Study Hard or Party Hard?

Study Hard or Party Hard

For this assignment, we were tasked with watching movies and providing an analysis of movies that dealt with the stereotypes of college. Within the movies that we analyzed, we were able to find and pick out certain stereotypes about college. The stereotypes we found ranged from rich kids being stuck up and thinking that they are better than everyone to people who are from classes of lower status and are not expected to succeed in life simply because of their low social standing, and we even came across the dumb blonde stereotype within the movies that we analyzed.

Beta House has many stereotypes that deal with the social aspects of college life. Beta House is about a college freshman who rushes his cousin’s fraternity with his roommate and his best friend. The movie then shows rival fraternities, Beta Delta Xi (known as the Betas) and Geeks, going head to head Greek Olympiad that has been banned from campus for forty years.

There are three main stereotypes that are presented in the movie. Those stereotypes are smart students, party people, and Greek Life in general. The first stereotype of smart students is awarded to the Geek House because, that fraternity is mainly composed of college students with perfect SAT scores, have excellent family tree that can make millions of money, and who study day and night. As Dwight Stifler states to Erik, Cooze, and Bobby, "the teachers love them; the women realize that the Geeks are going to be the ones making the millions of dollars, so they are adjusting their nesting habits. But HEY! The party is still at the Beta House." Party people is the second stereotype that is brought in the movie because it is mostly focused around the fraternity of Beta Delta Xi, also known as the Betas. Dwight Stifler is the leader of the Betas and throws the "best parties" on campus. Dwight invites his cousin Erik, Cooze, and Bobby to the Beta party where the guys learn that they are eligible to become a Beta brother in the first thirty minutes of the movie. Then at the end of the movie, the Beta House throws a toga party that their new mansion (previously the Geek House) in celebration of winning the Greek Olympiad and keeping the tradition of the Betas winning the gold hammer. The third and final stereotype that is perceived in Beta House is Greek Life in general. Throughout the movie, Greek Life is represented as fraternities/sororities who are always partying into the early hours of the night and never doing homework. In every movie that I have seen that has Greek Life involved has been portrayed in a way that Hollywood wants fraternities/sororities should be seen. But in reality, especially on campus at UNCC, fraternities/sororities do throw parties, but mostly help out in the community and perform a lot community service hours to local and national associations such as stopping domestic abuse; the "Think Pink" campaign for UNCC and many more organizations.

Education is very irrelevant in Beta House. There are some forms of education that is shown throughout that Geek House like the motherboard that the Betas steal, some chemistry being performed by a Geek inside the house, and the toy robots on the floor wandering around. The motherboard and the toy robots are forms of technology that the "smart students" create and test. The Geeks are the education of University of Michigan. There is a scene in the movie where Edgar, the president of the Geeks, is explaining how they need to take down the Betas in order to restore balance to the university. Edgar's girlfriend states "We are declaring a new age at the university. An age where a student's worth is no longer measured by his blood alcohol level, but rather his GPA". Then Edgar states, "We formed this fraternity to change the way geeks are thought of in this country, but as history has proven, for a new civilization to emerge, another must crumble. We MUST destroy the Betas". Edgar uses history as an analogy for the rise and fall of empires/civilizations which you learn about in school. He is stating educated facts and relating them to Geek House and the Beta House where the Geek House is the new civilization and the Beta House is the civilization that must crumble in order for the Geeks to rise.

The House Bunny also contains many social stereotypes about college life.The House Bunny is about a playboy bunny who is tricked into leaving the playboy mansion. She meets a sorority who need a house mother and she becomes their house mother.

There are some stereotypes that are exploited in this movie. It’s done in the interest of laughs however. One example is the idea of a young girls being obsessed with boys. The Zeta’s whole purpose in choosing Shelley to be their house mother is because of her ability to get attention from boys. Much of what they do like changing their looks, showing more skin with their outfits is done in the pursuit of boys. You can see this stereotype in other movies like legally blonde where the main character goes to law school for the sole purpose of getting her ex boyfriend back. On the other side there’s also the stereotype that college guys are all obsessed with girls. Most of the boys except are pretty shallow except for Oliver and Colby. Oliver is a nice person who actually takes interest with how shelley is instead of just her looks. Colby is less of a nice person compared to Oliver but he still stands out from the other boys. None of the boys (including Colby) took any interest in the Zeta’s until shelley helped them look and feel more attractive. The idea of the “Dumb Blonde” is also used in this movie with shelley. Shelley is attractive but she is not a smart girl. She wears glasses that aren’t for her eyes to attempt to impress Oliver. She also makes a comment that is both funny but shows some of her shallowness. When one of the Zeta’s says that maybe Oliver is one of those guys that likes to get to know a girl first, her response is to yell he’s gay!? Out loud in astonishment. The stereotype of college kids as being party animals is clearly expressed in this movie. There are many mentions of partying and the Zeta’s throw an Aztec themed party at the same time as a competing sorority in order to attract more pledges than they do. Shelley mentions how back at the playboy mansion they always wanted to throw an Aztec party but they could not because they could not find a virgin to sacrifice as part of the Aztec theme. The girls from the competing sorority are all portrayed as being mean spirited. There a common theme in college movies of girls in sororities as being mean. It’s an unfair stereotype because you can find mean people anywhere you go. Greek life in general is portrayed as being obsessed with parties and nothing else. While they often do throw parties they also do many things such as organize events on campus and I have also seen a sorority organize a blood drive. There is very little mention of classroom activities in The House Bunny. Natalie is shown to be a smart girl who does her work, Shelley advises Natalie to act like she is dumber than she really is because guys don’t like girls smarter than they are. This makes it seem like having brains is a bad thing but later in the movie Natalie finds out it’s ok be smart. One of the girls mentions the grade point averages of the omega’s (the rival sorority) being good. This reinforces the idea of college kids being focused on partying and debauchery while caring little for academics. This movie paints an exaggerated picture of college life. It stretches the reality of college life for laughs. There is some grain of truth in the movies portrayals. College kids are definitely interested in partying and drinking, it happens basically every weekend but it doesn’t happen at the over the top levels like in The House Bunny. There are some sororities and fraternities that become kind of clique-ish but that can honestly happen with any group. Even groups that have an emphasis on being nice can end up turning into an “I’m nicer than thou” contest. Overall there is a mostly positive message in this movie about being true to yourself and being confident in yourself. The girls lose their way and become the things that they disliked at the start of the movie. One of the girls who never rarely speaks finds her voice and points out how they’re acting and she points out that if they tried to enter their sorority in its current state like they were before they met Shelley they wouldn’t make the cut. They realize that she is right and they then end up accepting pledges based on a lottery instead of judging potential pledges in the same way that they were once judged. I feel that this is a positive lesson that a viewer can take from The House Bunny.

Good Will Hunting is a movie that was filmed in 1997.  It’s a drama that is really meant for people 18 years or older due to the R rating of the movie. This movie shows a young man, Will Hunting (Matt Damon), who is a mathematical “genius” who works as a simple janitor at M.I.T.

Throughout the movie, Will is treated harshly and unpleasantly by those of authority or those who don’t really have an open mind. People who see him through a stereotype that he is obnoxious and uneducated will treat him like that. While others note his smarter side, fuel it, encourage and in fact try to help him. This movie shows that stereotypes can hinder a person’s life. It doesn’t just stereotype Will, Boston people who are often referred to as loud and obnoxious people but also students who go to Harvard or M.I.T. Their stereotype is that they are snobby, selfish people who think they are better than others. Like Clark, they try to always seem smart and educated, showing off and making others feel less “inferior” to them. This movie, in a way, shows two very different lives people can have while attending a college. It sort of shows the Ivy League schools, with the “preppy rich” kids, how they are stereotypically portrayed as well as those who probably couldn’t afford going to college, those who didn’t have the money nor the support others might have. The movie is kind of saying, as another stereotype, if you don’t dress well, talk “properly” or “clearly”, you’ll basically be automatically thought of as inferior or unintelligent. An example is Will goes to the board a few days after first working on it, continuing to work on his solution thinking that no one is around. The professor sees him from a distance, and immediately accuses him of graffitiing the work. He thinks that just because he is a janitor, a brash Boston man, that he is a low-life and not really worthy of someone’s time. One other example within the movie is the way Will lives and is portrayed very differently than the way the students at M.I.T live, giving you that detachment and difference between how people from different “social classes” act. The cops show up, and instead of asking about the situation, they go straight for Will and his friends, forcing Will himself onto the ground and handcuffing with without so much as a word. Now the movie is showing the stereotypes that all people have, and how people will treat others based on the stereotype they have of one another. This movie really challenges a person to think differently, and to try not to stereotype people. Anyone deserves to go to college and learn.

Just as the person before me stated, this movie is a drama starring Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Robin Williams. This movie is about a young, 20 year old, South Boston Man, Will Hunting (Damon), who is a self-taught, genius that works simply as a janitor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Will portrays the stereotype of the almost scared and fearful college student coming in and not knowing what he what he wants to do with his life. I definitely felt a lot like he did when he was asked what he wanted to do for the rest of his life and came up with the sarcastic answer of “Shepherd.” I would not have even been able to give Maguire an answer at all. I could narrow it don’t for him, but still I could not give him definite answer. There is definitely a similar pressure put on us college students along with the pressures that Lambeau was putting on Will. In today’s world, there is a huge emphasis on getting a job that makes the big bucks. Some parents tell their kids to go to school to eventually become a doctor or a nurse of a lawyer or dentist. Sure, there are kids that are actually interested in these areas, but it seems like most are just going into those fields for the big bucks. The parents of the kids in this type of situation are definitely like the character Gerald Lambeau. In the film, even Will’s best friend Chuckie says something about Will going on and making loads of money, then will replies asking “what if I do not want to go on and sit at some desk solving problems all day?” My parents and other college kids parents that encourage their children to take their time to find out what the really enjoy and want to do with the rest of their lives are similar to the character Maguire. Maguire argued with Lambeau to stop trying to force jobs and offers upon Will and insisted that he needed time to find out what he really wanted to do. I feel that someone who takes their time to find out and look at what they really want to do, with money not being a factor, will have the most fulfilling lives. That is exactly what Maguire believed in.

           One could say that will also represents a college student or any other young person that has lots of issues going on in their life. Whether it is having to do with one’s past, present or future everyone has problems. I know that many people, especially in college, are and can have relationship issues, with friends or even with a significant other and even family problems. Will portrays going through all of that. Here on this giant campus, and with college students around the world, everyone has problems and no one really knows each other’s stories. There is a reason for having all of these counselors on campus for a reason. Will portrays the average college student by having problems that he must overcome.

Beta House shows that education is very limited throughout the movie. Most of the education aspect is shown via the Geek Fraternity and how they are smarter than the Betas. The majority of this movie talks about the sex, partying and the amount alcohol a person consumes in college. The House Bunny focuses primarily on the social and dating aspects of college. it gives little attention to the academic aspects of college. Academics are supposed to be the most important but if you showed this movie to a person who is not familiar with what college is they would believe partying to be more important. there are other movies with similar implications. The movie Good Will Hunting show that one does not need to go to college to be considered smart, but if they do go, it is all about money. An example of this is when the boys go to a Harvard bar, Wills friend Chuckie decides to try to flirt with some girls, claiming to go to the school and being in class with one of them. A guy named Clark comes over, really making a fool out of Chuckie, asking him questions and giving him a hard time. Will steps in, basically telling this guy everything he will learn within the next few years. Its showing the audience that just because he doesn’t go to an expensive and highly educated college, or really college at all, doesn’t make him a low life, or uneducated.

Each of these movies depicts different stereotypes and different experiences that people will have depending on where they go to college and how they want their experience to be. With our comedies, Beta House and The House Bunny, it shows a comical and Hollywood stereotype of the Greek and party life where the educational aspect of college does not seem to matter. Being popular and getting attention from boys takes precedence to achieving academic success. Beta House and House Bunny provide laughter and comedic relief, but also give off the sexual tension between females and males in both movies. In both movies, the sexual tension is show by the partying, sex scenes, as well as changing yourself for a guy to “like you”. With Good Will Hunting, it has a more dramatic and serious tone throughout the movie. It really focuses on life problems people face and how it can affect someone stereotypical image. In each of these movies you see similar stereotypes, such as the “rich”, snobby kids, the “Greek”, life of the party kind of people, and a stereotype of the lower class people, who to others, are depicted as not being worth their time.  

Do you feel that when Hollywood makes movies about college and college life that they are making fun of it, or degrading it?