Paste your essay in here…Females in film often fit into two categories; ‘Smart and Ugly’ or ‘Dumb and Pretty’. This is only amplified when the youth are involved. This essay will discuss the female evolution in the Harry Potter Franchise – specifically in the 2005 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire directed by Mike Newell and the 1995 film Clueless directed by Amy Heckerling. Both use their trope to their advantage, Hermione being academically smart yet socially young, and Cher socially smart yet academically not so much.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the fourth installment of the Harry Potter franchise. The film follows Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) when his name gets called out to compete in the Tri-Wizard Cup, an inter-school event which takes place over the course of a year. The event challanges the three (four this year) teenages to numerous physical and mental challenges, include the most difficult challenge a teenager could face, the Yule Ball.
The Tri-Wizards for the year include Cedric Diggory(Robert Pattinson), Viktor Krum(Stanislav Ianevski) and Fleur Delacour (Clémence Poésy) and surprise fourth edition Harry Potter. In say this the film focuses primarily on Cedric, Viktor and Harry, with Fleur only appearing in a limited number of scenes. A key scene for Fleur is the entry scene when Beauxbatons and Durmstrang come into the great hall at Hogwarts. Fleur uses her power and influence over the boys, using her body to make Ron and the other boys ‘lose their ability to speak’ (Cherland. 2018) she reuses this power later on in the franchise. Fleur is also the unfortunate person to get eliminated first in every task and comes last in the Tri-Wizard Cup. In saying this Just before the last task there is a ball to celebrate all their hard work throughout the Cup. A tradition of the ball is that the first dance is done by the competitors of the Cup. This is where one of Harry’s key friends Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) come in.
Hermione Granger fits into the stereotypical ‘nerd’ trope. She is top of her class, takes extra curriculars and is caring when it comes to people or in this case spiders. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (J.K Rowling) describes her physical appearance as ‘average, with big teeth and big brown bushy hair’. During her time at Hogwarts she is often called a ‘dirty mudblood’ – someone who isn't a pure witch or wizard, by her nemerses group, the Malfoy group. The first instance we see Hermione is when the students are in Defence Against the Dark class. Their teacher Allaster Moody (Brendan Gleeson) is teaching the teenages about the forbiddan spell. In line with the classic nerd Hermione is answering lots of questions that have been asked of the class. She starts to feel uncomfortable about the situation when her professor bring out a spider to demonstrate all the spells on. She notices another of her classmates feeling uncomfortable about the whole thing and begs Professor Moody to stop torturing the spider in front of that student. He does momonterally, only to move to her desk and with another forbidden spell, untermently killing the spider. This scene tells us multiple things about Hermione's character, she's compassionate, smart and awkward. Timothy Shary says in his book Generation Multiplex unlike males nerds, female nerds ‘are show to use their intellect to their advantage’.
During the film the teenages are made aware of a ball that will be put on to honor the champions in the Tri-Wizard Cup. As in most high school teen films, there is the issue of the dance partner. Harry and Ron had been trying to psych eachother out enough to ask a girl to with with them, but to no luck, they are seen as the outcast even though in this instance Harry is seen as the ‘jock’. Hermione is friends with Ron and Harry, who at this stage in the film have no romantic feelings for their nerdy friend. During discussions about the event Ron makes a failed attempt at asking Hermione to be is partner at the ball as a last resort, ‘…Now i'm really depressed. Oi, Hermione… You're a girl’ … ‘ Come with one of us! It's one thing for a bloke to show up alone, but for a girl it's just sad.’ Ron assumes at this point that his nerdy female friend does not have a partner to the dance, he was wrong. Hermione response to Ron, quite angrily ‘I won't be going alone, because believe it or not, someone's asked me! And I said yes!’ This comment confuses Ron as he sees her nothing more than a female nerd.
The two boys end up going to the ball with the Patil twins (Shefali Chowdhury and Afshan Azad). While waiting to enter the ball, the boys start questioning where is Hermione. It is at this moment we first see Hermione all dressed up. Another trope of a female nerd is the big reveal, a transformation that must take place to a female nerd to ‘avoid any stereotypical(ly) nerdish markers’(Sharp. 2014). It is the first time we see her with her hair straightened and in a dress. As she glides down the stairs the camera focuses Ron who looks gobsmacked at how this once female nerd could look so beautiful. It is at this exact point where jealousy comes in. It turns out Viktor Krum, the traditional jock from Durmstrang who plays professional Quidditch, is taking the nerdy girl from Hogwarts to the ball. Ron’s date turns to Ron and says ‘Is that Hermione Granger with Viktor Krum?’ Ron then turns to see Hermione and says ’No. Absolutely not’. This puts both Ron and Harry into a depressive slump, ignoring their dates and not dancing with their peers. The shadowy undertones of the film start to reveal themselves as its show that Ron had like Hermione all along.
The franchise changed young females perspective of nerds. For the young demographic who had yet to understand feminism Hermione was it. She is the epitome of young feminism. As Christopher E. Bell puts it in the book Hermione Granger Saves the World ‘Hermione will be the first ‘real’ feminist’ they will experience’. The film shows many of Hermione’s feminist traites, the spider example that was said before, she was engaging with the professor when the other teens were staying silent, she showed compassion when another student was in distress yet ultimately she was the one who had to witness the spider being killed on her desk. Another feminist notion that was depicted in the film was her role in helping Harry with the challenges. As the nerdy one she took control of the situation and help Harry find the right people to talk to. Yet she was selfless in the situation, knowing that she will never be acknowledged for the help. She was again how Bell put it ‘…is often the sole person that develops a plan, … her knowledge and skills are seen as supplementary rather than primary’. . Watson had agreed, in a 2017 Glamour interview she was quoted as saying ‘I think that Hermione gave other woman permission to feel that they were allowed to take up space.’ For many Hermione is the first in a long line of strong mainstream female characters.
As for cultural influence Hermione Granger is continuing making sales well after the franchise has finished. The dress that she wore to the Yule Ball is still being sold online and is being worn as costumes at events like Comic Con and such around the world.
Clueless is a 1995 standalone coming of age filmed directed by Amy Heckerling. The film shows the other side of the spectrum, Cher Horowitz ( Alicia Silverstone), a naive, popular and academically challenged, teen living her best life in the wealthy area of Beverly Hills. Cher isn't the brightest in her class but she fights for what she believes in, love. Whether it be her cousin or the new kid on the block. Cher has two main missions in the film, to makeover the ‘tragically unhip’ new girl Tai Frasier (Brittany Murphy) and to get Tai and Elton (Jeremy Sisto) together.
An influential scene sequence in the film is when Cher and Dionne Davenport (Stacey Dash) get their first introduction to Tai, their ‘project’. This scene takes part in sport class where the girls are taking part in tennis lessons. We see Cher go on one of her famous monologues, inspiring the girls about how physical education is not helping them lose weight. The girls all fall into line and start to make excuses as to why they should not partake, weather it be a ‘nose job’ or a ‘professional coach doesn't want me to’. This is when the priceable bring in the new girl Tai. The other girls start making rude comments towards her, at this point Cher suggests to Dionne that they should ‘adopt’ the new girl and make her their own. The scene that follows is the girls introducing Tai to everyone who is ‘relevant’ and tells Tai ‘that she should only date mature high school boys’. The scene changes to Tai getting a soda from the canteen, she then runs into Travis Birkenstock (Breckin Meyer), a boy who is much like her but less popular and there for not accepted. Ultimately at the end of the film she decides to date Travis, this then removes her from the popular group, where she did not belong originally.
Another influential scene in the film is when Cher confesses to her friends that she is a virgin and is waiting for the right boy. Tai is shocked, but then soon finds out that so is Dionne, well ‘technically’. Partly in shock, but also due to a break up Tai starts to cry. Unlike other teen films, Cher doesn't see the need to lose her virginity and the Tai and Dionne don't pressure her. Cher then pushes this point further in the film when she is at a school party. A boy at the party tries to get touchy feely and she blames ‘ Ew, get off me! As if’. She then appears to be ‘saved’ by Elton. However nothing is as it seems as he also starts to get touchy feely with her in the car, Cher then lets him know that ‘no means no’ and that she was not interested in having sex with him. Having sex for the first time is a coming of age troup show in most teen films, however, it is not shown, it is only implied. The film doesn't make sex its focus nor does it slut shame or virgin shame, it just lets teens be teens. Clueless shows that female can be incharge of their sexual identity, ‘Cher controls her sexuality’ as Kathleen Karlyn states in her book Unruly Girls, Unrepentant mothers: redefining feminism on screen.
Clueless had reshaped the teen vocabuary. There are numerous sayings that were created by Amy Heckerling that have wevid their way into popular teen vocabulary even without the teens knowing where it was from. Sayings such as ‘As f’, ‘ Surfing the crimson wave’ and ‘hymenally challenged’ have become common sayings.
Karlyn says ‘girliness does not mean a surrender of power’, in context to Cluess, but it also relates to Hermione. For the Yule Ball she goes all out, she wears a bright pink flowy dress, something she would have never worn before, yet she holds the power in the scene. She is the one who is in control. Cher is girly, yet she uses her popularity power for good. Cher and Hermione may come from different worlds but yet they have the same core values: be nice to everyone, be in control of your body (whether its a date or sex), be smart (social or academic) and keep your friends close. They are both powerful influences in modern day teen culture.