10 Things I Hate About You (But Still Loved About This Movie)
There are not many movies that exist within my mind as a perfect entity. But 10 Things I Hate About You is one of them. I remember reading The Taming of the Shrew in 9th grade English class and I straight up said to Mrs. Dolan - yo William Shakespeare is a MISOGYNIST. A headstrong woman does not need to be brought to heel!!!! I mean, everybody in Willy's day and age was a misogynist I GUESS, but still. Why are being taught that bitchy women need to be less bitchy and that a man can liberate us from our bitchiness? Sighhhhhh. In case you didn't know, 10 Things I Hate About You is a common re-telling of The Taming of the Shrew, with other Shakespeare Easter eggs thrown in.
While I know re-watching one of my favorite teen movies of all time at 25 might be setting myself up for a depressive episode, Suz at @suzandbrews suggested it and I can't turn down a dare. And it's intriguing to see how far our brains have expanded in ten years. I'm HOPING that the majority of the movie holds up, but only time shall tell. It's only been a couple of years I think since I rewatched it (I own it), but still, I feel like bookstagram has taught me a lot over the past 3 years of being a part of the community. And while change is often slow, sometimes how far you've come surprises you. Let's dig in.
We start off with an aerial view of the city setting with one of the best jams of the century, One Week by Barenaked Ladies which is my go-to karaoke song after Salt N Pepa's None of Your Business. Sometimes I also get drunk by myself and sing it to my computer, like below, EL OH EL. Singing this song produces so much saliva in your mouth, WOW.
Link to Video: Maggie Embarrassing Herself with a MAJOR Double Chin But Still Looking Sexy in a Target Headband Badly Singing LEGENDS!!!!!!!
Ok, sorry, back to the movie! Girls are trying to jam out to Barenaked Ladies and Kat drives up listening to Bad Reputation by Joan Jett with a crimpy high ponytail in a camo tank. What a baddie.
Then we are introduced to lil baby Joseph Gordon Levitt!!! OH MY GOD HE IS SO CUTE. One time, no lie, I was in a Lyft in New York City and my Lyft driver almost ran him over and he honest to God pretended nothing happened and just kept crossing the street. It was amazing.
*back to movie* In walks Patrick Veronia, aka HEATH LEDGER. May he rest in paradise. He is so dreamy. His cute freckles. Aw.
But our lovely hero (?) of the story is in the office because he flashed his "bratwurst" to the lunch lady. Ew Heath! Who do you think you are, Louis CK? At least it gave the office lady a vocabulary word for her erotic novel? Do not ever subject the innocent lunch lady to your awkward and disgusting sex jokes involving a penis-shaped food ever again. Jesus. Why do we even have to keep saying this?
Cafeteria showing all the segregated groups of identities. Isn't this overdone in movies like this? I don't think the world is really like this? At least it wasn't at my high school to this extent? No one is original anymore. White Rastas..... oh my god. Please let me live my life without ever seeing white people in dreads ever again!
Bianca shows up to slow-mo music and we get our first Shakespeare line "I burn, I pine, I perish," from Joseph. White male writers...............b o r i n g.
Kat agrees. Because. KAT CALLED HEMINGWAY AN ABUSIVE ALCOHOLIC MISOGYNIST WHO SQUANDERED HALF HIS LIFE HANGING AROUND PICASSO TO HIT HIS LEFTOVERS.
And, and and!
^ THIS. Kat calls out the issue with only reading white male authors in school. BUT. She still only listed white ladies as her female authors, so does Kat maybe need to work on her intersectional feminism? HMMMMMM. I know we are supposed to hate her teacher, but he had valid points talking about her oppression as a upper class white woman isn't comparable to his oppression as a black man. Damn, this movie was so ahead of its time!
She redeems herself later when she's getting scolded for assaulting a fellow male student who harassed her and says "I still maintain that he kicked himself in the balls,"
and smiles when she is referred to a heinous bitch. I aspire to be that cool!
Next, Gabrielle Union, the second (and last) black person in this movie, says the line "I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?" and Bianca says "I think you can in Europe." I was like "wow, they be makin these girls dumb dumb." But then I actually wanted to know, and in reality, I'm the dumb dumb. YOU CAN BE WHELMED. LOOK AT MTV DOING REAL INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM:
Next up, we are introduced to Kat and Bianca's father. GOD, what a LOSER. There is nothing I hate more than a dad who claims ownership and autonomy over their own bodies and dating lives. At the end of their father agreeing that Bianca can date once Kat stops dating by projecting his own insecurities as a man onto them, Bianca throws out the word 'retard' when she says to Kat "Can't you find some blind, deaf retard to take to the movies so I can go on one date?" and I sink really low into my pillow fort for the first time. First off all, blind people date. Deaf people date. And "retarded," which is now referred to as an intellectually disabled, people also date. And this is a horrible line. But, before all this problematic drama, we are given one of my favorite lines in all of cinematic history:
So, after Bianca learns that she can only date once her sister dates, the next day at school Cameron musters up the courage to ask Bianca out (this is really impressive because I never would have had the guts to be this up front in high school).
Bianca says "UGH NO," I can't date until my bitch of a sister dates. Ladies, let's not talk this way about our friends and family who are female. We are allowed to say this about each other in an ironic way, but do not give men the okay that they can speak of us in these terms. Cameron says "Some men like dating difficult women, it's comparable to jumping out of airplanes and skiing off cliffs." .............what? No, it's not. It's comparable to treating someone who demands respect and equality.............with respect and equality. It is not comparable to skydiving (which I have done and it is very badass). The men screaming in the next scene when tasked with potentially dating Kat shows that men truly want to put in minimal effort into their relationships and never want a woman who is truly up to their intellectual and professional level. LOL. LOSERS.
Cameron thinks he's being smart and includes Joey (who also wants to date Bianca) and hires Patrick to date her. For a measly. fifty. bucks. I like to think that I would have a much higher price tag than that.
She gives these great one-liners.
AND THEN SHE RUNS OVER JOEY'S CAR. Which honestly gave me a heart attack, because I was like "CAR INSURANCE?!?" but it was fabulous. Patrick ups the price to $100 and still I'm like...........I spent that much at Target last week on headbands?
Cameron and Bianca snoop through Kat's things to discover the inner workings of her mind and that is so GROSS! Imagine somebody sneaking through your drawers. Ugh, I hate it. I also hate Patrick going to Club Skunk (quite clearly a place where women are able to escape gross men from hitting on them as they try to enjoy their favorite bands). But, bad feminist me loves when he screams "you dancing out there is the sexiest I've ever seen you" as the music stops and the entire club hears him and we get this smile.
Has anyone ever been to a party in high school as big as Bogey Lowenstin? With a DJ? And kegs? Do you know how hard it is to get a keg of beer now? ID, security deposit, 8 years of renter's insurance and your mother's soul?
Kat getting drunk on tequila and dancing on a table rather than admitting to her sister that she slept with Joey last year because she fell for his schmooze and charm is so relatable. How many times have we beat ourselves up for the way we've let men treat us? And it's really hard to admit that we let someone take advantage of us. This part is actually really sad and showcases Kat and her vulnerability through the shield she has depicted up until now. And as she starts to open up about this betrayal, she is openly being manipulated again by Patrick. Why are men the way that they are? And we are still supposed to be sympathetic to Patrick in this moment because he CARES SO MUCH WHEN SHE FALLS ASLEEP WHEN SHE COULD HAVE A DRUNK CONCUSSION. And it's like....she's drunk because a man fucked her over? And you are doing the same thing? But great that she noticed that Patrick has a little green in her eyes.
Bianca is a BUTTHEAD, but Cameron displayed MANY "nice guy" vibes during his car scene with her and it was?????????? gross???????? "I LEARNED FRENCH FOR YOU BIANCA!!!!!" Yeah, Cameron, one time I forced myself to like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia because my college half boyfriend liked it but I didn't expect it to get me dicked down. Damn. If you don't know what a "nice guy" is, I encourage you to hit this reddit sub:
I am incredibly proud that Patrick did not kiss Kat while she was incredibly intoxicated, but her anger over it gave us THIS INTERACTION. PERFECTION.
and Heath Ledger singing in a soccer stadium with a full band? What the fUCK?!?!? This is why I am single. Solely because a man has never done this. This is the standard. I will never marry a man who hasn't done this while simultaneously running away from security guards who haven't ran the mile since high school (me either, pal). If a man did this, I would undoubtedly flash the teacher in detention to get him out. It's only fair! And when Patrick asks Kat how she distracted the teacher to get him out of detention and she delivers "I distracted him with my........wits." Because wits rhymes with tits! Get it? HA!
"Why should I live up to people's expectations over my own?" Kat explains to Patrick as to why she is the way she is before they go to throw paint on each other and make out in a bale of hay.They definitely got paint in their mouths right? That's dangerous? I hope it didn't have lead in it.
As they are sitting on her porch and Patrick is asking for prom and she's questioning his motives and he yells at her that she needs to go to therapy because OBVIOUSLY he just wants to enjoy the pleasure of her company at prom and isn't in it for ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS. We call this GASLIGHTING folks!!!!! Kat was right to trust her gut and this man called her hysterical! The only sweet man thus far in this movie is William who bought Kat's friend (what's her name? honestly don't know) a Shakeperean dress.
AND HERE WE ARE. AT THE PROM. And the only time in the entire movie where I liked Bianca because she punches Joey multiple times in the face and kicks him in the balls.
"I didn't care about the money, I cared about you!" Patrick screams as he forcefully kisses her because that's a move that men do to get women to stop angry talking. Yikes. Fast forward to a nice talk from Kat's dad to English class and we get to the movie's pivotal moment.
Even though this movie has had problematic moments and Patrick doesn't deserve Kat's love, OF COURSE THIS POEM STILL MAKES ME CRY. Get Julia Stiles an Oscar.
Patrick buys her a guitar and ALL IS RIGHT IN THE WORLD. Let's just forgive all the lying, the manipulation, emotional abuse, and gaslighting. At least she can start a band now! I will add that ever since I was in middle school I have dreamed of having hair long enough to look like Kat's braid in this final scene. As Patrick forcefully kisses her again to make her stop talking.
Hahaha okay I'm done. Is this movie bad? Yes. It has its moments. Is it still my favorite of all time? Yes, yes it is.
Comments
I can't figure out if it's trying to be a feminist film or not! Most of the men are portrayed as controlling assholes in some variety, but then Kat is portrayed more negatively when she's being a more aggressive feminist, so it felt like the movie was trying to stigmatize that, and say she needs to become kinder and more forgiving of men's faults. Then her sister does the opposite and kicks Joey in the balls, which he absolutely deserved. But that's confusing, because that's what Kat would've done back at the start of the movie (and did kick a guy offscreen as you pointed out), so it feels like their character arcs are a bit contradictory! Does that make sense?