Things You Only Notice About 10 Things I Hate About You As An Adult
Possibly the greatest teen movie of the decade, 10 Things I Hate About You is the perfect 90s time capsule. Watching the movie, originally released in 1999, as an adult is a true blast from the past. The clothes! The music! The teen drama! There's just so much to love. In many ways, the film is even more perfect now than when it first came out. It's also easier as an adult to appreciate the fact that 10 Things I Hate About You was based off of Shakespeare's play, The Taming of the Shrew. Of course, not everything about the movie is great, and, while the good parts are better than ever, the bad parts are also worse.
The Bard would have been pleased with this sexual innuendo
This is just one of those small bits of Shakespeare-related humor in the movie that probably went over your head if you were a kid the first time you watched 10 Things I Hate About You. Shakespeare's is one of the greatest wordsmiths to have ever lived, but even he wasn't averse to puns and dirty jokes. His bawdy sense of humor is well documented. The Bard no doubt would have appreciated a male member being referred to as a "bratwurst."
This teacher needs to find another career
Everyone gets frustrated at work at some point or another, but this teacher takes it to a whole new level. Calling out your students on their shenanigans is one thing, but going on a rant against them because of their skin color? Not acceptable. It's also not okay to kick students out of the classroom simply because you are having a bad day. Why is this guy even a teacher? He clearly doesn't enjoy it and the pay isn't even good.
You really can be whelmed in Europe
It's well-established that Bianca and Chastity aren't exactly the brightest characters, especially at the beginning of the movie. At one point, Chastity says, "I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?" Bianca's casual reply "I think you can in Europe," is one of the film's most quotable one-liners.
It turns out that Bianca, though she sounds like she doesn't know what she's talking about, is actually dropping some knowledge. MTV News spoke to Kory Stamper, an associate editor at Merriam-Webster, who revealed that you really can be whelmed at Europe.
The word "whelm" dates back to the 1300s, and originally meant to turn something over. It eventually evolved to mean "placing or throwing something over something else with the intent to engulf it or crush it." While the term has become archaic and is now synonymous with "overwhelmed," a few centuries ago many, many people in Europe would have been whelmed on a regular basis.
The names in the movie are full of Shakespeare references
The Stratford sisters, Kat and Bianca, are based off of the original characters of Katherina and Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew. Their last name, however, is an homage to Stratford-upon-Avon, where Shakespeare was born. Their school, Padua High, is a reference to Padua, the setting of the play. Patrick's last name, Verona, is a reference to the setting of another Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet.
Dr. Stratford is incredibly sexist
It's pretty clear that Dr. Stratford is out of his element when dealing with his daughters. He's overprotective, even to the point of trying to control where his daughter goes off to college. One of the most disturbing scenes, however, is the one where he berates his daughter for backing into another car on purpose. He's understandably upset, but to accuse her of having PMS is incredibly misogynistic.
The source material the film draws on also has some chauvinistic themes, but it was written in a time when women had far fewer rights. Outright sexism is expected in a play written at a time when women, and their property, belonged first to their fathers and then to their husbands. To include such blatant sexism in a movie that came out at the dawn of a new millennium is alarming and, frankly, unacceptable.
Abstinence-only education is not effective
One of the ways that Dr. Stratford controls his daughters is by preventing them from dating. In his world, dating will inevitably lead to sex and teenage pregnancy. His solution is to keep his daughters from having a social life. Not only is his attitude completely archaic and sexist, but his method of abstinence-only education isn't actually effective. Studies have shown that abstinence-only programs don't actually reduce the number of teen pregnancies. Dr. Stratford would be far better off teaching his children about safer sex methods.
No one in the marching band is using sheet music
Heath Ledger singing "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" is one of the most memorable scenes of this movie, if not his career. It seems a little strange, though, that no one in the marching band that is backing him up is using sheet music. Are we supposed to believe that a bunch of high school kids conveniently had this song memorized and ready to play at a moment's notice? They sound pretty polished for a group performing an impromptu number.
The staff at this school clearly does not care what goes on
For a school that will send out security guards to stop someone singing, it seems remarkably lax in other areas. It's probably safe to say that nudity isn't allowed on campus, and yet nothing happens when Kat flashes a teacher. You'd think that, in a school where getting on a teacher's nerves is enough to send you to the principal's office, that she'd at least get detention for this — but nothing happens.
Bianca isn't wearing an arm guard in the archery scene
Anyone who has ever tried archery knows just how much it can hurt when that string comes back and hits your arm. Bianca, however, doesn't bother to wear an arm guard, which is a pretty standard accessory for archers. Sure, it's possible that she's an expert archer and doesn't need protection, but this is pretty doubtful since she manages to send an arrow flying at someone. Fortunately, this is just a movie and Bianca doesn't get hurt. In real life, however, Bianca would probably be sporting a major bruise at the prom after shooting a few arrows.
Kat's poem is definitely not a sonnet
When Kat's class is assigned to write their own versions of one of Shakespeare's sonnets, Kat comes up with a poem that is far from a sonnet. In her defense, when she asks if the poem should be in iambic pentameter, the teacher kicks her out of the classroom (yet another example of his terrible teaching style).
Still, given Kat's attention to detail, you'd think she'd churn out a perfect Shakespearean sonnet in iambic pentameter, but she doesn't do this. Instead, she writes a poem that, far from having the ten syllables per line that iambic pentameter dictates, seems to have a random number of syllables in each line. It's not even written iambically, which would require an unstressed syllable to followed by a stressed syllable for each syllable of the poem.
Kat and Patrick have a doomed relationship
By the end of the movie, Kat and Patrick seem to be destined to live happily ever after. But how long can their relationship really last? They clearly have different work ethics. Kat will soon be heading across the country to college, and with all of the classes Patrick skips, who knows if he will even graduate? Even if they can overcome the distance, the fact that their relationship is based on lies does not bode well for their future.