Clueless remains a timeless movie, known for its satirical construction of the wealthy,

popular and fashionable high school students of Beverly hills. It was created in 1995 by Amy
Heckerling and adapted from Jane Austen’s Emma. The story follows the daily life of a
particularly wealthy, kind-hearted but misguided high school girl named Cher Horowitz.
Throughout the story, she learns many lessons about love, friendships, and pain. The film
constructs the characters to represent the stereotypical superficial, self-centred nature of
teenagers, and ridicules their actions and thoughts. The behaviours of the characters and
the setting of the film also portray wealth as being essential to be popular and well liked.

In the 1995 film clueless, main characters Cher and Tai are constructed to be opposites in
many areas, including popularity, fashion and style, and personality to represent teenagers
as shallow and narrow minded. Both these characters follow the stereotype of wanting
popularity in school, doing everything in their power to become so. In the film, Cher is
portrayed to have confident body language, as her arms are often by her sides and her walk
somewhat resembles a model’s catwalk. Her back is straight, and she is always looking
ahead, displaying that she is confident. In contrast, Tai’s posture is slouched, and her arms
are crossed in front of her, displaying closed body language. Furthermore, in comparison to
Cher, her clothes are boyish and unfashionable, and her appearance is not as traditionally
feminine as her. Yet the two become more similar as the film goes on, after Cher’s
‘makeover’, Tai fits in more to the stereotype, dressing more feminine and talking about
more ‘girly’ things. This portrays teenagers to be narrow minded, as they are willing to
change themselves just for the purpose of gaining popularity. Another distinction between
the two are their accents- Cher with a prominent valley girl accent and Tai, a New York
accent. Tai’s accent is unique from most the students at the Beverly Hills high school, and
thus causes her to stand out. As the movie goes on, her accent stays, but she begins to talk
more like Cher, talking more ‘like an adult’. These differences highlight how Tai, a newcomer
to the high-class neighbourhood of Beverly hills changes her appearance, style and way of
talking and behaving to fit in to the typical highschooler stereotype. Through the gradual
change of Tai from this conventionally different person into a stereotypical teenage girl such
as Cher, the viewer may think that no matter how unique a teenager is, their ultimate goal is
always to become popular, and that they will change themselves just to gain others
validation. Cher can be viewed as the societal pressures, shaping teenagers who are
perceived as different or weird into the normal and admired high school girl. The
development of Tai- physically, mentally and in the way she behaves, and acts serves to
represent how all teenagers are shallow and narrowminded, no matter how eccentric they
may seem.

Justin Walker’s character, Christian Stovitz is constructed as contrasting to the stereotypical

teenage boy, in terms of the character’s way of dressing and behaving, which is utilised to
point out the low level of accountability to which teenager boys are held. The stereotypical
teenage boy is often portrayed as rough, trouble loving and someone who does not put
much effort into anything. On the other hand, Christian is constructed to be well put
together, so much so that Cher says ‘He does dress better than I do, what would I bring to
the relationship?’ This implies that usually, the role of the woman is to be the one who
keeps up a pleasant appearance, while the guy is expected to be more careless and
nonchalant, especially in relation to their way of dressing. The differentiation between
Christian and the typical teenage boy highlights the questionable standards that are pushed
onto teenage boys and girls. While girls are often criticised for their appearances, as shown
through how Tai changes herself entirely for popularity, it is societally acceptable for teenage
boys to put low levels of effort into their appearances and demeanour. This is problematic in
our society as girls are forced to work multiple times as hard, just to feel like they can obtain
the same levels of success and acceptance as their male counterparts. Furthermore, when
Cher talks about highschool boys, she says “They're like dogs. You have to clean them and
feed them”, This represents how teenage boys are expected to act, especially by their peers.
Christian on the other hand, is charming and quiet in comparison to other guys. This causes
him to stand out to Cher, and makes her fall in love with him, just because he puts a bit of
effort in his appearance. In summary, Christian Stovitz, is depicted as starkly contrasting to
how the common teenage boy should behave and dress, to highlight the difference in
standards held up to male and female teenagers.

The film takes place in the high upper-class city of Beverly Hills, which is well known for its
rich inhabitants and their expensive and lavish lifestyle. The construction of the high-class
Beverly hills setting in clueless underlines the status and wealth of the groups represented in
the film. At the beginning of the movie, Cher is practicing her driving, and tells the audience
that her dad bought her jeep, which is known for being expensive ‘just for practice’. She
drives through the fancy and well-kept neighbourhoods in a carefree way, indicating that she
is oblivious to the value of her material belongings and surroundings. This state of being
unaware gives the audience an indicator to her wealth, being so well off that she does not
understand what it would be like to not have such a privileged lifestyle. Furthermore, many
characters in the movie, such as Cher and Dionne are socially dominating, believing they
have the right to interfere in their teacher’s and friend’s love lives to create a better
environment for themselves. Near the beginning of the film, Cher and her best friend decide
they need to set up two of their teachers, to make them happier and allow them to
negotiate their grade. Through these actions, it is evident that the students at the high
school often get what they want, and when they don’t, have trouble accepting it.
Additionally, the residents of Beverly hills are constructed to be very materialistic,
prioritising their belongings and appearances over anything. One prominent example of this
is when Cher was held at gunpoint and told to lie on her dress to which she responded ‘it’s
an Alaia.. its like, a totally important designer’. In this scene, the audience may be
incredulous to her response as they realise, she is valuing her designer dress over her own
life, and cares so much about her material goods that she is willing to hesitate at gunpoint. It
also points to her lack of common sense, as it is evident that Cher believed that the criminal
may be understanding if she explained to him the value of her dress. In this way, the
interests and priorities of the characters in Clueless highlight their and wealth, which is
directly linked to their home of Beverly hills.

The 1995 film Clueless constructs characters and setting to represent the superficial, self-
centred nature of teenagers, and ridicules their actions and thoughts. The comparison
between Cher and Tai’s behaviours and interests highlights the shallow and narrow-minded
thoughts of stereotypical teenagers. Christian is representative of the opposite to the typical
teenage boy, and used to point out their flaws, but is also utilised as a comedic relief using
common cliches. The setting of the Los Angeles suburb of Beverly hills is employed to
underline the wealth of the characters represented in the movie, and paint this as an ideal
for all teenagers. The construction of characters and setting in the 1995 coming of age film
Clueless represent the groups of teenage girls and boys, the wealthy and how it is seen as
ideal to have a luxurious lifestyle as a teenager.