Bogan's Blog

The classic teen comedy has always been a staple in representing a generation and the films 16 Candles , Clueless , and Mean Girls are no different in their impact on the generations of the 1980’s, 1990’s, and the early 2000’s. An important factor in this discussion is what about these films stayed the same over the thirty year span of cinema and what has been left behind. Many films are referenced in the media or by individuals in order to reference specific moments in history and films can be remembered through quoting memorable lines from an iconic movie between friends or by simply rewatching a cherished film to recapture a moment in time. More often than not, the films that stay fresh in viewer's minds are the films that were viewed during important or transitional times in their lives; making the most referenced or cherished films by individual people the films that were screened during adolescence as the viewers were coming into their own as teenagers or young adults.

-Ashcroft, Catherine. 2003. “Adolescent ambiguities in American Pie: Popular culture as a resource for sex education.” Youth and Society , 35, no.1: 37-70. -Bentley, Mary K. 1999. “The Body of Evidence: Dangerous Intersections between Development and Culture in the Lives of Adolescent Girls.” In Mazzarella, 209-221. - Brooks, James. “Teenagers Evaluating Modern Media.” The English Journal , vol. 87, no. 1, 1998, pp. 21–24. JSTOR , JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/822014. - Clueless . 1995. Directed by Amy Heckerling, Paramount Pictures. -Doherty, Tom. 1995. “Clueless Kids.” Cineaste . 21, 4. JSTOR. -Driscoll, Catherine. 2002. Girls: Feminine Adolescence in Popular Culture and Critical Theory . New York: Columbia University Press. -Eder, Donna. 1985. “The Cycle of Popularity: Interpersonal Relations Among Female Adolescents.” Sociology of Education , 58, no. 3: 154-165, JSTOR -Mean Girls . 2004. Directed by Mark Waters. Paramount Pictures. -Sw