Cultural Analysis

Hairspray

The movie ¨Hairspray¨ was very popular when it came out in 1988, and blew up over the media when it came back in 2007. The movie is full of fun characters and songs, all exploiting the obvious signs of racism. The movie is based in Baltimore in 1962, when racism was at it´s peak in the United States. The main character, Tracy and her group of friends are some of the few high school students in their predominantly white school who believe segregation is wrong. The main issue of Hairspray is the racial segregation. The Civil Rights Act of 1960 was a time in America where the whites controlled the political system and social institutions, making it impossible for African American´s to live up to their full potential. The Corny Collins show, a popular TV time special that is shown in the movie, portrays the same idea. In the dancing show, they have a specific segment where the African American´s dance because they were never allowed to dance with the white people. There was even one instance where the white people stole one of their songs and tried to make it sound more Caucasian and friendly. My favorite scene in particular, is the scene where Tracy gets sent to detention. In this scene, it is very ironic that when she goes to the detention room, the only people in there are African American, and there are a lot of them. Although this seems like a punishment, all the African American´s in the room were used to it, almost as if they got sent there everyday. They sing and dance the whole time. When Tracy and her friends try to join in, they are unsure at first, and then accepting of who they are, which is not what the white people would have done. Eventually, Tracy gets the people at the Corny Collins show to warm up to the idea of mixing both races and dancing together. It creates a positive outcome, but not from everyone. The moral of the story is we make progress, but we have yet to reach our final goal. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0Dxsmk-EZ8 (Detention scene)