hooked on Hughes: A feminist Consideration of Sixteen Candles,The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink

Abstract

This thesis explores how John Hughes’s teen films Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink reinforce traditional ideas about gender, class, sexuality, and race. Each film was subjected to a combination of narrative and semiotic analysis, revealing that patriarchal ideals are embedded in Hughes’ film language. The findings of each analysis were then interpreted in a segment of discussion using feminist theory and cultural criticism of bell hooks as a primary source.