hsm - the underlying issues.

look at the picture above. they're clearly very happy, with smiles and legs in the air. but are they really happy? how do we know that the clear issues that lie underneath the story of high school musical are not bugging them and those smiles are as fake as jordan's boobies?

the story of high school musical is one of old. the average boy meets girl story which outlines a basketball guy falling in love with the new girl, a geek. gabriella montez, who moved to east high at the start of the new semester, was a very bright and well educated girl. troy bolton was the basketball dude who just keep winning cup after cup for the wildcats, which is what coach bolton (also troy's father) wanted it to stay. but of course, seeing as this is disney and not the real world, the two fell in love and chaos erupted.

skater dudes felt they could talk to nerds. basketball players thought they could cook creme bruleé for aspiring actresses who had never spoken to them in their life. the gang weren't sticking to the status quo and that was bad.

during this story there were 6 original main characters - troy, ryan, sharpay, chad, taylor and gabriella. another two characters, kelsi and zeke, joined the main cast in high school musical two but weren't heavily involved in the storyline of the first film.

this promptly brings us to our first issue. in high school musical 3, there is a prom. troy obviously takes gabriella, chad takes taylor, zeke takes sharpay and ryan takes kelsi. anyone who has even taken a gander at the cover of the dvd's would recognise that ryan, as a character, is a wee bit effeminate.

which poses the question that probably all high school musicalers over the age of 14 have asked before - is ryan gay?

lucas grabeel, who plays ryan in all three films and is in the recent gay movie 'milk', recently explained in an interview that ryan was always in love with zeke. of course, with high school musical being disney, there could never be a gay couple in such a child-orientated film.

does this mean opression? or perhaps even a slight hint of mild homophobia? surely, whoever ryan loved he should have been able to at least go to prom with them. this is one of the issues that many people pass over once seeing high school musical.

from viewing the movie, most people can agree that coach bolton is pushy. when his son wants to win the basketball cup, he pushes him to the limit, which can be seen as a good thing in some ways. however, when his son wants to sing in the spring musicale, coach bolton forces him to basketball practice and doesn't accept troy's clear talent. he obviously believes troy's only talent should be basketball, since that is what will get him into the university coach bolton wishes him to go to. in high school musical 3, we see troy get a booklet for julliard. this time, his best friend chad oppresses him and pushes him further into basketball, where he clearly didn't want to go at that time.

other problems and issues such as obesity, racism, yet more homophobia, peer pressure and long-distance relationships occur throughout the film. maybe they were added in as a ploy to get children's minds running or 14 year old's writing blogs on green day websites.

all we can question really is the authenticity of the smiles that are printed practically all over the world.


thank you for listening to such important stuff.