Love is Not All, or Not Every YA Heroine has to have a Love Interest
For the past fifteen years, I've hardly had any time to watch movies, so I'm glad to have Netflix to help me catch up. Last week, I watched High School Musical 3. I enjoyed it, but was puzzled by an unexplained bit of the storyline. Ryan asked Kelsi to the prom. It was clear he had a good time singing with her, but not so clear if he was doing it because his sister thought it would help her get Kelsi to give her the best songs or because he liked her. I didn't remember seeing a scene of them at the prom together, which could have helped. I googled to check if there was such a scene. I found there wasn't, and in the process read a lot of fans' thoughts about what they hoped for the characters, including a love interest for Kelsi. Some thought the boy who helped her dunk a basket in the first movie dated her, others thought she'd have a relationship with Ryan.
But Kelsi's story arc doesn't require a love interest for her. In the first movie, her growth is from a mousy loner to a girl who has the strength to stand up for her friends. And I think it's nice that it shows the hottest boy in school taking a friendly interest in her and that for her that's enough. She's endearingly supportive of Troy and Gabriela in all the movies. She and Troy make a great model of "just friends" teens and Gabriela the secure and independent girl who isn't jealous of Troy's attention to another girl.
And it's enough to see the nerdy girl has the power to attract some attention from the opposite sex. And that's enough for the young character because her real focus is her future. I do wish they'd done a sequel on her rather than Sharpay, a kind of squeaky-clean Coyote Ugly.
Because at seventeen or eighteen, you've got many years before you'd feel compelled by biology to settle down and have a family. If you are capable of maintaining good friendships and have had a few admiring glances cast your way, that's all the assurance you need that you can build a relationship with someone when you're in your twenties or thirties or even later, depending on when you're ready.
That's better than the ending of a YA romance among two mathematically inclined teens that I read last year. The girl is poor and is desperately hoping to get a scholarship to an Ivy League school. In the end, she
doesn't get one, but she hooks up with the boy she loves. Of course she's happy and doesn't think about how she's getting into college anymore, but that hardly seems enough when you think about it. It would have been more reassuring to know that she would be able to go to college.
A dance movie I saw has a similar ending. The girl ends up walking away from a domineering boyfriend, shallow friends, and a temperamental dance teacher. She ends up with a guy in a lower station in life. They have great chemistry and all, but sweet as they are there are too many loose ends left untied. Did it mean that she didn't really want a career in dance? Her teacher wasn't really abusive and she was giving up a chance at a scholarship. She gets to dance with the guy she really loves and that's great for that one night, but what about the rest of her life? Was she going to get an ordinary job, try for a college scholarship or what?
Because, as Edna St. Vincent Millay says, "Love is not all, it is not meat of drink/ Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain." Love can't always provide for you and keep you healthy. We mothers who try to feed our children out of love know that only too well--so often do we struggle to make them eat but they won't! But even if your beloved could do that, love still isn't enough, especially when you are young. Ironically, that is the time it most seems enough, but you will find in the future that it isn't. Love is wonderful, but it not only doesn't fulfill most of our physical needs, it doesn't fill all our emotional needs either! Among our non-material needs is a need for self-actualization, defined by Business Dictionary as: "The motivation to realize one's own maximum potential and possibilities. It is considered to be the master motive or the only real motive, all other motives being its various forms." After you're secure in your love you will go back to seeking this. The trouble is by then you may have lost your chance at the preliminaries that would have helped you achieve it: training and education. Dance is something you need to train for when young, and while ideally teachers shouldn't be bitchy, sometimes those kinds are the best to help you achieve your best. And a college education is best to take when you are younger and your brain more capable of retaining new knowledge.
Finding love is a happy ending, but for the happiness to be lasting, the lovers must have the means for self-actualization. In others, they should not only end up with someone they love but be able to do something they love, something that uses their talents. If the couple not only get together but are able to do this, that will make the ending truly happy.
Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/def...
But Kelsi's story arc doesn't require a love interest for her. In the first movie, her growth is from a mousy loner to a girl who has the strength to stand up for her friends. And I think it's nice that it shows the hottest boy in school taking a friendly interest in her and that for her that's enough. She's endearingly supportive of Troy and Gabriela in all the movies. She and Troy make a great model of "just friends" teens and Gabriela the secure and independent girl who isn't jealous of Troy's attention to another girl.
And it's enough to see the nerdy girl has the power to attract some attention from the opposite sex. And that's enough for the young character because her real focus is her future. I do wish they'd done a sequel on her rather than Sharpay, a kind of squeaky-clean Coyote Ugly.
Because at seventeen or eighteen, you've got many years before you'd feel compelled by biology to settle down and have a family. If you are capable of maintaining good friendships and have had a few admiring glances cast your way, that's all the assurance you need that you can build a relationship with someone when you're in your twenties or thirties or even later, depending on when you're ready.
That's better than the ending of a YA romance among two mathematically inclined teens that I read last year. The girl is poor and is desperately hoping to get a scholarship to an Ivy League school. In the end, she
doesn't get one, but she hooks up with the boy she loves. Of course she's happy and doesn't think about how she's getting into college anymore, but that hardly seems enough when you think about it. It would have been more reassuring to know that she would be able to go to college.
A dance movie I saw has a similar ending. The girl ends up walking away from a domineering boyfriend, shallow friends, and a temperamental dance teacher. She ends up with a guy in a lower station in life. They have great chemistry and all, but sweet as they are there are too many loose ends left untied. Did it mean that she didn't really want a career in dance? Her teacher wasn't really abusive and she was giving up a chance at a scholarship. She gets to dance with the guy she really loves and that's great for that one night, but what about the rest of her life? Was she going to get an ordinary job, try for a college scholarship or what?
Because, as Edna St. Vincent Millay says, "Love is not all, it is not meat of drink/ Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain." Love can't always provide for you and keep you healthy. We mothers who try to feed our children out of love know that only too well--so often do we struggle to make them eat but they won't! But even if your beloved could do that, love still isn't enough, especially when you are young. Ironically, that is the time it most seems enough, but you will find in the future that it isn't. Love is wonderful, but it not only doesn't fulfill most of our physical needs, it doesn't fill all our emotional needs either! Among our non-material needs is a need for self-actualization, defined by Business Dictionary as: "The motivation to realize one's own maximum potential and possibilities. It is considered to be the master motive or the only real motive, all other motives being its various forms." After you're secure in your love you will go back to seeking this. The trouble is by then you may have lost your chance at the preliminaries that would have helped you achieve it: training and education. Dance is something you need to train for when young, and while ideally teachers shouldn't be bitchy, sometimes those kinds are the best to help you achieve your best. And a college education is best to take when you are younger and your brain more capable of retaining new knowledge.
Finding love is a happy ending, but for the happiness to be lasting, the lovers must have the means for self-actualization. In others, they should not only end up with someone they love but be able to do something they love, something that uses their talents. If the couple not only get together but are able to do this, that will make the ending truly happy.
Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/def...
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