Easy A

In the world of high school, social hierarchies can be notoriously complex and ever-shifting. At New York's Ojai High School, something as seemingly mundane as a rumor - true or false - has the power to upend an individual's reputation and status in the blink of an eye. This notion is powerfully illustrated in Easy A, the 2010 comedy film written by Bert V. Royal and directed byWill Gluck. Olive Penderghast (played by Emma Stone) is, by her own definition, the quintessential wallflower. An aspiring senior student, Olive hasn't found her footing in the high school social hierarchy, often being overlooked by her peers and struggling to be noticed. The once-noted student has fallen into obscurity, relegated to a mere quiet and unremarkable existence. Her most notable characteristic seems to be that no one, not even her parents, seems to have any heightened expectations of her whatsoever. Disenchanted, she's almost a nobody. But one day, it all changes. Olive is subject to a cruel case of circumstance when a clumsy male acquaintance, Teddy (played by Penn Badgley), genuinely believes she has had sex with a classmate, Marianne (played by Amanda Bynes). When it becomes a known fact at her school that she slept with that same classmate, this new information will send a ripple effect on campus such that Olive will have to navigate the complexity of public perception and the very high stakes of having her new reputation unfold – all without her actual consent. From one day to another, the status of Olive Penderghast flips from completely under the radar, non-existent reputation wise, to the one member of the community perceived entirely through the very rumor. While other students may merely have seen a change, like the always-highly-prepared Marianne who discovers her own notoriety by association with a former target for gossip (Olivia), this is a stark, disconcerting display of why in most schools a wrong choice may have the lasting results to forever imprint itself negatively upon a student who participated. In this stunning turn of events, Olive can only choose to either succumb to it, and let public opinion define her; she has little control over such public judgments. With this realisation setting in, all things should become worse for Olive, until the point in which she sees the undeniable opportunities inherent to her own invented identity - Olive Penderghast. Olive deliberately proclaims herself "Easy A" in school as if allowing a well-preached false rumor of a promiscuous reputation stick and, in this bold move, assumes a confident, more prominent place for herself in her social group. She adopts a more vibrant flavour of herself and sets out to invent her new image. To manipulate this strategy to her full satisfaction she takes great care in being subtle, for if her claim appears questionable her "Prestige of hard as claim celebrity" will be immediately damaged. Once again, however, acting prematurely is easier said than done; the unforeseen consequences of altering her picture portray her to have been at less status the further ahead you push back the power. The repercussions are immediate. Suddenly, instead of a lower status for being completely uninteresting or easily forgettably known, Olive's peers now perceive her on a much bigger scale. When her plan is initiated, this new newfound notoriety is most closely relatable to a powerful form of substance whose relevance to everyone at New York's Ojai High School now suddenly sees a more famous peer in being more in competition with what she does. People have higher expectations of her, the reason why her once obscure anonymity may be now slowly disappearing and why her peers look at a different kind of person than the forgotten student a few weeks ago. Growing increasingly anxious about maintaining the facade of her false identity, Olive does well to enlist her quirky mother's (played by Patricia Clarkson) and equally eccentric father's guidance and advice. She also develops an ill-concealed crush on her enigmatic study partner, Todd (played by Penn Badgley), further fueling her struggles to protect her secretive aspirations from those who now look up to her with admiration. Amidst these evolving complexities, one may question what has really initiated these new waves of perception. Does it represent any legitimate statement or the work of fabricated public relations manipulation? After some introspection, however, the character within Olive will find that she was able to cope with anything brought upon by her "Easy A" facade because no one wants to be seen as a one-dimensional facade, therefore making a convincing, but also complicated, part of 'oneself' nothing other than an imitated identity. For Olive, finding this true self beneath "Easy A" entails an in-depth analysis of what she genuinely is, rather than pretending to be something she is not, with new promises consisting of growth, and ultimately a successful transformation of both character and social status to that of a meaningful, unique individual admired by her peers, along with support and approval from the people around her. Despite several life lessons obtained in making the difficult transition to claiming personal strength and individual identity over social acceptance, the complexities of any one person may make it forever uncertain how genuine her resolve can be. In the film's ending, after Olive crushes both the expectation of the gossip mill and false, fantasised perception of another, we cannot help but hope for the successful continuation of a true form of self, where she leaves "Easy A" behind in order to become who truly is.