Simple Terms, Convenient Definitions: Molly Ringwald and Class Negotiations

Introduction

The 1980s was a period of American culture defined by rampant consumerism and ongoing domestic crisis. Faced with an increasingly vacuous and materialistic national culture as well as the implosion of the nuclear family, American audiences, especially teens, turned to the cinema to collectively cope with existence in the post-industrial world. As movie-goers shifted to a largely youth audience, film content also shifted to a focus on teen issues and interests. It was during this time, which saw the rise of the slasher genre as well as the apotheosis of the male action hero, that the John Hughes teen film came to prominence, catapulting the young star Molly Ringwald into the spotlight. Hailed by TIME magazine as the “model modern teen”, Ringwald, in her appearances in a set of films made by Hughes and dubbed “the Molly Trilogy”, seemed to capture and articulate the essence of American teenage life (Corliss). Through her performances in Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink, Ringwald helped define adolescence for an entire generation of Americans, cultivating an image that simultaneously rejected the class-entrenched authority of the adult world while promoting a lifestyle of consumption-based identity formation.

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