still thinking about how the moral of high school musical 2 is class solidarity: a thread

the arc of the wildcats all getting summer jobs at sharpay’s country club and troy getting special treatment leading to alienation from his friends is easy enough, but this quick explanation doesn’t do justice to the intricacies that got us there

we have a slow build where troy enters into the wealthy world due to the favor of sharpay: first one hole of golf with her parents, then free dinner, scholarship talk, an offer to scrimmage with the U of A redhawks, an unearned promotion— all typical

the breakdown of the movie begins with gabriella breaking up with troy in “gotta go my own way.” G tells T that this new him with italian golf shoes isn’t the boy she fell in love with, that he’s lost himself. she sings:

G knows that the country club isn’t her world — or the world of the wildcats — and she lets T know that by making this choice he has to say goodbye to her. G chooses her people over the promises of wealth.

this leads us to the memeable “bet on it,” where T works out what really matters to him. from the beginning with:

to when he asks himself “am I the type of guy who means what I say?” and then realizes “I don't wanna win this game if I can't play it my way” and finally ending on:

troy comes to the realization that his happiness won’t ever come from schmoozy dinners or networked basketball scholarships or even a $500/wk (in 2007 money!) golf tutoring job — not if they come at the expense of stepping on his equally deserving friends

there’s a soft culmination of this in “everyday,” which starts with the reconciliation of G and T and ends with all the wildcats joining in. they sing:

there also might be something to the dual meaning of everyday, which is notably stylized as one word. so there’s the sung meaning that they’re going to live every day of their youthful lives joyfully and hopefully, but also—

—something to the “everyday-ness” of their realities. for them, it’s not about country club spas or climbing the ladder. they find their happiness in each other

but the obvious culmination is in the epilogue song “all for one,” which is also about that same coming together and having fun. notably sharpay is also in this number. they sing:

I guess the thought here is that sharpay learned her lesson — if she alienates the cool poor people, she’ll end up with nothing? sure. but there’s also something to the repetition of these lines in “all for one”:

this implies not only a theme of class solidarity, but of the dream of a classless society, where no one has to work for sharpay and they can all enjoy each other’s company in harmony. there also might be something interesting here—

—in how this all takes place in the unreality of a country club in the middle of nowhere, a speck of green in a vast expanse of red rock. can these ideals ever hold in the real world of east high? I will probably not be watching HSM3 to find out lol

and then of course we have to get into ryan’s character arc! ryan represents an interesting dynamic of the exclusivity of the wealthy world — if someone enters, someone else must leave to maintain its desirability

so when T comes into the picture, R has to go. he is mercifully taken in by G and monique, who invite him to the staff baseball game — notably, he says he wasn’t invited because he’s not staff, and G said “everyone is invited.” exclusivity vs inclusivity!

R ultimately helps the wildcats put together a staff number for the talent show, which angers sharpay despite the fact that she kicked him out of their world. leading to this incredible exchange:

king shit ryan!!!

SO THAT’S ALL FINE. but there’s also more than just a straight rich/poor dynamic. troy and his friends are set up in opposition to the adults in the film, namely mr. fulton and and coach bolton.

mr. fulton is the obvious enemy here, not as outwardly malicious as sharpay, but he has kind of a punchable face and an unpleasant demeanor. we learn in this scene that he represents what happens when you fully abandon your class for the upper echelons:

but it’s not just fulton. when T opens up to his dad about how weird it felt to have his friends wait on him while he got pulled into free dinner and scholarship talk, his dad responds:

coach bolton is clearly advocating for the old ideal of taking whatever chance you get to abandon your class and join the wealthy. this creates an added interesting layer about how we can’t look to older adults to save us: they’re too far gone in that mentality—

—sort of like when people who’ve already paid off their student loans advocate against eliminating student debt. the bitterness of having played the game, even unsuccessfully, for so long leads one to hold the palace doors closed for the wealthy. pick me culture!

and I mean, you have to understand that disney movies are always living with a foot in the world of propaganda. here’s a way more innocuous example from HSM2 that’s clearly, in its absurdity, trying to promote healthy eating in kids:

so like, is it really that much of a stretch to say that kenny ortega is a communist? like, maybe not!

anyway, it’s embarrassing how long this thread is. I haven’t even had breakfast or coffee lmao. I also can’t stop thinking about this: