Skip to main content
Disciplines
Automotive Business IT + Informatics Construction + Real Estate Electrical Engineering + Electronics Energy + Sustainability Insurance + Risk Finance + Banking Management + Leadership Marketing + Sales Mechanical Engineering + Materials
Events
DE
EN
Books
Journals
Topic Page
Marketing
Start single access now
Access for companies
EXTENDED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Published in:
How Was the Nerd or Geek Born? Read chapter Read first chapter

2018 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

12. From Zero to Hero and Back Again: Nerd Nobodies, Magic Makeovers, and the Power of the American Dream in Four Teen Films

Author : Jennifer Rachel Dutch

Published in: Age of the Geek

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Log in

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config
loading …

Abstract

The “American Dream” is a powerful narrative in the United States and forms a core part of the nerd makeover movie in which rejected outcasts attempt to join the popular crowd through a magical makeover. However, four films, Can’t Buy Me Love (1987), She’s All That (1999), The New Guy (2002), and The DUFF (2015), demonstrate how these movies actually train young adults to channel the dangerous idea of searching for individuality into passive acceptance of the dominant culture in order to safeguard existing power structures in American society. Drawing on Antonio Gramsci’s notion of hegemonic discourse, this chapter demonstrates how nerd makeover movies teach teens that conformity, not creativity, is the true American Dream.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 102.000 Bücher
  • über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Automobil + Motoren
  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
  • Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
  • Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 67.000 Bücher
  • über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Versicherung + Risiko




Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now
previous chapter Modern Nerd: Alex Dunphy and Growing Up Geeky in Modern Family
next chapter The Geek as Rake: Roving Masculinity in Contemporary Film
Literature
Can’t Buy Me Love. Directed by Steve Rash. 1987. Burbank, CA: Touchstone, 2002. DVD.
Cullen, Jim. The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Ferriss, Suzanne. “Fashioning Femininity in the Makeover Flick.” In Chick Flicks: Contemporary Women at the Movies, edited by Suzanne Ferriss and Mallory Young, 41–58. New York: Routledge, 2008.
Ford, Elizabeth A. and Deborah C. Mitchell. The Makeover in Movies. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2004.
Gramsci, Antonio, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, Translated and edited by Quentin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith, New York: International Publishers, 1971.
She’s All That. Directed by Robert Iscove. 1999. Montreal, Quebec: Alliance, 2010. DVD.
The DUFF. Directed by Ari Sandel. 2015. Santa Monica, CA: CBS Films, 2015. DVD.
The New Guy. Directed by Ed Decter. 2002. Culver City, CA: Revolution Studios, 2002. DVD.
Metadata
Title
From Zero to Hero and Back Again: Nerd Nobodies, Magic Makeovers, and the Power of the American Dream in Four Teen Films
Author
Jennifer Rachel Dutch
Copyright Year
2018
Book
Age of the Geek

Print ISBN: 978-3-319-65743-1

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-65744-8

Copyright Year: 2018

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65744-8_12