This scene is from the
movie Bring It On, and is a good
example of high school senior cheerleaders gossiping in their "typical
location." The scene shows the cheerleaders discussing in a gossipy
fashion who deserves to become the next captain and who just isn't good enough.
The majority of the scene is set talking about the current head captain and how
certain cheerleaders truly feel about her. This scene mirrors Coates four steps
that she found in every female conversation. The first being topic development,
the cheerleaders are feeding off one another’s conversations, in somewhat of a
joint production, without even necessarily noticing it. One girl starts by
saying, “She puts the ass in massive” and three other girls follow her cue
ending with Courtney saying, “She puts the whore in horrifying.” The next
feature is minimal responses, which Courtney shows when she gives a little
“uh-huh” to acknowledge Whitney’s comment about a cheerleader she doesn’t think
deserves the captain position. Simultaneous speech is shown when both Courtney
and Whitney speak in agreeance that the current captain doesn’t deserve
anything from them. The final step shows epistemic modality when all the
cheerleaders are voicing who they believe will get the captain spot.
I thought this scene is
a good representation of dramatized gossip. This movie is obviously from a
different day and age then the conversation that takes place in the Coates
article, with the girls in Bring It On speaking
with a more “inappropriate” language they still manage to speak in the
“co-operative” nature that the women in the article speak. Agreeing with Coates
conclusion that “women’s talk can be described as co-operative.” This movie
stereotypes cheerleaders and women as using gossip as their main form of
conversation and helps prove Coates’ several points about how women use gossip
as their way of communication.
I agree with the fact that "Bring it On" solidifies Coates' idea about women using gossip for communication. I feel that this movie, as well as movies such as "Mean Girls" and "She's the Man" all assist in constructing gendered social norms in society. The communication by the women in the films is very exaggerated, gossipy, and girly. I don't necessarily feel that this is true of the entire gender, however this proves how big of a role the media plays in constructing social norms.
ReplyDeleteI think Coates makes an accurate statement when she says that female-female speech is cooperative and jointly produced. However, I still hold issues with the term "gossip." The "Bring It On" clip constructs what is generally thought of as female gossip, where the girls are all talking about a fellow cheerleader in a negative way. Because the clip is of a scripted nature, I am wary of using it as support for Coates' argument. The females in the movie clip are performing gender, or rather a particular stereotype: cheerleader. Performing gender and gendered social norms are another interesting topic that the previous commenter, Esream brought up. This can be linked to Cameron's article about Men's Talk, especially the mention of the movie "She's the Man." Instead of constructing gendered social norms, I would argue that "She's the Man" is more about performing gender and Cameron's idea of multiple masculinities.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kalyssa here. I'm not so sure if the connotation of "gossip" is negative or positive. In the clip, clearly it is negative. As a former cheerleader, I'm confident in saying there was plenty of that to go around, but that is not the only king of things that were talked about. This gendered social norm needs to be looked at more carefully.
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