This time last week, I finally did something that I'd been planning, but putting off, for weeks and weeks. I put the kettle on, grabbed a blanket and some comfy socks, and rewatched Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. With the awful news at the start of this year that Louise Rennison, author of the legendary Georgia Nicholson books, had passed away, and the much better news on Twitter that Aaron Johnson had ditched the blonde highlights and Dick Dastardly moustache, for weeks I'd had an itch that only the Ace Gang could scratch.
I know a lot of people don't like the film, because it's not enough like the books. I can see where they're coming from: there's no Mr and Mrs Next Door Neighbour, Libby doesn't feature anywhere NEAR enough, and I don't think there's a single mention of nuddy-pants. Sigh.
I remembered from watching the film at the cinema (way, way back in 2008) a lot of laughing, a lot of nether-region fluttering over Aaron Johnson (incidiently, rewatching it, I fancy Tom a LOT more) and a burgeoning obsessing with the singer of that song, The Show. And I figured that this time would be pretty much the same.
And I did do all of those things. But I also did... quite a lot of screaming at my TV. This film, it turns out, is pretty badly anti-female. How, you ask? Let me list the ways.
1) Peter. Fucking. Dyer.
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Picture credit: Sugarscape |
Wow. Translated, this is basically: 'it's your fault that I tried to sexually assault you, even though you made it CLEAR that you didn't want me to touch you, because I just really, really, really like you.'
Nah mate. No, means no, means no. Take your shit hair, your excess saliva, and your lack of respect for other people's boundaries, and piss off.
2) There's a LOT of slut-shaming
Like, a lot. It's mostly directed at Slaggy Lindsay (hmm), and actually, it's often coming from Georgia herself. The Ace Gang seem to think that wearing a thong makes you from 'Vulgaria', the word 'scrubber' is used quite a lot through the whole film, and they seem OBSESSED with not going too far with a guy too soon. Like holding back your sexual curiousity is a sign, just in itself, that you're Girlfriend Material.
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Slut-shaming isn't cool, gals. Picture credit: Sky |
3) Robbie is a complete and utter fuckboy
- After a little bit of flirting, hanging around in boats, and cooing over cats together... Robbie kisses Georgia. Like, full on kisses her. In a swimming pool. Whilst he has a girlfriend.
- He then scrambles out of the pool, saying that he needs to 'sort some things out' and that he'll 'call her'.
- He doesn't call her.
- Georgia takes Dave the Laugh to the Stiff Dylans gig to make Robbie jealous. Fair enough, it's not a very nice thing to do. But they're both single, and Robbie isn't.
- Jas tells Tom that Georgia is using Dave the Laugh, and Georgia ends up picking up litter at school, in the rain, for kicking Jas.
- Robbie then proceeds to storm over and have a MASSIVE go at her for using his friend Dave, leaving a pretty pathetic image of Georgia, without a best friend, without a boyfriend, in the rain, whilst cheater Robbie swans off, still with a girlfriend, still with friends, still with half the school pining for him. BUT HE'S THE ONE WHO CHEATED, NOT HER.
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Picture Credit: Giphy |
- In typical fashion, everything comes right in the end: Jas and Georgia make up, Robbie and Lyndsay split up, and Robbie 'chooses' Georgia instead.
WELL, THANKS, ROBBIE. If it was me, I would SERIOUSLY try to remember that Robbie kissed Georgia behind his current GF's back. What evidence is there that he won't do it again? Why is SHE in the wrong?
4) That Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus bit
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NO, GEORGIA. PUT IT DOWN. Picture credit: Fanpop |
The whole premise of the book is that a woman must scheme and manipulate in order to hold on to her man. The 'elastic band' theory, that you have to let a guy stretch further and further away from you so that he'll come springing back, is bullshit. We're not just going to sit in our rooms whilst a guy goes and flirts around, just to be there when he comes running back. Nope. No way.
Look, I'm going to be honest, I still loved rewatching this film, and if you're stuck for what to to on Sunday evening, give it another watch. The dialogue is cheesy but hilarious, the teen mindset is spot on, I think we ALL were tempted to shave our eyebrows instead of plucking them and, in case you missed it earlier, Aaron Johnson is fit. OK? He just is.
But there are hugggge issues. Luckily, it's a sign that our attitudes towards women are changing that these things immediately whacked me in the face as hugely anti-feminist. I definitely wouldn't have picked them up ten years ago. So I guess, in a roundabout sort of way, I'm grateful to this film, it's pop culture legendary-ness AND it's weirdass way of talking about women and sex. Times are a-changin'. Let's keep the gender equality ball rolling.
Hannah x
Feature image © Hannah Billie Perry
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Well. I have just watched this film now. And I got sad, because I realized how much sexism has got it, just because I am 23. But if I we're 14/15 years old, like the girls in the film ( as I was at 2008), I might couldn't see it like it's, and this message about girls fighting for a guy and slut-shaming would be in my mind, so I think how much we have to change yet to not damage the girl nowadays.
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DeleteI mean if I were
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