In a new essay, Molly Ringwald asks the important question: “How are we meant to feel about art that we both love and oppose?”
The names Molly Ringwald and John Hughes are practically synonymous with 1980s cinema. With Hughes being the sensitive genius behind the scenes and his muse, Ringwald, shining for the camera, the two seemed to carve out their own genre. They examined the teenage condition in a way that hadn’t been seen before, and has scarcely been seen since.
Movies like The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink are still revered today, but should they be? Molly Ringwald sat down to write an essay to take on that very question.
The topic was spawned by a trip back to The Breakfast Club with her own daughter. She found that she became very uncomfortable with the way her character, Claire, was treated, particularly during a scene in which it’s implied that John Bender touches her inappropriately under the desk.
Expanding on that point, she writes,”what’s more, as I can see now, Bender sexually harasses Claire throughout the film. When he’s not sexualizing her, he takes out his rage on her with vicious contempt, calling her ‘pathetic,’ mocking her as ‘Queenie.’ It’s rejection that inspires his vitriol.”
In light of the #MeToo and “Time’s Up” movements, Ringwald has taken a look back at her entire career, Hughes’ works, and the entertainment industry in general. “If attitudes toward female subjugation are systemic, and I believe that they are, it stands to reason that the art we consume and sanction plays some part in reinforcing those same attitudes.”
While Ringwald makes many important and interesting points about the dangerous themes in these films, the essay is far from a scathing take-down of the art. She also recounts her relationship with John Hughes, her own involvement in the decision making process in these movies, and the ultimate value of the movies.
“The conversations about them will change, and they should. It’s up to the following generations to figure out how to continue those conversations and make them their own—to keep talking, in schools, in activism and art—and trust that we care.”
Check out Molly Ringwald’s full essay in The New Yorker.
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