Heathers

Heathers, a 1988 black comedy film directed by Michael Lehmann, presents an exaggerated model of social status in high school. The titular Heathers are a group of three girls- Heather Chandler, Heather McNamara, and Heather Duke- who control the school. In the terms of Marx, they represent the powerful bourgeoisie who rule over the proletariat- in this case, they are illustrated by the unpopular students. In the world of Westerburg High School, you are either popular or not, and there is no inbetween. To Nietzsche, this is an example of a binary opposition. Veronica, the main character, is someone who is hailed by both sides and is unsure of where she belongs. At the same time, another student named J.D. presents a different solution to her

troubles: to destroy the system altogether, no matter what the cost is. Through her story, as well as the struggles of the other characters, Heathers criticizes and deconstructs the concept of class structure.
For clarification, it is important to have a strong understanding of the dynamic between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

Marx wrote that they were, “Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, [standing] in constant opposition to one another…” (473-474). In other words, within these two roles, there has always been one in charge, and one expected to obey. The upper class are the rulers, so they are the ones who can control the lower class. Though Marx had an economic base in mind, the ideas reflect the complicated social structure within in a high school. In the movie, the three Heathers are more than just popular; they are considered the superiors of every single student and have total control over the school. No one dares try to harass them because they are both admiring and afraid, so their status as the elite is completely accepted. They are the Heathers, representing the powerful

bourgeoisie.
Meanwhile, every student who does not conform to their standards is considered their lesser; in other words, they are the proletariat. Some clear examples of this lower class come from two unpopular students: Betty and Martha. Betty was Veronica’s former best friend before Veronica began to associate with the Heathers. She is timid and appears to have low self-esteem, constantly talking about how she is not as cool as Veronica’s other friends. She absolves Veronica of all blame for missing her birthday party, joking that “I'd probably skip my own birthday party for a date.” Obviously, Betty is supposed to come off as rather meek and pathetic. While Veronica feels pity for her, the Heathers constantly mock her, as well as mock Veronica for choosing to be friends with her in the past. When Veronica and Chandler are having a screaming match at a party, Chandler says that Veronica should be grateful, because she was nothing before she became a member of the Heathers. “You were playing Barbies with Betty Finn. You were a bluebird. You were a Brownie. You were a Girl-Scout cookie,” she says, saying that her days of unpopularity with Betty are something to be looked down on as childish and disgraceful.
Comparatively, there is also Martha, an overweight girl who is the constant subject of mockery from the other students. The fact that she is almost universally known as Martha Dumptruck- a play on her last name, Dunstock- shows that she teased for not being considered as beautiful as the other students. The Heathers, rather than just talking about her behind her back, actively make fun of her. In the beginning of the movie, they force Veronica to forge a love letter from her crush in order to humiliate her in front of everybody. It extends to the point that when she tries to commit suicide, Duke mocks her for being unsuccessful. She says that Martha is “just another example of a geek trying to imitate the popular people at school and failing miserably.” Rather than becoming martyred, like the Chandler and the football players were after committing suicide, Duke says that she should be ridiculed for her failure. Because she is so different the other students who want to conform to the standards of the Heathers, Duke shows no signs of sympathy for her.
The first example of deconstruction is shown through the actions of Veronica, someone who is torn between these two worlds. While she is initially considered a nobody, she is given the choice to become a member of the Heathers by conforming to what they want her to be. She must completely discard her old nerdy self, which means ignoring her parents and Betty in favor of being around the Heathers. Veronica is torn between becoming a member of the elite or refusing and acting true to herself. In Nietzsche’s words, she is grappling with a binary opposition. Binary oppositions- good and evil, rich and poor, strong and weak- are two terms that are opposite in meaning and where one is considered superior. Nietzsche wrote that, “Metaphysical philosophy has hitherto surmounted this difficulty that the one originates in the other and assuming for the more valued thing a miraculous source in the very kernel and being of the thing itself” (53). In other words, the only reason why one term is deemed “better” is due to the meaning it receives by being related to something else.
To clarify, becoming a member of the social elite is, at first, presented as the preferable choice. After all, the people who represent the elite- the Heathers- have everything they could ever want. They are beautiful and popular, considered the undisputed queens of the school. They are never tormented by other students, simply because they all under their thumbs. In the musical, Veronica remarks that they “float above it all,” and that she “would give anything to be like that.” Eventually, she does give anything: she decides to abandon how she used to act and dress in order to become a member of their clique. And, at first, she is overjoyed, making note of how boys would smile at her and how stunning she feels after the Heathers do her makeup.
Despite her initial reaction, however, Veronica’s happiness does not last forever. She slowly realizes that Chandler just keeps her around to make shopping runs or force her to forge notes in other students' handwriting. These notes in particular bother Veronica deeply because the Heathers use them to pull pranks and make fun of students simply because they can. Still, Veronica feels like she must do whatever the Heathers say because they are the ones in control. She begins to loathe the Heathers for their cruelty but also hates herself for going along with whatever they want.
Not only does Veronica detest their inhumanity, but she also finds their obsession with appearances exhausting. She mentions to J.D. how she was considered a genius as a child and spends the opening of the musical dreaming about the Ivy League schools in her future. She seems to lament the fact that she has changed so much since then, saying that “I use my grand IQ to decide what color gloss to wear, and how to hit three keggers before curfew.” She unmistakably wants to leave the group and go back to being a nobody, when she was much happier.
Clearly, Veronica feels split between these two worlds: the heartless elite, and the unpopular students.

Her old friend Betty clearly wants to rekindle their friendship, but the Heathers are determined to keep her in their grasp. Althusser wrote that: “all ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects” (245). In other words, an ideology, or a certain outlook on the world, tries to take an individual and transform them into being a subject who completely follows that ideology without question. Althusser compares this process to a policeman, quite literally, hailing someone simply by calling out for

them.
In the case of Heathers, Veronica is being hailed by both sides on the binary: the elite, and the lower class. Conforming with the Heathers offers the comforts of being a member of the bourgeoisie, but Veronica would have to continue to compromise her morals in order to stay with them. Going back to her old life may be what she longs for inside, but Veronica fears being bullied, hated, or tormented. Both sides may be compelling, but Veronica cannot decide on which ideology to become a subject for. This is a clear example of deconstruction. At the beginning, the being a member of the bourgeoisie is what Veronica aspired to be. Once she becomes a member of the clique, however, she is not as happy and fulfilled as she should have been. Instead, she feels absolutely miserable, and some part of her wants to return to being a member of the proletariat.
Eventually, Veronica’s divided wishes and frustrations come to a head when she and Chandler attend a frat party together. Chandler becomes more and more angry at Veronica's standoffish attitude and her repeated requests to go home because she feels sick. The two of them get into a vicious screaming match with each other, and Veronica refuses to give Chandler any ounce of gratitude for making her popular and elevating her social class. In response, Chandler coldly vows to completely ruin her reputation, saying that Veronica will be “history” by Monday morning, even if she transfers schools. She says this without an ounce of exaggeration because she knows that she has complete and utter control over the school and can make it happen without question. As Marx puts it, the bourgeoisie have the ability to “...rule also as thinkers, as producers of ideas, and regulate the production and distribution of the ideas of their age: thus their ideas are the ruling ideas of the epoch” (173). In other words, from her position at the top, Chandler can influence or outright direct other students into following what she decides is appropriate. She allowed Veronica into her clique, so Veronica became one of the most popular girls in the school, loved and envied by all. But if she then decides that Veronica Sawyer should now be tormented and utterly friendless, it will happen, without question. Veronica knows this, too; she feels totally powerless under Chandler's control. In a moment of frustration, she wishes she could dream of “a world without Heather, a world where [she is] free.” The only way that she feels she could truly escape from this punishing system of class conflict would be if Chandler was gone.
In a similar manner, the other Heathers are gradually revealed to be just as unhappy as Veronica is, providing even more examples of deconstruction. McNamara, who should be happily unbothered as a member of the Heathers, suddenly calls a radio show to talk about how she has been struggling with the recent suicides, her failing grades, and her parents’ divorce. The musical goes to demonstrate her struggle even further in the song “Lifeboat,” where she says that her daily life constantly makes her feel like she is in a boat that is about to sink. She reveals that she is terrified of being unpopular, saying that “If I say the wrong thing / Or I wear the wrong outfit / They'll throw me right over the side.” This shows just how damaging the effects of trying to conform have been on McNamara. She believes that she must say and do everything perfectly, or else she will be mocked relentlessly and never forgiven. There is no room for showing weakness, which makes her moment of reaching out all the more poignant. It emphasizes how much she is struggling that she wants to talk to somebody, even if it is just a talk show host.