As a white middle-class girl from the suburbs I fit the guidelines for all the stereotypes. “Basic” is what outsiders might call me. Just because I like taking pictures with my friends, dressing up occasionally and laughing loudly in public. The basic white girl has been stereotyped to the death in Hollywood’s films. The rich white girl with beautiful hair and a Kim-Kardashian-ready wardrobe. The basic white girl doesn’t care about intelligence because she has her looks to carry her by. Finding the perfect man with the shining white smile and not to mention bursting with family wealth is all a basic white girl needs to worry her pretty little head about. Actually Hollywood, I’m going to disagree with you. As a suburban white girl I can tell you that coming from an upper-middle class family means nothing to me when considering future successes. I rely solely on my own intelligence and hard work to get where I want to go and just because I like pretty dresses and curling my hair does not mean my brain is empty. The film Clueless is a perfect example of the basic white girl starring in her stereotypical role of the fashionable ditz. The story revolves around the blonde bombshell Cher, a high schooler from Beverly Hills who cannot be happy without finding her own true love. Cher not only represents the stereotypical basic white girl but the needy one as well. Cher is portrayed as a beautiful, independent and socially successful woman however she purely represents male fantasies and fetishes and relies on male gratification for confidence.
First a quick background of the film. Cher is shallow, rich and the most popular girl in school. She lives in Beverly Hills in her father’s mansion. Cher thrives off turning down male suitors and lives for the moment she can shoot a disdainful look at a cat-calling man. According to Cher every girl needs a successful man so she therefore sees herself as a matchmaker. Cher matches people based off social-status, fashion sense, and wealth. One day her school receives a new girl, a “fashion victim” as Cher would call her. Cher then takes it upon herself to give the new girl, Tai, a makeover. The sole purpose of this makeover however is so that Tai can find an appropriate man, one that Cher deems socially acceptable. And of course Cher is only doing this makeover so that she can then in turn feel better about herself. Cher’s ex-stepbrother warns her that she’s going to become upset when Tai becomes more popular than her, which Cher seriously resents him saying because she is convinced that she doesn’t care about popularity but instead just wants to help an innocent victim. However in the end Cher realizes her ex-stepbrother was right and she does only care about popularity and becomes so longing of his approval that she falls in love with him.
Let’s start with what Cher represents. She is a male fantasy and subjects to many fetishes. Cher is obsessed with how she looks. In the male gaze this is very important because if you are seeing a woman as an object, she must be a beautiful object. “The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness” (Mulvey, 837). In addition to this beautiful exterior, Cher also comes from a family of wealth. Although her father may be an intimidating lawyer, that means a life of ease for a future husband. In the film this is represented by her ex-stepbrother, Josh. Cher dwells on things that could satisfy a man’s fetish. In one scene she explains that they way to get the attention of a man is to draw attention to your mouth and show a little skin because that reminds him of sex. 
Cher also appears to the audience as an extremely unintelligent young woman. This quality makes her vulnerable. Cher would rely on a man to take care of her and steer her clear of right and wrong. We see an example of this when Cher takes her driver’s test. It is an utter disaster to say the least. However, the whole scene is supposed to be very comical. The audience is supposed to laugh at the fact that Cher cares more about her outfit and seeing herself in the car mirrors than actually learning how to driver and therefore becoming more self-sufficient. 
In the end, she fails the driving test. Cher’s counterpart is her ex-stepbrother Josh. Josh is in college and tries to get Cher interested in things like world politics and the U.S. economy. However this goes downhill pretty fast when Cher explains she would rather be at a party. Josh and Cher have very different ideas of what is considered cool.
In addition to gratifying the male fetish, Cher strives for their constant approval. When a new boy, Anthony, comes to her school Cher kills herself trying to win Anthony over. Cher decides that Anthony is the most fashionable and attractive man at her school therefore she needs to be his girlfriend so that she can also be at the top of the social pyramid. However Cher misses one giant piece of information, Anthony is gay. The audience watches Cher go crazy trying to find ways to make Anthony like her and gets seriously depressed when he doesn’t. 
The viewer watches Cher become extremely insecure and her sexy confidence fades within the blink of an eye. “…woman exists only as a sign that has meaning for men; in relation to herself she means nothing” (McCabe, 20). Without the approval of a man, Cher suddenly becomes nothing. Cher reaches for every desire she thinks a man would have: someone who smells nice, gives good massages, bakes well, and laughs at all his jokes. It’s really sad actually to watch Cher jump through these impossible hoops. “‘An idea of woman stands as lynch pin to the system,’ advocates Laura Mulvey: ‘[It] is her lack that produces the phallus as a symbolic presence, it is her desire to make good the lack that the phallus signifies,’” (McCabe, 28). Cher strives to make up for every flaw she might ever own, not stopping to think that her just being herself is good enough.
In the end although Cher is portrayed as beautiful independent woman, we find that her confidence to be such relies on the acceptance of the man. She indulges many fetishes and fantasies of the male idea of the perfect woman. She represents every stereotypical idea of the white woman: wealthy, beautiful, unintelligent, and deep down extremely insecure. The movie ends with Cher finally finding true happiness for herself when she wins the very strange love of her ex-stepbrother. This film sets women so far back in terms of independence and confidence. The male gaze should not still be so potently affecting the portrayal of women in film. Women have the ability to be independent and confident without any help from men at all, however this is never acknowledged in the film. I had wishful thinking that in the end Cher would live happily on her own, as a woman who doesn’t need a man and who is able to support herself without the help of her father or any other male. I had hoped that she would suddenly become an intelligent and philosophical woman, defying the stereotype of the basic white girl. Although then I need to remind myself of the answer to the question if Hollywood would ever do this: As if. 
Works Cited
McCabe, Janet. “Textual Negotiations: Female Spectatorship and Cultural Studies.” Writing Women into Cinema. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 37-65. Print.
Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Film: Psychology, Society, and Ideology. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 833-44. Print.
GWSS 3307 Feminist Film Studies 