Katarina Stratford and Bianca Stratford are the two daughters of over-protective father Walter Stratford, an obstetrician who is raising the girls as a single parent. He has two rules: “What are the house rules? #1: no dating till you graduate. #2: no dating till you graduate. That’s it.” (00:14:18). He changes it to “Old rule out. New rule: Bianca can date … when [Kat] does.” (00:15:15). This news spreads across Padua High and catches the ear of recent transfer Cameron, who becomes infatuated with Bianca the second he sees her, as indicated by the romantic music that plays then and the slow-motion cinematography (00:05:00). Him and his friend Michael hatch a plan in order to set up Kat in a way that Cameron can date Bianca, involving the popular Joey Donner and resident bad-boy Patrick Verona: “What I think you [Joey] need to do is, you need to hire a guy who’ll go out with her. Someone who doesn’t scare so easy.” (00:20:58). With Joey busy producing their plan, Cameron gets closer to Bianca. Eventually, Patrick and Kat begin to sincerely fall for each other, but Kat senses something sinister in Patrick’s motives. She reveals to Bianca that her and Joey had a history, and Bianca goes to the prom with Cameron, instead of Joey. When she finds her best friend Chastity at the dance, Chastity snarkily explains that Bianca was only a bet to Joey. Meanwhile, Joey storms the dance and Kat finds out about the bet. Joey gets into a fight with Cameron and Bianca comes to his defense in a spectacular display of strength. The next week, Kat recites a sonnet about her unresolved feelings for Patrick and breaks down in tears, showing the audience a previously unseen vulnerability. The film ends with Patrick and Kat making up while the camera zooms out and the music begins to play.
The film uses much more feminist approach as it is written by two women right after the riot grrrl movement, which originated in Seattle (where the film is set) and spread rapidly across the nation in the early 1990s. It melded the ideals of conscious feminism in the form of the ongoing punk movement, and this is embodied by Kat Stratford’s character. The film even acknowledges this cultural relevance and influence by referencing the Bikini Killers (00:37:57), the rock group that started riot grrrl, as one of Kat’s favourite bands. Smith and McCullah used this politically and culturally charged backdrop to set the scene for a story about all women having the ability to run their own lives and stand up for themselves.
Padua High features students from virtually all subcultures (and then some) in American youth at the time. The 90s were rife with self-expression, and this attitude is highlighted in Michael’s spiel during Cameron’s tour:
“We’ve got your basic beautiful people. Unless they talk to you first, don’t bother. Those ‘re your cowboys. … Yeah, but these guys have never seen a horse. They just jack off to Clint Eastwood. To the left, we have the Coffee Kids. Very edgy – don’t make any sudden movements around them. And these delusionals are the White Rastas: big Marley fans, think they’re black. Semi-political, but mostly, they watch a lot of Wild Kingdom, if you know what I mean.” (00:04:07).
In this scene, Junger uses one take to pan across multiple groups while following Michael and Cameron, effectively emphasising the groups’ coexistence with each other. These classifications may be hyperbole, but they are definitely indicative of the cultural expressionism and pluralism that could be found all over the United States during this time, particularly in the film’s setting of Seattle in the late 1990s.
At this point in time, several artists’ feminist stands were being perceived, expressed, and interpreted differently. The iconic pop group Spice Girls coined the term Girl Power, as Geri Horner (Ginger Spice, née Halliwell) confirms in her interview for Vice by Ione Gamble. Then, there were artists like Shampoo, who as Gamble describes, were “kind of bridge between Riot Grrrl and the pop mainstream” because they were “everything two teenage girls had been told they shouldn’t be”, rendering them relatable while still projecting their rebellious, carefree lifestyle that was in fact incredibly intense and not something their general audience would, or even could, ever emulate.
We see these tracks expressed by the female characters in 10 Things I Hate About You. Kat Stratford is heavily influenced by the punk lifestyle and attitudes. Living in its birthplace Seattle, Kat is fully immersed in the punk scene as modelled by riot grrrl. We see all of this through her mannerisms, morals and beliefs, as well as her actions.
The movie begins a group of girls playing pop music stopped at a junction. They are in a convertible, bathed in sunlight and they all sport bright, happy colours. Kat pulls up next to them in her dark red car, herself in its shadows, punk feminist anthem “Bad Reputation” by Joan Jett blaring through her speakers, completely drowning out the other car (00:01:24). The music introduces one of the main struggles in this movie: the discrepancies between the bubblegum pop of the 90s and the punk, rebellious attitudes of the riot grrrl followers. Each party regards the other with disdain, then Kat speeds off, leaving the other car in the dust.
Kat dislikes those girls because she sees them as vapid and shallow. Inversely, Kat is the opposite of their ideals of femininity, and is instead an aggressive, tempestuous man-hater in their eyes. Part of this reputation is because she isn’t dating anyone – out of choice. In this scene, Junger has the camera move from above the group of girls down until they are eye-level. By doing so, he is arguing that girls like them are often looked down on when really they are strong enough to stand their own ground and should be taken seriously. The camera then pans over to Kat when she pulls up next to them, indicating that despite their differences, they are on the same level.
We find out more about Kat and why she is so guarded later on in the film. Right when she opens herself up and is vulnerable with Patrick, she suspects he has an ulterior motive: “Why are you pushing this? What’s in it for you?” (01:11:46). When Patrick gets defensive, acting like an accused husband, he takes out a cigarette which Kat promptly throws away before storming off. Smoking is something that Kat despises, and Patrick quits – whether for the bet or for her is debatable. With this scene, Junger portrays how Kat sees his attempt as disrespectful, and true to her character, realises she doesn’t need him. During Patrick and Kat’s conversation, Junger indicates that both characters are being especially vulnerable by shooting them in close-ups, bringing the audience close to them and having them enter the characters’ little bubble. Despite her openness, Kat still holds her ground and walks away from a bad situation, once again proving that women can be strong no matter what.
This liability is contrasted in Kat’s next scene, where she explains to Bianca why she so strongly believes in living life on one’s own term and advises her to not fall prey to bandwagon appeal. “I’m a firm believer in doing something for your own reasons, and not someone else’s.” (01:15:30). This sequence tells us a lot about Kat’s beliefs and thought process.
In this scene, Kat stands in front of a window: she appears darker, more shadowed. This is possibly because she is telling a story about something she isn’t necessarily proud of or content with, but it is something that shaped her to be as strong as she in in that moment. “Joey never told you that we went out, did he? … In 9th, for a month. … [nods suggestively] … Just once, right after mom left. Everyone was doing it, so… I did it. Afterwards, I told him I didn’t want to anymore because I wasn’t ready and he got pissed and dumped me. … After that I swore I’d never do anything just because ‘everyone else’ was doing it. And I haven’t since. With the exception of Bogey’s party and my stunning digestive pyrotechnics.” (01:16:45). While Kat recounts her narrative, Bianca is sitting on the bed, wearing a very girly outfit paired with shoes reminiscent of elementary school, implying that she is younger and more inexperienced than she feels she is. When Bianca asks, “Then why did you help Daddy hold me hostage [from Joey]? It’s not like I’m stupid enough to repeat your mistakes.” (01:17:12) Kat claims that she was trying to protect Bianca, at which Bianca gets off the bed and says, “By not letting me experience anything for myself?” (01:17:20). This moment is meant to signal to the audience that Bianca is taking control of her life and standing on her own two feet, ready to grow up. This understanding of her sister’s past only makes her stronger.
Kat doesn’t dislike the girls from that first scene simply because they remind her of what she used to be and how that affected her life. She believes her little sister Bianca is now one of them, and Kat disagrees with Bianca’s apparent airhead aspirations. At first glance, Bianca embodies all aspects of the blond stereotype: she’s dumb, materialistic, and obsessed with dating and status. She’s just trying to fit in. Scenes like the iconic Prada-Skechers argument (“Yup, see, there’s a difference between “like” and “love”. Because I like my Sketchers, but I love my Prada backpack.” “But I love my Sketchers.” “That’s because you don’t have a Prada backpack.” (00:05:32)) and the defining of “whelmed” (“I know you can be overwhelmed. You can be underwhelmed. But can you ever just be whelmed?” “I think you can in Europe” (00:11:08)) are indicative of this.
However, as the film progresses and she begins to understand the implications of her actions by using her sister as a cautionary tale, we see that she knows where her values lie. Once she finds out about Joey’s atrocious bet and how this boy that she was so infatuated with even after knowing how he hurt her sister only viewed her as another conquest, Bianca realises that her quest for popularity and status through material association with someone like Joey isn’t worth it and that she’s lost sight of what is important. In, arguably, one of the most iconic scenes of the movie, Bianca crushes Joey’s manhood – both literally and metaphorically. When all is revealed, things go south quickly. Confronting Cameron, Joey insults Bianca, and Cameron tries to stand up against Joey to defend Bianca’s honour. However, Bianca taps Joey on the shoulder and punches him in the nose when he turns around: “That’s for making my date bleed … [punches him again] That’s for my sister … [knees him] And that’s for me.” (01:25:34). With this, the film’s creators orchestrate this obdurate image of someone that was perceived as shallow and vapid taking care of herself and others in her life, proving that all women can be strong.
10 Things I Hate About You is, ultimately, a feminist film. Junger, Smith, and McCullah animate verbal rhetoric with careful cinematography to spread the message that women of all kinds can be and are in fact grounded, independent people, no matter how delicate or troubled they may seem. The film definitely rode the wave of all the social justice and gender equality movements going on at the time. Yet, it did so in a way that was not pandering – Junger’s adaptation presented genuinely powerful female figures for young adults at the time to aspire to, just like how girls like Gamble aspired to the Spice Girls.
28.02.2019