In the popular Netflix series “Thirteen Reasons Why”, a beautiful young girl named Hannah Baker leaves behind thirteen audiotapes before she commits suicide, with each tape addressed to a specific person and explaining how that individual played a role in her death. The main reasons for her death were because of constantly being bullied, harassed, and self-hate.
Throughout the first and second seasons, Hannah Baker struggle with her self-esteem. Adolescence wasn’t an easy stage for her. Like every other teenage kid, high school was a big deal. It’s where you relate and connect with people, try to fit in and be accepted, and try to discover who you are. Hannah like everyone else starts to become interested in boys. She wants to make friends and adapt to her new school. In season 1, episode 1, Hannah immediately locked eyes with Justin Foley instantly attracted to him. After exchanging numbers, they decided to meet at a nearby park. Where they played, laughed, and talked on the playground and Hannah received her first kiss from Justin. The next day, Justin was showing his friends a picture he took of Hannah while she was on the slide, and her skirt flew up. Bryce Walker, Justin’s friend, snatched Justin’s phone from him and mass texts the up-skirt picture of Hannah to everyone in the entire school. Hannah was heartbroken. She felt alone, isolated, and became severely depressed. Throughout the episodes, we see Hannah face consequences by being repeatedly groped by the boys. Derogatory names like “slut” and “whore” were projected towards her. She cuts her long brown beautiful hair into a bob during summer break in order to get a fresh start before junior year. The image others created of her led Hannah decided she didn’t want her hair any longer solely to represent her past experiences. She began to feel like she actually has a fresh start. Hannah’s actions refer to a concept known as Gender Expression. Gender expression is how an individual outwardly shows their identity whether it’s through clothing, hairstyle, makeup, etc. The traumatic experiences that Hannah went through can also be empowering for women to cut their hair as a part of the coming-out process, just as a way to present themselves, that feels closer to who they are.
As the tapes proceed Hannah Baker was not only bullied but sexually assaulted. We not only see this with Hannah but also with two of her other friends, Tyler Down and Jessica Davis. In season 1, episode 9, Jessica throws her end of the year party, Hannah doesn’t want to attend but she only goes because Clay Jensen is going. Going back to the party, Hannah was looking for the restroom and stumbled upon Jessica’s bedroom. As Justin exits, he bumps into Bryce, Bryce forces his way into Jessica’s room drunk telling Justin, “What’s yours is mine”. Bryce then forcefully to rape Jessica, helplessly. After witnessing the rape of Jessica, in season 1, episode 12, Hannah reveals Bryce raped her in the hot tub during another party. Throughout the first and second seasons, the boy’s baseball team is known as the “JOCKS” of the school. From Bryce’s behavior in the shows portray the Toxic masculinity of men.
Toxic masculinity is telling men not to express their emotions or making anger the only acceptable masculine emotion. By defining “manliness” as being violent or treating women like objects. The form of sexual assault both Hannah and Jessica experienced was all emotional, sexual, and physical violence. Bryce allowed inflicting his command on his prey in an agonizing way. We need to stop placing boys into a box that keeps them “tough, insensitive, and violent” to prove their manhood. We also need to keep girls out of the box that reduces their bodies into objects. Hannah and Jessica weren’t the only ones who experienced traumatic events but also Tyler Down. Montgomery de la Cruz (aka Monty) was also a jock and idolized Bryce as his brother. Monty was naturally violent, mainly because he had an extremely abusive father. In season 2, episode 13, Monty confronts Tyler in boy’s bathroom about an issue. Monty then begins to feel rage and smashes Tyler’s head against the mirror and dunks his head into a toilet. Monty then takes the end of a broom and brutally sodomizes Tyler as he screams out in pain. Monty leaves Tyler lying on the bathroom floor hurt and bleed. Monty is homosexual but no one knows until season 3. Monty creates this barricade of feelings towards his sexuality because he portrayed himself as a tall and strong man e and does not want to be judged for being “gay”. Monty not only is a bully but inflicts pain on others to hide who he really is. The image Monty portrays was developed through his father. The violence his dad presented was toxic masculinity and expected his son to be exactly like that. Someone who doesn’t display emotions but only toughness.
In “Thirteen Reasons Why”, socialization plays an important aspect in each and every character. The group of friends always has each other backs but sometimes out casters influence their behavior based on gossip. Throughout the seasons, the gossips among the students tend to get intense, to have them turn on one another. In season 2, episode 2, Courtney and Hannah share an intimate moment, that Courtney initiated. A photo was taken by Tyler at that moment and released to the school. Monty also played a role in spreading the rumors about Hannah and Courtney kiss. When Monty confronts Courtney that she is one of the girls in the picture, Courtney is afraid to admit she’s lesbian and throws Hannah under the bus to protect her image. All of these scenarios that take part in the series are based upon one’s actions. Sometimes in an act, we don’t think of the consequences and when it’s time to fix a dilemma. Instead of performing the ethical act, we ponder upon how others would view you in a situation and create a sustainable image for yourself. Socialization is the process of learning to behave in a way that is acceptable in society.
As the tapes proceed it way down from one person to the next, we see numerous events of bullying, sexual violence, gossips, and objectification. “Thirteen Reason Why” was made to display the life of high school students facing these matters. It shows us that the dominant masculinities demonstrated throughout the series still play a role in how young men interact with their peers and girls. Also, girls are expected to be spontaneous and attractive. “Thirteen Reason Why” demonstrates a numerous topic that any individual in high school might be going through.
Hello Meghan,
I really had enjoyed your discussion and in this draft too. You have clearly explained how an innocent girl loses her life because of her friends who are not supportive and are a bully. Also, the paragraph that you have mentioned about socialization, I would also add, peer pressure among those teens, who wanted to be cool and be the part of the group who is famous in the school and no one being very supportive of Poor Hannah who had no choice than commit suicide.
Hello Megan,
I liked your explanation and how defined each steps of Hannah’s life into perspective and it’s related to gender and society influences our gender and behavior.”Gender expression is how an individual outwardly shows their identity whether it’s through clothing, hairstyle, makeup, etc. The traumatic experiences”. I also think that traumatic experience has the most impact on gender expression and how we value life. If there is no family and or social support it will be hard to survive in this demanding world.
Your description of the show and the use of theories is a correct application. However, the paper needs to be more organized and structured. I suggest a good edit, and the addition of a clear introduction and conclusion that preview and summarize your essay respectively. Here are some suggestions.
More paragraph breaks in your descriptions of the show and/or more signposts. Right now it is rambling with run-on sentences. While it conveys an excitement about the show, I am trying to figure out why I need to know all of this – because it is A LOT of information.
One option would be to weave in the theories as a way to break up the description and connect us clearly to your analysis. Toxic Masculinity is the first place you sort of do this. Start a new paragraph somewhere in there and take a few sentences to include a direct quote from the course readings that define this term.
Alternatively, you could reorganize the paper by theory: Gender Expression; Toxic Masculinity; and socialization are the three I think you use. You could also define these and highlight them more with reference to course readings.
One last note. In the intro, you reference the novel, but the essay is about the show. Please make that clear.
Hello Megan M. Ramdin, “13 Reasons Why” is one of my favorite show and I like Jessica Davis who is one of the main characters of the show because she becomes a spoke person for women after being rape by Bryce Walker. she shows me how the feminist movement was created and why it existed by women lived experience like her. If society was treating women right we won’t need to have a movement like that.
Hi Megan I learned a lot about how the show addresses current problems in our society. It is interesting to see how one thing leads to the other, when Hannah finally felt a little better she was attacked for something else. This shows how everything is correlated, somehow gender expression can affect gender roles, etc. You used the examples of the show well to explain this connection.
Hi Megan,
I enjoyed reading your post, the way that you explained it was completely clear, and the way you showed everything that Hannah went through it explains our reality in society. It is sad to see how people enjoy gossiping, creating rumors knowing deep down that it is not right to do that and that you are hurting somebody else’s feelings, putting an innocent soul in a position where they don’t even want to live life anymore. I can speak for myself about that, back in high school I was bullied, people created a bunch of rumors making me not wanting to go to school anymore but to cry all day in my bed because I got to a point where I was believing what people had to say about me.
Hello Megan
Thank you for sharing. This show was one of my favorites and honestly, everything that happened truly explains what most girls go through. Bryce did whatever he wanted because in a way he knew he wouldn’t get in trouble. Not only did he rape Jessica and Hannah but correct me if I am wrong since I have not watched the show I a while but he also forced his girlfriend to have sexual intercourse with him even if she didn’t want to. He’s privilege of being of a wealthy family made him believe that he was able to do whatever he wanted. Overall I enjoyed reading your draft.
Hello Megan,
I have never read the book “13 Reason’s Why,” but I do love the show. I think the show gives many examples of gender concepts and even how some people are more privileged than others. Overall, I think you have a great draft with a lot of meaningful facts.