie.
ReplyDeleteIn Class Rank, student agency is shown through Veronica and Bernard taking control of their futures in very different ways. Veronica pursues politics mainly as a strategy to boost her college chances, while Bernard runs for the school board out of genuine concern for policies that affect students. Their contrast shows how student agency can be driven either by ambition and personal goals or by authentic values and ideals.
ReplyDeleteIn the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the students hold the most agency, specifically Ferris Bueller. Throughout the entirety of the movie, it was shown through Ferris’ perspective where he often times talks to the audience to guide us through his day and how he deals with certain situations. He is the one who drives the story by making the decision to skip school and go around the city with his friends. One character that develops his agency is Cameron, Ferris’ best friend who goes along with the plan to skip school. Cameron gains his agency from his father, who is very controlling and who Cameron is afraid of. This shows that the students in the film hold the agency because it shows the amount of freedom they have.
ReplyDeleteIreland
DeleteIn Mean Girls Regina had the student agency at first but then Cady took over the agency because of her hanging around Regina a learning her ways to become her. But then in the end people were look at her differently because they thought she pushed Regina in front of the train. In the end Cady became the queen but didn’t wanna take all credits so she shared her crown with everyone.
ReplyDeleteThe film I watched was Breakfast Club, and I would say that the entire movie surrounded the concept of student agency. The plot is about a group of students from different stereotypical social circles put in detention with the task of writing a 1000 word essay describing who they are while a cruel jaded teacher half heartedly watches them. At first, the teacher holds the agency by giving them this assignment and monitoring their actions under strict rules, but after Bender takes out a screw that closes the door, all of the students take the opportunity to leave the detention room and pull crazy stunts to avoid the teacher, have deep conversations about how appearances can be deceiving of someone's home life, and discuss how each social circle they are in has pressures and flaws despite what others think. The students use their own agency to refuse the cruel punishment set by the teacher, and instead discover more about themselves and each other without the need of a 1000 word essay.
ReplyDeleteAkiko M
DeleteIn Clueless, the student agency was depicted different at different points through out the movie. I say this because in the beginning, the main character, Cher, was very much in control of her own life as well as what was happening in her life. Along with this, we see she likes to be in control of others lives as well due to her setting up matches for both teachers and friends. However, in the movie we see her lose a little bit of she self agency when she attempts to matchmake another person in the film, only this time it does not go as planed like the others. Throughout the rest of the movie Cher is slowly changing her views on the "world" and how things work. But I would say by the end of the movie Cher is back in control of her life with a new amount of independence that she did not necessarily have at the beginning of the film. Along with this, we see Cher making and maintaining relationships that she did not necessarily have in the beginning of the movie. -Kailei
ReplyDeleteIn The Breakfast Club, the agency begins with the principal who is this looming and constantly threatening authoritative figure who has no respect for the students he's monitoring. Quickly though, Bender takes charge among the students and claims a sense of agency by pushing the other students to break rules and by verbally and physically annoying them. As the movie continues, there is a constant battle of agency between Bender and the principal, when the principal locks Bender in a closet and threatens him, acting like Bender's father. Near the end of the movie, the students get high, and begin to open up. This marks a change in agency as the students make their own decisions and think for themselves about who they really are and their lives outside of detention. The movie ends with agency in the hands of each student. One other battle of agency that is discovered halfway through the movie is between the wishes of the students parents and what the students themselves want from their lives. An example is Andrew's parents treating him like a race horse and beating him to constantly win, and he subsequently struggles with meeting his father's expectations. Overall I believe as the movie continues the agency exponentially shifts from authoritative figures like parents or principals and goes towards the students as they start to think for themselves.
ReplyDeleteChelsea: Mean Girls (2004) came out in my junior year of high school, so for me this movie was like watching a documentary. I too went to a large, suburban, diverse school where cliques felt as powerful as grades. At North Shore High, students hold too much unchecked agency at first. Regina George dominates teachers, peers, even her own mom. The “social curriculum” (cafeteria maps, popularity rules) overshadows academics; Cady’s grades actually decline as she climbs the ladder. That runs directly against Labaree’s idea of schooling as social efficiency. Instead, the film highlights the spectrum of social mobility through expressive individualism: Cady reinvents herself as a Plastic, then later redistributes power by breaking the Spring Fling tiara. The Mathletes are dismissed as “social suicide,” yet in the end Cady’s redemption comes from returning to that intellectual arena. And Ms. Norbury’s interventions remind us that teacher agency matters, not through force, but through scaffolding opportunities, like signing Cady up for Mathletes or calling out her slipping grades. If I could dream otherwise, I’d reimagine the Burn Book intervention. In the film, only the girls are called into the gym to process their behavior. But social-emotional intelligence is for everyone. Leaving the boys out erases the ways toxic masculinity fuels toxic femininity, and it misses the chance to model collective accountability. In a different version, Ms. Norbury would lead the whole school into building healthier agency together.
ReplyDeleteElena Here: In the movie clueless the characters especially Cher has a lot of Agency. We can see in the beginning of the movie that she is very much in control of her life and has the ability to make a change. Exhibited when she gets all of her teachers to change her grades to A's. We can also see that she likes to control other people when she take's Tai under her wing. At the beginning I don't think Tai has a lot of agency she is just being shaped into whatever Cher want, and then she becomes more popular as she tries to emulate Cher. At the end she finds her agency and just becomes herself.
ReplyDeleteBreakfast Club: I think the agency lies with the students. They go through lengths to avoid being "oppressed" by and authoritative figure. All though dramatize, that is the theme of this movie. It shows how looks can be deceiving. It hits pretty much all the mainstream high school stereotypes. They have deep conversations, and learn from each other. It shows how people tend to come together in adversity than divide. The whole situation is ironic because they are supposed to write a 1000 word essay. Yet, they learn more from just speaking to each other. I feel like the film highlights how we divide ourselves (intentionally or unintentionally) but at the end of the day are just people. - Jade
ReplyDeleteIn Mean Girls , student agency shows up through how characters try to control their social world. Regina runs things with manipulation, while Cady starts off following others but eventually finds her own voice. Everyone’s agenda whether it’s popularity, revenge, or belonging, shapes their choices. We could talk about how peer pressure affects agency and what real empowerment looks like in high school. Amiya
ReplyDeleteIn Mean Girls, student agency is shown through how the characters make choices and try to control their lives at school. Regina George shows the most agency by using her popularity to control others and set the social rules. Cady Heron at first follows what Janis and Damian want, then copies Regina, but later learns to act for herself and make her own choices. Janis uses her agency to get revenge on Regina, while Gretchen and Karen have little agency and mostly follow others. The film shows that agency can be used to control people, but true agency comes when characters act honestly and take responsibility for their actions.
ReplyDelete-Alyson
DeleteHanna- my 2nd movie I choose was Clueless. It differently was a big jump from watching something like Stand and Deliver. This film centered on a 15 year old popular Cher Horowitz. a valley girl who lives in hollywood with her best friend Dionne. It was my first time watching this film even with it being very popular I haven't heard much of the plot. Cher as individual really likes to take charge and do whatever she can to get her way, but not really in a sense like in mean girls when Regina George is forcing people, she truly is native and clueless. She took agency to benefit her grade in debate class by helping the main teacher and another side teacher get together. Although she was good student for the most part, she was clearly in a place of privilege by being a pretty, white rich girl. a theme I feel like is common in teen movies, especially when they encounter characters like Tai, that the teen girl(s) just HAVE to fix and turn like them. Even with Cher genuine interest in helping Tai, Tai herself let Cher and Dionne take hold of her agency to help her like them. Then there's regret from Cher later when she sees how much her influence had changed Tai and seems to break that bubble of naivety. This film while focus on highschoolers, did not involve a lot of students struggling with their grades or stressing about college, It was about partying, popularity, and relationships. not surprising!
ReplyDeleteIn the film the breakfast club the students had all the agency. The principal tried to enforce his agency by making the children sit back and do nothing, however it was one kid that continued to test the waters and rebel. He made a huge impact on the group.
ReplyDelete-yasmin
DeleteIn Mean Girls, I think agency is shown through how Cady and the other girls are trying to find their control and place at school with all the social pressure. Even though they are in control of their own decisions and choices, those choices are often influenced by a hierarchy (popularity) and wanting to fit in. In the film, Cady loses herself when she joins the plastics, which shows how easy it is to lose yourself when influenced.
ReplyDelete- Alana 'Ana'
In Lady Bird, the agency is shown through Christine who constantly wants to define her identity. She’s against her strict school and her mother. I think her agency is empowering but also chaotic. This movie shows how student agency is about learning who you are.
ReplyDeleteI watched Ladybird, and the agency was towards the main character, Ladybird. Her character pushes against the limits in her environment: her relationship with her mother, catholic school and the expectations, her friends and the girl she tries to impress. There were other forms of adolescence like with Kyle, Ladybird's boyfriend, who had a performative personality of being detached from society because “everything is a scam”.
ReplyDeleteIn The Breakfast Club, student agency shows up in how the students slowly stop letting adults define who they are. At the start of the movie, everyone is boxed into a label—the brain, the jock, the princess, the basket case, and the criminal. These labels come mostly from parents and school authority, and you can tell how much pressure the students feel to live up to them or act out because of them.
ReplyDeleteAs they spend the day together, the students begin to open up and talk honestly about their lives. This is where their agency really shows. They choose to share personal stories, admit fears, and question why they’re treated the way they are. None of this is forced—it happens because they finally have space to be real with each other. Bender challenges authority openly, while characters like Claire and Andrew start realizing how much their parents’ expectations control their lives. Brian and Allison, who are quieter at first, show agency just by speaking up at all.
What stood out to me is that not everyone has the same freedom to express themselves. Bender seems the most confident, but that confidence comes from anger and a difficult home life. Others stay quiet because they’re afraid of judgment. The movie makes it clear that student agency depends a lot on confidence, background, and whether someone feels safe being honest.
Overall, The Breakfast Club shows that student agency isn’t always about rebellion. Sometimes it’s about being heard, breaking out of labels, and realizing you’re more than what adults or society expect you to be.