Easy A: The Feminist

The movie, ‘Easy A’ is set in present day in Ojai, California. It tells the story of Olive Penderghast, a high school girl whose situation mirrors the novel, ‘The Scarlet Letter’ which is a reading assignment for her English class. She tells a lie to her best friend, Rhiannon, that she had sex with a boy from community college. This lie quickly spread throughout the school causing classmates to treat her differently; the boys wanted to date her and the girls treated her unkindly. Olive decided her best plan of action was to play up the role of a floozy, instead of defending herself against the lies. She began accepting money and gift cards from male students in exchange for perpetuating the rumors that she was having sexual relations with them. The boys utilized these false rumors in order to gain credibility and popularity and in the first instance, with Brandon, so he could divert rumors that he was gay (which he was). The storyline spirals into conflict with various individuals throughout the school leading Olive to conduct a video-cast explaining the truth of the
Obviously, the main character could not have been a man because society doesn’t treat sexually active men the same as they treat sexually active women. The boys in the movie paid Olive and gave her gift cards in exchange for the consent to spread false rumors. This was an endeavor intended to raise their social status and give them a “ladies’ man” reputation. On the other hand, Olive’s reputation suffered especially from fellow females. Treatment she received varied from dirty looks and name calling to a near sexual assault. There was even a protest with picketers and signs calling her names and bringing negative attention to