The popular Culture in Clueless the Movie

When we feel impotent and out of control, and feel we are in need for a sanctuary in a place where we could gather our thoughts and regain our strength, where would we go? Well, according to Cher, we should go to the mall!  

 

Clueless is a comedy film directed by Amy Heckerling that was produced in 1995. The story is based on Jane Austin’s novel “Emma”; however, the setting is different, where the story takes place in Beverly Hills in the 1990s.

The film portrays the material and non-material culture of Beverly Hills’ high school kids, with all their values, beliefs, and norms.  Cher, the main character in the film, is a rich teenager, whose mother died long time ago while undergoing liposuction. She is obsessed with fashion, shopping, and matchmaking; yet, she is not interested in dating high school boys. Her ex stepbrother Josh is a college student, who keeps teasing Cher for being selfish and superficial, and tells her that her only direction in life is ‘toward the mall’. 

The film portrays the popular culture in Beverly Hills using sarcasm. Most of the people are materialistic, obsessed with fashion, dating, and plastic surgery. For example, a lot of high school girls had a bandage on their noses, and some on their chins, which mocks the fact that plastic surgery, and especially having a nose job, is a norm in this society. Moreover, one of the girls, trying to avoid tennis practice in school, tells the teacher that her plastic surgeon doesn’t want her to do any activity where balls fly at her nose. Another thing that contributes to this irony is the death of Cher’s mom while undergoing a liposuction surgery. The obsession with fashion is also exaggerated and observed when Cher designs her clothes in the morning on a computer screen rather than on her own body.

     This is the common culture in Beverly Hills, or the large subculture of the rich. People are expected to be fashionable, and this is shown when the new girl arrived to the school looking like a farmer, as one of the girls said. However, Cher and her friend Donnie decided to use their popularity for a good cause and start their “project” to give the poor girl a new look, so she would be able to fit in their society. Moreover, The girls have their own female language including terms that substitutes for things like period and sex. 

The film portrays the materialistic life people in Beverly Hills live. They understand the language of brands, the shopping mall is considered to be a place where Cher can concentrate, think and get focused. As Josh, Cher’s ex-stepbrother, says, Cher’s ‘only direction in life’ is ‘towards the mall’.  According to Coonie, ‘Cher’s main thrill in life’ is to give someone a makeover, ‘it gives her a sense of control in a world full of chaos.’   

The popular cultural represented in the film was shown to an extreme level of exaggeration and irony, however 16 years after the film release this popular cultural, based on materialism and consumerism, is now found not only in the US but also worldwide.

                          

Feels like Déjà vu

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Well, for the older generations it’s déjà vu. The teenagers and young adults today never watched 90210, V and Hawaii Five-O. Of course, I am talking about the original versions of these television shows which aired in the late 20th Century. It seems to audiences that Hollywood has lost it- or has it? After all, the media corporations are in the money making business, and what better way to make money than to retell old and highly successful classics? With the exception of Melrose Place which miserably failed due to the bad acting and Bionic Woman which only lasted a season. However, in Bionic Woman’s defense, the writers' strike was going on at the time and caused the series to go on a short hiatus.

As well as rehashing old classics, Hollywood is bringing in successful UK based television shows such as The Office, American Idol (known as Pop Idol in the UK), Skins and many more. As previously stated, Hollywood has not lost “it”. Media firms need to minimize risk. To make money, they have to go with what they know and adhere to the rules of the game. There are multiple ways to minimize risk, like using well known actors and following genre conventions.

As you probably guessed already, another method which is becoming somewhat of a trend is the remaking of old hits and the adoption of successful television shows from abroad. Basically, remaking pop culture hits- popular culture here is defined as culture that is well liked and which is demonstrated through measurable commercial success.

In the case of bringing back the old classics, the target audience is not only the young generation such as the teenagers and young adults, but also the older ones. This is because they have already watched the original versions of the shows and are curious to know how the new ones are. Some of the new versions even feature story lines from the old version to make the audiences of the original versions keep watching.

Appealing to international audiences is another thing that the media companies want to do- this is part of the secondary market. When bringing in television shows from abroad, appealing to the international audience is not as hard anymore because the audiences abroad, from which the television show is originally based in, would simply watch the show out of sheer curiosity.

With the recreation of television shows, many elements have stayed the same- like the type of car the main character uses in Hawaii Five-O. However, things such as cell phones and laptops an other products, which perhaps were not used back then are being integrated into the shows to promote products (product placement) and this is producing a materialistic culture in the United States and it is promoting consumerism.

The recreation of television shows is sociologically intriguing because the cultures twenty, thirty or forty years ago and those abroad are significantly different to those currently in the United States. It would be interesting to study the different audiences and see how one television show affects different kinds of audiences and cultures.

Materialism in Qatar

Ignorance is the word that should be used to describe the symptom spread among a lot of people in the Qatari society. Many Qataris, and especially woman, are hypnotized by materialism and luxury. In my point of view, this issue is crossing the limits and is not helping these people to be alerted about what might happen when the country loses its source of wealth. As it is known, gas is the initial source of Qatar’s success due to exporting it abroad. Therefore, Qatar and most Qatari people have become prosperous. A lot of Qataris favor economical developments over social developments, because they believe that spirituality can be altered with materialistic needs. Many young Qatari women are used to satisfying their needs with the latest branded bags and the newest trends in fashion. Instead of competing with knowledge in their areas of expertise, they flaunt with their latest and most expensive material purchased. I personally find it unfortunate, because Qatar holds a bright future for its youth and especially women.


During summer time, many Qataris travel to Paris and London as part of their long holiday. It is very noticeable from the way both women and men dress, that they indirectly compete against each other. Furthermore, some tend to ship their own fancy cars to flourish around the streets of Paris and London. Lately, a Qatari tourist in London parked his car with a local plate in front of the Harrods building, where it is not allowed for any car to park there. He was issued a parking ticket that cost him about one million pounds worth of violation. Prior building the Villagio Mall and The Pearl, not many people were in recognition with the major brands such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Prada, etc. However, the country provided the locals with a new direction by opening many major designers stores in Villagio and The Pearl, and they are still continuing to introduce more with time. One of Qatar’s initial goals is to make the country a portal of education and culture. Millions of dollars were spent to build educational institutions for the locals join and learn from. Appreciation is required from these locals, because we are unable to predict when will we run out of gas.