Heathers Essay

Kenzi Kostel

1. The movie Heathers is plagued with bullies, violence, and aggression. Rarely does a scene go by where a character does not engage in an aggressive manner. Our textbook tells us, however, that aggression is not always expressed the same but rather each aggressive action can be classified by one of three forms—physical, verbal, or relational. The movie Heathers not only encompasses all three forms but shows multiple examples of each.

Our textbook describes physical aggression as damaging someone or something. This damage can be either direct, like hitting someone, or indirect, like smashing their property. While the movie does show glimpses of this indirect aggression—like when the Heathers stopped through a mother’s flowerbed

after finishing a game of crochet—Heathers mainly portrays direct forms of physical aggression. For example, JD and Veronica are engaging in direct physical aggression when they shoot and kill two popular football players who attend their high school.
Based on what we have learned in class about the predictors of aggression, I believe JD and Veronica committed this crime with different motives. From examining JD’s troublesome past and his negative relationship with his dad who killed his mom, one can speculate that JD is unable to express his emotions in a healthy way. Instead, JD copes by being aggressive and violent. It appears that over the years, he has been taught to use both aggression and manipulation to get his way. JD seems aware of both his actions and the consequences but does not seem to care or express remorse. Veronica, on the other hand, grew up in nurturing family. She understands right from wrong and is seen throughout the movie feeling remorseful. Her actions appear to come from a place of retaliation and revenge rather than enjoyment, like JD. These football boys spread a sexual rumor about her and she plans to retaliate using a gun. Veronica ultimately wants a world without bullies, popular kids, and “The Heathers.” She wants a world of friendships and acquaintances and thinks by getting rid of the problematic people, those issues will go away. JD’s influence, persuasion, and ‘cool/mysterious’ factor also could have played a role in Veronica’s decision to act in a physically aggressive manner against these two boys. As we know from the text, peer pressure and persuasion can heavily influence a teen.
On a different note, our textbook explains that verbal aggression is always direct and can be a threat of physical aggression, name-calling, or hostile teasing. The movie Heathers is chalked full of this type of aggression as well. A prime example of this direct verbal aggression is in the beginning of the movie when queen bee Heather calls one of the other Heathers a “pillow case.” In this incident, Heather is using name-calling to insult her friend’s mental capacity. Based on what we know about the predictors of aggression, one could assume that Heather reverted to name-calling because she felt threatened and/or wanted to assert her status among her friends. By tearing someone else down verbally, Heather builds herself up and shows that she runs the show and anyone who crosses her, will be dealt with.
Another form of direct verbal aggression we see in the film is when JD threatens and blackmails one of the minion Heathers. In exchange for old pictures of her and the school “loser,” Heather must become the new “queen” of the school and work to get JD’s petition signed by the student body. JD knows he alone will not be able to get enough signatures so he manipulates and threatens Heather in order to get his way. He is most likely doing this because Veronica turned her back on him and he is aware he cannot complete his ‘goals’ without help. No one is eager and willing to help, so he reverts to aggression, most likely because of the influences of his upbringing and family dynamics.
The third and final form of aggression, relational, is described in our textbook as social exclusion, malicious gossip, backstabbing, or undercutting one’s social status. Like physical aggression, relational can be either direct or indirect. Direct meaning these things are being said or done directly to the individual and indirect meaning these things are being said or spread to others first and behind the individual’s back.
One example of this is seen during one of “The Heathers” infamous lunch room pranks. Heather convinces Veronica to forge a letter to a girl, who they call Martha “Dump Truck,” from the most popular boy at school confessing his love to her. When Martha approaches him about the letter he, the girls, and many of the other kids in the room laugh and point at her. Martha runs away embarrassed in the moment but eventually cannot take the teasing and attempts suicide. This prank would be considered a direct form of relational aggression since it was done directly to Martha. Based on what we know about the predictors of aggression, we can speculate that the intent behind this prank was for “The Heathers” to assert their status and intimidate others. According to what we have discussed in class, girls are taught not to be openly aggressive like boys are but rather to hide it. This does not result, however, in a decrease in overall aggressive actions. What it does, instead, is make girls find new and sneakier opportunities to be aggressive. This results in an increase in the use of rumors, backstabbing, and cruel pranks in order to intimidate others, assert status, and show others where they belong.
An example of indirect relational aggression can be seen when a football player spreads a rumor about Veronica. The rumor is of sexual nature and was spread to others behind Veronica’s back. The football player most likely spread the rumor in order to seem cool to his friends and like a stud who ‘gets some’ to his peers. He used the opportunity to spread it as a way to increase his social standing and to embarrass Veronica by making her seem ‘easy.’ To him, her loss is his gain.

2.

According to our textbook, juvenile delinquents are children or adolescents who engage in illegal acts. From class, we have learned that delinquency rises over adolescence and then declines from early twenties on. This being said, the movie Heathers features high school students who share this increased likelihood of participating in delinquent behaviors. Throughout the film, both of the main characters, JD and Veronica, initiate delinquent behaviors but for differing reasons.

Over the course of the film, JD engages in many delinquent behaviors. He breaks into both Heather and Veronica’s houses in hopes of killing them, physically pours chemicals into a teacup for Heather to kill her, blackmails the other Heather with photos, shoots and kills one of the football players in the woods, and tries to bomb the school during a pep rally. Veronica, however, is not an innocent bystander in the movie. She commits her own share of delinquent behaviors. Throughout the movie, Veronica helps JD break into Heather’s house, gives the cup of chemicals to Heather ultimately killing her, shoots and kills the other football player, and helps JD cover up multiple murders to look like suicides. But what are their motives? Why did they commit these delinquent

behaviors?
Our textbook tells us that there are two routes to adolescent delinquency, one involving a small number of youths with an onset of conduct problems in childhood and the second, a larger number with an onset in adolescence. The early-onset type is far more likely to lead to a life-course pattern of aggression and criminality while the late-onset type usually does not persist beyond the transition to early adulthood.
From analyzing what happened in the movie, one can speculate that JD’s delinquent behaviors come from the early-onset route.

In JD’s case, he most likely inherited the traits that predisposed him to aggressiveness. That combined with his father’s inept parenting and lack of involvement, allowed JD’s aggressive and delinquent behaviors to persist into adolescence. Once in high school, his antisocial tendencies spurred him to befriend other prospective deviant youths (Veronica.) This new-found friendship facilitated his violent behaviors and relieved his loneliness. Without any major intervention in his life, JD’s tendencies to act aggressively and commit delinquent actions kept increasing over the years until at the end of the movie, he blew himself

up.
Veronica’s delinquent behaviors, on the other hand, seem to spur from a late-onset route. According to our textbook, her first display of antisocial behavior most likely occurred around puberty. Since then, her peer interactions have helped determine her actions. In the movie, we see that Veronica resists acting on her violent thoughts until she gets involved with JD. His influence on her seems to increase her aggressive and delinquent behaviors. However, once she separates herself from him, Veronica seems to revert back to her old, non-violent tendencies. This is consistent with the fact that many adolescents with late-onset delinquency end up abandoning their antisocial behaviors by their late teens.

3. According to the textbook, adolescent friendships differ from younger friendships in multiple ways. For example, adolescents tend to value intimacy, mutual understanding, and loyalty. This results in most adolescents having many friends but only a few “best friends,” making their inner circle even smaller, more exclusive, and more similar to them. These friendships also tend to be an important source of social support for many of these teens with girls getting together to talk and bond and boys to play sports and compete.
While more positive in some ways, these changing friendships can also be harmful to some teens. These smaller knit friend groups among girls can turn into cliques who use relational aggression to assert their dominance in school. Also, the pressure to appear masculine can limit the closeness of male friendships.
The movie Heathers is a prime example of what these adolescent friendships look like. Right of the bat, we see a clique that rules the school and refers to themselves as “The Heathers.” They are a group of three to four girls who are remarkably similar and very exclusive. From the beginning, we notice that these girls are always together, chatting about something big, and exhibiting plenty of relational aggression. While those not in the clique are afraid of them, they also want to be a part of them. Those who don’t, are easy targets to pick on, like Martha.
Within the clique, we see the loyalty dynamic the textbook discusses. Heather’s ‘minions’ must do, act, and say what she tells them to in order to stay in the group. If a member acts out, she is called out and her loyalty is put into question. These girls will do almost anything to stay a part of “The Heathers.” Even after Heather dies, the clique continues on with a new Heather taking her place as ‘queen bee.’ “The Heathers” continue to rule with an iron fist until the end of the movie when Veronica claims the title of ‘queen’ and invites Martha to hang out with her.
We do not see many male friendships throughout the film. The one we do see, however, is between the two football players. After murdering them, JD and Veronica plant evidence around the boys making them appear gay for each other. This further proves the point the textbook makes that being a part of a close male friendship is not masculine.