Recently, a flood of movies have entered the box office, including a new  favorite among teenagers, The Duff. It is a typical  high school movie with a taste of drama dipped in comedy that teenagers can especially relate to.  The movie definitely has the jokes and atmosphere of a normal high school.

Actress Mae Whitman was excellent at portraying her character, Bianca, a common high school girl. Whitman may be 26, but pulls off the high school role nicely. The character could be viewed as an inspiration in positive ways because other people have endured embarrassment and self-esteem problems. There were, however, cheesy moments that make it difficult to actually picture certain events in a real life scenario. Although there were moments that helped girls see how their self esteem could be boosted, many of the sexual comments made it seem that girls should focus on their appearance if they want to be liked. The school’s confident Mr. Popular, Wesley, played by Amell Robbie, shows Bianca what she should wear and comments on her body. Do we really want girls to be self-conscious about what they wear because they want to be liked?

The movie was amusing, especially for teenagers who understand the modern  humor. However, all the jokes and sexual references are unnecessary for do not need to be heard or seen by a thirteen year old.

Imagine watching the opening scene where the female characters are introduced strutting down the hallway. While they do so, high school guys check them out and say “I would bang her because…”. The audience snickers at the boys’ comments and for a second it seems funny. Then the realization dawns: there are 12 year old boys and girls in the theater, sitting with their moms. Are these the sort of freshmen we want in the next couple of  years? Do we need more teenage boys objectifying women? The way the boys view girls can make it struggling for girls to like themselves knowing that they are being judged.

Just because a movie is rated PG-13, does not mean that junior high or even high school aged teenagers should be encouraged  to laugh or follow ways that movie producers portray high schools in movies. Sure, the movie seemed funny and “is just like high school” but it does not mean we need to see it in our movies. In the movie, there was a humorous part with “un-friending” people from social media websites which provided some much-needed clean humor. However, the majority of the movie pushed for a funny that honesty should not always be mentioned to laugh about. Even adults think the scenes can be funny and may ignore the inappropriate jokes, but some content was simply not needed.

The film was okay: not the best, not the worst. If people are concerned with foul language and crude references, then this movie is not for them. On the other hand, if one is fine with an unrealistically happy ending and ignoring the blatant pornographic jokes, The Duff will be  appealing to them.