From dead principals to creepy nurses, Melanie Martinez's twisted, pastel fantasy explores how girls should begin to embrace their vulnerability
Martinez has never been the type to shy away from controversial topics.
Her first album told of the hidden, messed up life of Crybaby, a fictional character who is a representation of Martinez's vulnerability she experienced as a child.
From a crumbling family that included an alcoholic mother, a violent father, and a drug addict brother; a troubling love story; kidnappings and self-esteem issues, we quickly found out that Crybaby's childhood trauma forced her to grow up quickly.
So it is no surprise that K-12 touches on everything from bullying, toxic friendships ("Lunchbox Friends"), gender and racial discrimination, drug misuse and love ("Highschool Sweethearts", "Recess").
The tale begins just like everyone else's trip to school: on the bus. The funky beat of everyone's favorite nursery rhyme "Wheels On The Bus" serves as the tune of Crybaby's observations of all the disturbing things she sees immature, hormonal teens get away with.
Once they finally arrive at their "first day of hell" the audience is quickly introduced to the messed up power structure this school has, as a kid is taken away by the school's security for not standing up to the pledge of allegiance. This theme continues to be explored throughout the film.
However, in the meantime, we meet the school's Regina George, Kelly, in "Class Fight". Kelly's own insecurities make her believe Crybaby is trying to steal her lover and drive her to face off with Crybaby in the field. Things do not go great for either of them because well, did I forget to mention that Crybaby has powers? #strangerthingswho
When she is sent to "The Principal" as a result, Crybaby discovers the school began to medicate the kid who was taken out of class
This particular musical number includes Crybaby and others dancing before a jury wearing a birdcage petticoat as she sings
"Killing kids all day and night, prescription pills and online fights
Shooting at the angels while claiming you're the good guy
All you want is cash and hype
Fuck our dreams and that's not right"
alluding to how though the principal is meant to be your friendly, neighborhood leader, but this one, in particular, could not care less about the kid's dreams.
He rather continues to find ways to keep them caged up in school.
This concept of a demoralized power system is also depicted in "Teacher's Pet" where we see a teacher have an inappropriate relationship with one of Crybaby's friends.
"Show and Tell" is where we see the underlying theme in K-12 begin to develop.
It continues the central theme of dealing with the criticism one faces from themselves and others that Martinez began to explore in "Crybaby" the album.
She is literally on display as a marionette who is being controlled by her teacher as all of her classmates drool at her struggle and vulnerability.
However, in the end, they reject her and cast her away once she shows she is hurt by their words.
Her emotions continue to be frowned upon in her drama class.
In this class, she asks the teacher why she can't have a different role, such as a director or president, to which a student responds, because "your kind are too soft and too sensitive to handle a man's job"
Here she delivered the film's most iconic line: "Having a larger capacity to feel and express emotion are one of the many qualities that make us superior to your kind."
The singer expresses that people are given a mask and script to follow, so they can 1. Be brainwashed making it easier to control and 2. Be predictable:
"You always hide behind your Wizard of Oz disguise
Do you even have a brain? You're sticking to a page
You're faking all your pain yet you're bleeding on a stage"
The "lines" she talks about in "Drama Club" are the medication the school gives the kids in order to keep their feelings in check.
The Wizard of Oz reference also illustrates that the people in power, in this case, the principal and teachers, are advertising the medication to be more than it is.
And there you have it, folks, the reason why Crybaby's character is feared by the school and why she is so important in today's day in age.
Because she doesn't run from her emotions, she embraces them.
She takes control of her femininity and "softness" which is scary to others because as we find out in "Strawberry Shortcake" girls are taught to feel uncomfortable with their bodies and sexuality.
In this song, Martinez breaks down all the ways girls are supposed to make their body presentable, but then are blamed once a boy becomes infatuated with it.
I can't help but be reminded of the absurd saying "boys will be boys" that people often hear as an excuse when a boy is caught sexualizing a girl:
"'Cause I put icing on top
Now, the boys want a taste of this strawberry shortcake
That's my bad, that's my bad
No one taught them not to grab"
This song, as well as "Orange Juice", again touch on the main idea of self-criticism that comes from unrealistic standards.
"Orange Juice" is both visually, and in terms of storytelling, one of the best scenes. It explores the story of a girl named Fleur who is pressured by Kelly to purge her lunch. The metaphor of oranges being spit out as orange juice illustrates the eating disorder without being vulgar.
We see Crybaby try to get Fleur to understand that it's okay to struggle with body image because one should "try to not expect shallow people to love you because they don't even have the capacity to understand how amazing you are and we will have to learn to love ourselves without the approval of others."
Again, this is something the school fears, because Kelly is supposed to be the one who keeps girls in check through bullying them.
Somehow this magic-realism film was able to bring to light many of the struggles kids go through on a day to day basis better than some other "more realistic" shows like "13 Reasons Why" or "My Fat Diaries".
Yes, kids in real life probably don't kill their principal or have crazy drug addicted teachers or rabbits walking the halls to keep them in control. However, the magical aspect of this fantasy allowed Martinez to dramatize that and not the issues these students go through, unlike other depictions of mental illnesses, over-sexualization of girls' bodies and corrupted power struggles.
I applaud Martinez for continuing the conversation about unrealistic beauty standards, the LGBT community, double standards girls must face, mental illnesses and power struggles through her boppy music, twisted story-line, and phenomenal visuals.
It is definitely worth the watch.
Melanie Martinez - K-12 (The Film) www.youtube.com
