March 10, 2025: Spring Breaking at the Movies: Spring Break

[With oneson in college and another about to be, Spring Break is a lot more than just aconcept or a professional reality for this AmericanStudier. So this week I’llAmericanStudy a handful of cinematic portrayals of Spring Break, leading up to someweekend reflections on being a college Dad!]

On moreand less destructive pop culture stereotypes.

I’m notgonna pretend that 1983’s Spring Break was anykind of groundbreaking cinematic achievement, or even that I had heard of itprior to researching this week’s series. The sex comedy, produced and directedby Friday the 13th (1980)co-creator and director Sean Cunningham, seems from the clips and reviews I’veseen (and as always feel free to correct me in comments, although I’m notanticipating a lot of Spring Breakdefenders here) to be a pretty formulaic, unimaginative, and uninterestingdepiction of various Spring Break and college stereotypes, from sexy women inwet t-shirt contests to nerdy college guys looking to get drunk and score withthose women to straight-laced parents seeking to prevent their kids from takingpart in the hedonistic festivities. But the thing with stereotypes, even (orperhaps especially) the lazier varieties of them, is that they can tell us agood bit about their cultural and social contexts—and so it is with thestereotypes that seem to drive the plot of SpringBreak.

The film’smore overtly limiting and thus destructive stereotypes seem to be (I know Ikeep using that phrase, but I haven’t seen it and I don’t want to pretendotherwise!) those related to gender and sex. The most blatant are thedepictions of young women, which from what I can tell fall into two and onlytwo categories: the vast majority of them (indeed, all but one), who arenameless and identity-less characters defined only by their sex appeal and theprotagonists’ attempts to score with them; and the one more individualizedyoung woman, Susie (), whom nerdy protagonist Nelson (David Knell) meets at a wett-shirt contest, nearly has sex with during that first encounter, and theneventually (like, a day later) does have sex with. But while male characterslike Nelson seem to be a good bit more fleshed-out (pun very much intended),they are likewise defined in quite thoroughly stereotypical ways, presented asdriven by their basest desires (for women, for booze, for hedonism) in ultimatelyquite unoriginal and unattractive ways.

Whilethose pursuits provide the protagonists’ and film’s initial motivations, thecentral plotline is actually driven by different and more interesting stereotypesaround class, wealth, and power. Nelson’s step-father, Ernest (), is awealthy asshole running for political office, and in the course of the film hepursues Nelson to Florida (worried that his step-son will embarrass hiscampaign) and befriends a local wealthy asshole (Richard Shull’s Eddie) who istrying to strong-arm his way into purchasing the hotel where the kids arestaying. Together the two wealthy assholes conspire to bribe a buildinginspector to shut down the hotel (killing both of those birds with one wealthyasshole stone), but the kids, with the help of an army of fellow partyingcollege students armed only with beer and whipped cream, get the better ofErnest and Eddie; their machinations are revealed, Nelson’s Mom decides todivorce Ernest, and the little guys triumph in the end. Sticking it to the Manisn’t exactly a revolutionary premise for an 80s comedy, but these themes ofpolitical and financial corruption are at least far more compelling andimportant than wet t-shirt contests.

NextSpring Break film tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Other Spring Break films or texts you’d share?