7 Reasons Cher Horowitz is the Hero We Need in These Trying Times
‘Clueless’ is so much more than a cult classic teen comedy
True fans of Clueless have always known that the film is forward-thinking and feminist. In the twenty-two years since its release, Clueless has only grown in stature and cultural relevance. Here are just a few of the reasons Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) is the hero we need right now.
She has no interest in drama
Cher tolerates her friend Dion’s (Stacey Dash) relationship drama but has no interest in getting involved in a Burton-Taylor style romance. Moreover, she goes out of her way not to start drama with her friends or acquaintances despite maintaining a casually bitchy relationship with Amber (Elisa Donovan); even in her case, all the sniping between the two is out in the open. Cher never trash talks anyone behind their back or insinuates herself into anyone else’s drama — pretty mature for a sixteen-year-old.
She cares about her grades
True, her main motivation for getting As is to prevent her dad (Dan Hedaya) from going “ballistic.” But Cher is also refreshingly free of the teenage prejudice against book smarts as “uncool.” She may prefer arguing her way to an A over earning it outright, but she’s still willing to work for it just the same. And as certain characters start having a good influence on her, she begins caring about knowledge and intellectual pursuits for their own sake.
She lectures Tai about drugs
True, she lectures Tai (Brittany Murphy) about a lot of things, including how much midriff to show and which of the boys at their school are acceptable to date. But Cher’s tone becomes endearingly stern when she realizes Tai has been casually abusing harder drugs and staying baked as much as possible on school days. Cher proves pretty flexible on some of her other beliefs, but not this one. She’s aware of both the short-term and the long-term consequences of drug use and she’s not about to let her protégé fall victim to them.
She’s not apologetic or embarrassed about being a virgin
One of the traits that makes Cher such a good role model is her refusal to be swayed from her high standards regarding sex. As she explains to Tai and Dion, “you’ve seen how picky I am about my shoes, and those only go on my feet.” True, Cher is in the enviable position of being able to help set the tone for what’s cool and what’s not at her school. But she also illustrates an important point that gets lost on many teenagers (and adults): that no one can make you feel bad or embarrassed about your choices unless you let them.
She uses the scientific method
Cher begins with a problem (her bad grade in Debate) and a hypothesis for how to solve this problem (make her misanthropic teacher happy). She tries this hypothesis and it works, and so she begins trying to solve other problems the same way. When her theory finally fails her and she’s forced to consider its infallibility (and her own), she’s willing to entertain the possibility that she was wrong about something and that people can’t always be coached and groomed toward a specific goal. Being willing to change her hypothesis when the facts no longer support it and try a new one instead puts Cher ahead of half the people in Congress, in terms of critical thinking.
She’s willing to change
I alluded to this earlier, but Cher’s willingness to change her behavior is one of her most endearing qualities. She’s aware of the effect her actions have on other people, and when she realizes she’s affecting their lives negatively, she’s genuinely chastened and upset. Even though Tai is the instigator of their fight and the one who says by far the most hurtful thing (“you’re a virgin who can’t drive”), Cher is crushed by the idea that she has hurt her new friend. Cher also considers her actions in a new light when she realizes she’s in love with Josh (Paul Rudd), the ultimate do-gooder. She doesn’t change for Josh, so much as she starts trying to be a better version of herself. Realizing that she’s in love with Josh is a big step, since she has always thought of him as the embodiment of everything uncool — his taste in music, clothes, dance moves, and reading material has always been highly objectionable to her. But as she grows up during the course of the film, she begins to realize his good qualities outweigh his superficially lame ones.
She speaks up — loudly — in defense of her own body
When Cher walks up the sidewalk to her school and a boy casually drapes himself over her, she shoves him away hard and yells “as if!” in his wake. If this was the only instance of her protecting herself, it would still be great, but she also has to fend off the advances of her erstwhile friend Elton (Jeremy Sisto), who won’t take no for an answer even when she repeatedly pushes him away and tells him to stop. She’s not persuaded by Elton’s snobby appeal to her rich family being a good fit for his own, or shamed by his assertion that she’s been “flirting with [him] all semester.” She also doesn’t downplay his actions later, telling Josh on the phone that her ride “attacked” her. It’s depressingly rare for teenage girls to feel in control of their own bodies or feel that they have the right to defend themselves against men, which is all the more reason we need to more depictions of young women taking control of their bodily autonomy.
The fact that Cher embodies so many aspects of our current efforts to secure education, medical care, and equal pay for women shows how forward-thinking director Amy Heckerling was. The outfits and lingo of Clueless may be an amusing time capsule of the mid 90s, but the characters are timeless — after all, the story was inspired by Jane Austen’s Emma. In the decades since its release, Clueless has risen to cult favorite status, and with good reason — Cher has a lot to teach us, now more than ever.
