Stereotypes In High School Musical

Stereotypes exist all around the world, whether it be race based or gender based; there is a vast majority of stereotypes for every category of people under the sun. Gender role stereotypes are seen throughout one’s life, beginning maybe even before one is five and leads all the way up to adulthood (Harrison, 2017). One place that most kids can probably say they have faced some of these stigmas are in the halls of a high school. In the Disney Channel’s original movie, High School Musical, the main characters, Gabriella and Troy face these stereotypes throughout their journey of attempting to break out of their normal cliques. For the purpose of this paper, the three cliques witnessed throughout the movie are the jocks, the drama club, and the scholastic club. Throughout the movie,

Troy is seen to be the all-star basketball player at East High, while Gabriella is the nerdy, shy girl who moves from school to school. A high school boy that looks and acts like Troy Bolton is presumed to be the jock, the guy every girl wants, and the all-around most popular kid based on gender role stereotypes that would fit for a male his age with his background. Deep down, Troy shows that he is a sweet guy who actually has a killer singing voice and who wants to be more than what other people perceive him as, but it is extremely hard for him to break the barriers that society has given him. Gabriela Montez, the female main character, is revealed to her new classmates as a genius, and as soon as this occurred she was expected to join mathletes and to only hang out with the smart kids, thus fitting her gender role stereotype. However, much like Troy, Gabriella wants to be more than just a walking textbook. She wants to be able to sing with Troy in their high school musical, but they both fear the backlash that their friends and school will give them if they do decide to break