‘The Breakfast Club’ disproves the validity of stereotypes

Stereotypes. I’m young, so I must be naïve. I dye my hair crazy colors, so I must be starving for attention. I get straight A’s, so I must have no social life.

These are just some of the many different stereotypes people fall into. Every school has them no matter what age group, and, let’s face it, they’re going to stay until the end of time. People are  put into a stereotype from the moment they walk through those school doors on their first day.

The classic 1985 flick “The Breakfast Club” is the epitome of clique movies. It came about long before “Not Another Teen Movie” and “Mean Girls.” Set in a small town in Illinois, this movie follows the story of a brain, Brian, an athlete, Andrew, a basket-case, Allison, a princess, Claire, and a criminal, Bender. These five characters have to spend a full Saturday together in detention as a result of something each of them did.

Everyone can relate to this movie on some level, whether you fall into one of these stereotypes, or another stereotype completely.

Everybody knows that different cliques don’t socialize in public, unless you’re in a Disney Channel movie, right? Wrong. This movie breaks free from the status quo. It shows that even if people are categorized into different cliques, they could have similar interests they never even knew about.

In “The Breakfast Club,” as everybody arrives at school for detention after getting ripped new ones from their parents, they all sit at different desks in the library, typical clique behavior. Their objective for the day? To write an essay of no less than 1000 words about who they think they are. As the principal leaves, they start to do stereotypical things: the basket-case chews her nails, the brain is attempting to work on the essay, the criminal sings a rock song badly and out of tune, the princess starts complaining, and the athlete is threatening to beat the criminal to a pulp. As the movie goes on, they argue about everything from lunch, to clothes, to clubs. Throughout the day, the characters learn many different things about each other, including personal things that they hadn’t even told their pals.

So what exactly does go on in a Saturday detention from 7:06 a.m. to 3 p.m.? You’d have to watch the movie to figure out. The characters all have something they’re hiding, and that something comes out as the film progresses, taking the watcher deeper and deeper into the differences between the social cliques. It’s a real eye-opener when you discover the differences, and even surprising similarities between every single character, despite stereotypes.

People are people, no matter what stereotype society classifies them into. Everybody has thoughts, feelings, opinions, and ideas about how they want their lives to turn out, despite the struggle that they have to go through to make it there. In their nine hours of threatening and bickering, the characters in this movie will have you laughing, thinking about real stereotypes, and wondering what every character is going to take out of this experience to change their lives for the better.

Stereotypes. I’m young, so I must be naïve. I dye my hair crazy colors, so I must be starving for attention. I get straight A’s, so I must have no social life.

These are just some of the many different stereotypes people fall into. Every school has them no matter what age group, and, let’s face it, they’re going to stay until the end of time. People are  put into a stereotype from the moment they walk through those school doors on their first day.

The classic 1985 flick “The Breakfast Club” is the epitome of clique movies. It came about long before “Not Another Teen Movie” and “Mean Girls.” Set in a small town in Illinois, this movie follows the story of a brain, Brian, an athlete, Andrew, a basket-case, Allison, a princess, Claire, and a criminal, Bender. These five characters have to spend a full Saturday together in detention as a result of something each of them did.

Everyone can relate to this movie on some level, whether you fall into one of these stereotypes, or another stereotype completely.

Everybody knows that different cliques don’t socialize in public, unless you’re in a Disney Channel movie, right? Wrong. This movie breaks free from the status quo. It shows that even if people are categorized into different cliques, they could have similar interests they never even knew about.

In “The Breakfast Club,” as everybody arrives at school for detention after getting ripped new ones from their parents, they all sit at different desks in the library, typical clique behavior. Their objective for the day? To write an essay of no less than 1000 words about who they think they are. As the principal leaves, they start to do stereotypical things: the basket-case chews her nails, the brain is attempting to work on the essay, the criminal sings a rock song badly and out of tune, the princess starts complaining, and the athlete is threatening to beat the criminal to a pulp. As the movie goes on, they argue about everything from lunch, to clothes, to clubs. Throughout the day, the characters learn many different things about each other, including personal things that they hadn’t even told their pals.

So what exactly does go on in a Saturday detention from 7:06 a.m. to 3 p.m.? You’d have to watch the movie to figure out. The characters all have something they’re hiding, and that something comes out as the film progresses, taking the watcher deeper and deeper into the differences between the social cliques. It’s a real eye-opener when you discover the differences, and even surprising similarities between every single character, despite stereotypes.

People are people, no matter what stereotype society classifies them into. Everybody has thoughts, feelings, opinions, and ideas about how they want their lives to turn out, despite the struggle that they have to go through to make it there. In their nine hours of threatening and bickering, the characters in this movie will have you laughing, thinking about real stereotypes, and wondering what every character is going to take out of this experience to change their lives for the better.

Checkout The Breakfast Club – 1985 theatrical trailer, via YouTube