Hairspray Segregation

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Recommended: An Essay On Segregation

The movie Hairspray was set in Baltimore in the year 1962. This film demonstrated the culture, segregation, and change that happened in America during the 1960’s. The characters in the movie displayed the fashion of the 60’s and referenced some events that were going on in America at the time. The main issue that was extremely prominent throughout Hairspray was segregation and how normalities concerning this matter were starting to evolve. The clothes and fashion that the characters put on display during the film were extremely accurate to the time period. A popular fashion figure for women during the 60’s was Jacqueline Kennedy, the first lady, who was a huge fashion inspiration to all women. The girls wore long skirts, particularly …show more content…

The main part of the story line is a TV dance show, which segregates by only allowing white dancers on the show except when it’s “Negro Day”. There is a whole separate day set aside just for black dancers. The director in charge of the show is a huge racist and is not afraid to share her opinion on the subject. The main character is a girl in high school who is a little on the overweight side and is highly supportive of integration. The school’s population is a mix of white and black kids, but somehow all the colored kids are treated unfairly. This is shown when the main character is sent to detention and the only kids in detention are black. The movie not only shows the prejudice against the African Americans but also their unique culture. A part of the colored community that the film emphasizes is their love of music. In detention all of the black kids are enjoying life and having a party instead of pitying themselves. Towards the end of the movie they cancel Negro day on the TV show, which causes a huge uprising within the black community. This uprising consists of a march which is covered by all the news stations. The news exaggerates all of the events that occur during the march, which is an accurate representation of the effect that they had in the 60’s. All of the segregation demonstrated in Hairspray showed the overarching theme of the film and the 1960’s, which was “Integration not

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