Introduction
Sexual education is very vital to young people, especially those in their adolescent stage. This is because they do experience queer physical and emotional changes as they approach maturity. These people can get sexual education formally in school as part of a particular curriculum or informally through friends, parents, the media and through the church. The extent under which sexual education is understood, determines the reproductive health of the society in terms of making informed decisions about pertinent sexual aspects in families.
Superbad is a movie that portrays the perceptions and intentions of high school boys concerning sex. Superbad, explores the intentions of two high school boys who are about to graduate, as the main characters in the movie. The two boys, Seth and Evan are best friends who are about to part ways, and because they are going to different universities, they are afraid of what the future has in store for them. The boys are in regular contemplation on how they will be going to have sex with their female classmates, and consequently break their virginity before they join college (Mottola, 2010, Para. 1). This paper will critically examine the assumptions of Superbad movie on sex and the depiction of Western norms.
Superbad Overview
Superbad is a funny teen movie depicting how teenagers perceive sex and sexuality. The film has received diverse reactions from both teenagers and adults. More so, the movie has a parental guidance rate for the age of 17 and below. The characters in this humorous movie are high school students who are on the verge of graduating, and therefore, are celebrating their high school achievements. Besides high school achievements, the boys still want to make an extra accomplishment of indulgence in sex with their classmates hence breaking their virginity (Chen, 2007, Para 3). The boys regard the breaking of virginity as a requirement for college admission for the sole reason that, it gives them sexual experience and skills.
The two main characters (Seth and Evan), are classmates winding up their high school education. They are about to graduate and they set out to make an additionally social achievement, which is, to have sex with their classmates and consequently break their virginity. Seth already has a girlfriend named Jules while Evan is still devising a method on how to approach Becca. From here, what remains is the appropriate opportunity for each one of them to have sex with their respective girlfriends.
An opportunity presented itself when Jules invited Seth, Becca and Evan to her graduating party, and they thought that was the best chance of attaining their objective. They decided to make them drunk during the party, so that they could easily attain their goals (Mottola, 2010, Para. 2). They were entirely convinced that, when they got them drunk they would certainly have sex with them.
Seth offered to provide alcohol for the whole party and planed to steal from the supermarket but at last, he did not execute his plans for the fear of being caught. Their friend, Fogell had faked his identity to McLovin hence Seth and Evan sent him to buy alcohol for the party from a store. Although Fogell managed to buy alcohol with his fake identification, a robber knocked him unconscious attracting police attention.
On the other hand, Seth and Evans assumed Fogell was under arrest for fake identity. At this point, Seth was worried of losing both the alcohol and a hundred dollars Jules gave him to buy alcohol for her party. An interesting development came in when Francis accidentally hit Seth. All of them agreed that Francis should compensate this by buying them alcohol at some distant alcohol store at a house party. While here a fight ensued between the owner and Francis. Due to the fight, they never obtained any alcohol although Evan accused Seth for taking him to dangerous places and vowed never to allow his friend drag him to such places again.
Interestingly, Seth also found himself in a fight with Mark, when he danced with his girlfriend who was menstruating and had his pants stained. Seth also accused Evan of not protecting him as a friend in the fight. Seth then resorted to stealing alcohol at the party house using two large jugs of laundry detergents (Chen, 2007, Para. 3).
The three (Fogell, Seth and Evan), escaped a police attempt to arrest them and headed for Jules’ party carrying with them the stolen alcohol in jugs plus the alcohol Fogell had bought earlier. Back at Jules’ party, Becca had already drunk heavily and Evan dragged her into Jules’ bedroom, but she refused to have sex with him. On the other hand, Jule refused to drink and needed his mate while he was sober. Fogell on his part, was distracted by the police when he was about to have sex with Nicola (Mottola, 2010, Para. 3). Eventually, the boys learned better ways of approaching girls rather than inducing them to get drunk so that they can take advantage of their intoxication to have sex and consequently break their virginity.
Assumptions
Superbad movie has several assumptions about adolescent boys. The movie assumes that the sexual characteristics displayed by the boys in the movie are quite normal and universal. Under such circumstances the intentions of the characters to get drunk before having sex and the so called sexual transformation as an achievement to join college is quite normal (Morris, 2007, Para. 2). Alcohol usage was factored in as an incentive for ease of the accomplishment of the task ahead, as the boys were not experienced enough to tackle this issue.
Though the boys experienced a great urge to have sex, the film has an extreme view of sexuality and adolescent. Schools boys need sex because of their feelings for pleasure but not with the intention of an achievement, prerequisite skill to join college or sexual preparation. From the boys’ perspective, they just needed to break virginity of which sexuality is not just limited to the breaking of virginity.
The perceptions of sex and sexuality in the Superbad movie are rooted for, by the youths resulting into negative influence to the perceptions of other teenagers worldwide. In Superbad, sex is portrayed as, a rite of passage from high school to college; it forms a part of social status to have done sex. Furthermore, the movie illustrates that, boys need to break the virginity of some girl in order to be considered fit to join college (Murphy, 2010, Para. 4). These perceptions have great impacts in the secularization of sex education leading to the bad behaviours of adolescents.
Seth and Evans assumed that, they were going to have sex with their classmates Jules and Becca respectively when they got them drunk in the party in order to break their virginity. This film portrays how adolescent boys use alcohol in parties in order to make their classmates or girlfriends drunk to facilitate easier sex.
Superbad also depict the value of breaking virginity as a great achievement sexually; it shows that this is essential in providing experience and skills for an independent life in college (Chen, 2007, Para. 5). The film also illustrated the aspect of partying secularly. This is because in Jule’s graduation celebration, alcohol was shown as one of the drinks that must be obtained at all cost, as demonstrated by the struggles made in order to obtain it. Seth’s willingness to steal and acceptance of alcohol as compensation due to an accident proved the importance to which alcohol is attached to the party. The importance of alcohol here is to induce girls into having sex as they cannot dare allow boys to sleep with them when they are sober. Therefore, the movie is secularizing partying as an occasion to get drunk and have sex.
In this setting, all men and boys are assumed to drink alcohol. Seth, Evan and Fogell are seen looking for alcohol for the party with great efforts despite the challenges they encountered with their friends. Francis, who accidentally hit Seth, enticed Seth and Eva with the alcohol while Mark, the party house owner also did sell alcohol. The two police officers who arrested Fogell wanted to be bribed with alcohol so that they could release Fogell but they were too smart, escaped their trap, and headed for the party. The Superbad society depicts men and boys as drunkards who cannot be divorced with alcohol in their pleasure hence giving an impression that alcohol and drug abuse are integral part of manhood.
Heterosexuality
Superbad depicts the youths in adolescence as actively involved in sex (heterosexuality). Seth and Evan are so attracted to their classmates sexually while Jules and Becca are attracted to members of their opposite sex. Fogell was also found trying to have sex with Nicola while Mark had his menstruating girlfriend. This shows the heterosexual behaviour of the students and this does have some positive impacts on sex education as to what constitutes sex, contrary to homosexuality (Morris, 2007, Para. 4). The students also had the knowledge of heterosexuality and that’s why they become attracted to their opposite sexes.
Heterosexuality was made compulsory by student culture and beliefs that one must break the virginity of a girl as a rite of passage in order to attain the status of a college student. It is shown here that, every student is compelled to use all possible means to have a girlfriend, have sex and thus break her virginity signifying that one has experience and skills in heterosexuality. Seth, Evan and Fogell were all seen devising means to hook up their classmates as their girlfriends in order to attain the social status of college students but the girls were too hard on them to achieve their objectives even though they went an extra mile by inducing them with alcohol.
In the film, heterosexuality is a norm since all characters in the play are attracted to their opposite sex. Seth is attracted to Jules, Evan is attracted to the Becca, Fogell wants to have sex with Nicola and Mark has his girlfriend. The police also tried to impress girls when they were arresting Fogell (Mottola, 2010, Para. 1-2). All these relationships are proof of the heterosexuality tradition as portrayed in the Superbad movie.
Western Secularism
The Superbad film portrays various instances where Western secularism is emphasized. For instance, the explicit use of vulgar language in the play by naughty boys while commenting the beauty of girls and sex language. Mark’s girlfriend was explicitly referred to as menstruating while Becca was heard shouting in desire to have sex with Evan when she was very drunk (Morris, 2007, Para. 2-3). These and many instances demonstrating secularization of language since youths all over the world are inclined to speak vulgar and sexual language explicitly as it is considered as a celebrated and civilized language.
Western promiscuity is evident in the film to the extent that, high school students want to explore their sexual behaviours. The intention of the high school boys is just to break virginity of their classmates and they use all means possible to seduce girls to the extent of intoxicating them with the liquor (Nielsen, 2007, Para. 2). This promiscuous behaviour has no difference with what adult people do; hence, it amounts to the promiscuity of the Western culture and behaviours.
Alcoholism has been depicted as a Western culture in the film. All men and boys plus Becca are shown to be drinking or drunk with liquor. The culture of alcohol consumption by under aged students has a Western origin. This is a leading aspect in the secularization of the conserved traditions of the world. Other Western norms depicted are theft and frequent fights.
Conclusion
Purposeful and proper sex education to the adolescents is the foundation of future strong families. Sex education determines the behaviour of the youth and shapes their future lives. Good sex education helps the youth have a moral future while bad sex education makes them became immoral. Since sexual education can either be obtained formally from schools, or informally from other sources like watching movies; films such as Superbad can be misleading, thus requires parental guidance in order to clarify misconceptions that are portrayed in them by certain explicit characters.
The Superbad film is depicting the naughty and immoral behaviour of high school boys, and it has great potential of secularising perceptions of sex to other students by introducing westernised cultural values. The film portrays secularization of values such as promiscuity, alcoholism, robbery and the use of vulgar language, all of which threaten our conserved cultures and values that are the building blocks of an ethical society.
References
Chen, T. 2007. Superbad Film Critique. Simply Cinema. Web.
Mottola, G. 2010. Superbad. International Movie Database. Web.
Morris, W. 2007. It’s a nerd, he’s in pain — it’s ‘Superbad.‘ The Boston Blobe. Web.
Murphy, K. 2010. Superbad Review. TalkTalk. Web.
Nielsen, J. 2007. What is it about Western secularism? Common Ground News Service. Web.