i had absolutely no sympathy for Vanessa.
the only time i did was when they FIRST started picking on her.
but when i saw the way she reacted to everything, i just wanted to slap her !
i mean gosh, what a big baby !!!
it drove me crazy !!
some people react differently to things, just because you thought she acted like a big baby doesn't mean she deserved to be treated like that
shareagreed. There are some people who deal with alot more sh*t then she does. Honest to god, when she tried to overdose, I just sat there saying "Oh, what an idiot." And the whole hair cut thing; WTF? Did she really think giving herself that haircut was going to help. What an idiot.
shareshe wasn't trying to overdose, she was trying to go to sleep. her mind was consumed with everything that was going on, she was stressing and couldn't fall asleep. she took too much, obviously, but I don't think she was intending on trying to kill herself
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why didn't she just turn off her IM service? then she wouldn't have been bothered at home.
~Arguing with the uneducated is like arguing with a tree.~
I have run into teenagers like Vanessa on occasion. In high school, I was actually close friends with a girl who was a lot like her, just in the sense that she didn't always stand up for herself and let people walk on her. That desperation for popularity and acceptance in a peer group tend to make teenagers act foolish and refuse to seek help when they need it.
In this movie, though, I think Vanessa's mother was to be partly blamed, too. She knew that those girls were causing problems for her daughter. When they called Vanessa and invited her to that party, a lightbulb should have gone off in the mother's head, because they had just gone through that incident with the principal, where Stacey copied Vanessa's homework. When Vanessa told her about the party, the mom should have been like, "Okay, something here doesn't seem right - these girls might be up to something". But no - she wanted her daughter to be popular, so she encouraged it and helped Vanessa get all dressed up for the party. I don't think my mom would have ever fallen for something like that. You have to be more in-tune with what's going on with your kids, and this mother obviously wasn't. She loved her daughter and was willing to do anything for her, but in a lot of ways, she was as clueless as Vanessa.
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Honestly, the lot of you who are unmercifully hard on Vanessa need to grow up. The point is that she GOT strong. And the painfully obvious reason she wasn't before is that she kept getting conflicting messages from Stacy, who'd pretend that they weren't really snubbing her. Then she'd start to doubt herself again and wonder, like many insecure girls her age, if she was overreacting. They yanked her back and forth like a yo-yo, and her reactions are more than understandable.
share@chowlett-1 you and the bullies in the movie sound so much alike
shareAnd she kept taking Stacy back, after all the things her crowd did to her. I especially had no sympathy for her when even after the party incident, she took Stacy back. Only to have her print out their e-mails and share them with her little group of friends.
shareShe took her back after the hospital incident because she had nothing left to lose and because Stacy FINALLY actually admitted what she'd been doing, instead of saying "You're too sensitive" or blaming Nessa some other way. Nessa was a loving person and forgave Stacy because they'd been best friends for years. Once Stacy betrayed her that last time, she didn't run away and cry or take her back; she ended it once and for all.
shareI agree with you, StormAngel. When Vanessa kept taking Stacey back at the beginning of the movie, that was one thing, but when she fell back into her trap after the party incident, that was just being completely naive. Part of me just couldn't feel sorry for her after that--although in her defense, I think she took some responsibility for that final betrayal instead of just breaking down about it.
I didn't really like the ending, either, when Vanessa told Stacey off in front of everyone. Yeah, Stacey was a jerk, but Vanessa was the one who kept falling for the lies and crawling back to her. Vanessa could have avoided most of the public humiliation if she hadn't done that. To me, the best thing you can do in a situation like that is just find another group of friends and ignore people who are acting so cruel. Vanessa was lucky, because there was another girl at school who was truly a nice person and wanted to be her friend. Vanessa could have just become friends with her and never looked back. I don't know - personally, I just didn't like the "feel" of the ending. If Vanessa felt the need to confront Stacey, she could have done it privately.
That's one of the weakest ideas I've ever seen, rose. She had every reason and every need to confront Stacy in public, the same public she'd been shamed in front of AGAIN and again. She wasn't just yelling at Stacy, she was saying in effect to the school, "The hell with this, I know I'm not the problem and I'm not conforming myself to your definitions anymore!" Seriously, get with the program.
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Whitespirit...the reason I didn't like the ending is because Vanessa shouldn't have felt the need to prove herself to anyone, at least not that way. Saying "screw them all" and moving on with her own life was the thing she needed to learn, not necessarily telling the girl off in a packed hallway. It just felt unrealistic. In real life, I don't think everyone would have cheered and been like, "woo hoo, Vanessa's the hero!" I think a lot more of them would have thought she was even weirder because she made a public scene like that.
I guess if it helped her move on, and it worked for her personally, then that's good for her, but girls in her situation should also know it's not the only way to deal with a problem.
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I agree, Rose. But after all those morons put on her, I NEEDED to see her blow them off, and I think the writers knew the audience would feel that way. I disagree that everyone would think her weird; I'm betting a lot of people would have been keeping their feelings to themselves about the situation for some time. And if nothing else, teens love a good roast and public fight.
shareWell Rose, I was bullied by my former bffs. I moved on, got new friends. What did my former bffs do? Spread rumors about me and a popular guy in school. So all of our classmates could confront me throughout the morning. Then at lunch, this guy's friends and other classmates surrounded me, antagonizing me, acting like I did something wrong. THEN they got the guy who was off in the distance to come and yell at me some more.
I had bad hair, old, out of fashion clothes, bad teeth, and bad skin. I was teased by multiple cliques in school. And we lived in a small town. There was only one junior high. Yup, I was in JUNIOR HIGH, IN THE 6TH grade when this started to go down. I had grown tired of the games my former friends played by the ending of our fourth grade year and vowed to myself to make new friends when fifth grade started. Things went pretty well for me in the fifth grade. I did make new friends and got involved in school. I tried to stay involved in school in the 6th grade. I ran for student council, but of course, I wasn't popular, so I didn't get it. The teasing, taunting went on and on, and not only did no one stand up for me, but classmates who saw them teasing and taunting me would deny it. I spoke up. I defended myself. But no one would back me up.
The same thing happened 7th and 8th grade. FINALLY, at the end of 8th grade, kids started to wake-up and question the girls when I would say they were making those things up. And what did one of them say? "I was mad at her." And she was forgiven!! Just like that, because she was mad at me?! What did she have to be mad at me for? We weren't even friends? I was nice to her. She wanted in with the popular students our fifth grade year and she saw that we hung out sometimes. She tried to go through me to get to them, but they didn't like her and were mean about it when I would say or give them something she asked me to. I never told her what they actually said. When she would ask, I would say, "They said thank you." THAT girl, actually tried being my friend our 9th grade year and all throughout high school. But I could never allow her close to me. I was nice, I listened to her problems, but she was never my friend, again.
Another girl in my former clique never owned up to what she did in junior high. She only caused more problems our 9th grade and 10 grade year. If she heard anything I said in class to friends or in passing, she always twisted my words and made me out to be a monster. One girl confronted me about something I supposedly said, and I had to explain to her that if that girl said those things, then she wasn't truly her friend because I would never say such a thing about anyone. In fact, I was friends with that girl's, who confronted me brother, so I told her to ask him if I was like that. I explained to her in front of everyone else that Ashley made up stuff about me in order to turn people against me. And that I was sorry about the stuff that Ashley was claiming I said, but that I didn't actually say that, and I told her what I did say, and I told her she should be careful who she is friends with, because Ashley didn't seem to be a real friend to her if she was using her to get to me.
That was pretty much the end of that girl's ish.
But things are not as simple as you made it seem. As for me, I quit "cliques" in 9th grade. I was tired of girl drama. I told myself, "If this is what it means to have friends, then I don't want any." I ended up in a teacher's classroom for the next 2 years. I attracted 3 friends to hang out in the class with me, but I never allowed myself to get close to them outside of school. I was too tired and worn down to realize what I had in them. Because not only had I been through hell at school, I had also been through hell at home and at relative's homes. I didn't have a safe place, and the places I felt most safe, I didn't dare let anyone in. ...Luckly, I did stay friends with one friend outside of high school. We don't talk much anymore, but he is always there when I need him.
the ending did suck somewhat, it was the most unrealistic part in the movie.
in real life she wouldnt have got clapped for what she did, and also people would likely have been targeting her friend as well (I know she was a bit already but more than we seen) for hanging out with her.
I can understand why she kept trying to get back in the gang, but after the party incident I agree on that it was a bit dumb and even her mum thought it was.
the problemn is a realistic ending would nt have fitted hollywood.
Realistic would either have been
1 - she still getting bullied but maybe she learns to handle it better, blank it out etc.
2 - we see her happy after she has left school putting it behind her (but not resolving it whilst at school).
3 - she moves to another school and is happy there.
All 3 of these would have been considered boring especially as they like to make the bad guy lose and all 3 the bad guy still isnt taken down.
So instead we have.
4 - makes some final dumb decisions but at the end tells the bully she no longer wants to be her friend and that causes everyone to applaud (and stop the bullying?)
Most of you are little bitches, not everyone is strong enough especially in high school, for some who has been done with it for sometime, and didn't learn how to be strong until not too long ago, it's hard. Not everyone is on the same level, get over yourselves seriously.
shareSame here.
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