Easy A: Mainstream Feminism Film?

There’s this new movie Easy A coming out in September and i have become very intrigued by the trailer, here’s the link on youtube.

Watching it, i was quite surprised to see a teen comedy being mainstream marketed with a female lead, and not only that, but the plot seems to tackle slut-shaming and female empowerment. I hadn’t seen anything about it on feministing so i was curious to see what others thought about it. The plot as i can tell from the trailer is about a high school girl named Olive who pretends to be having a string of one night stands with gay boys who are in the closet, to help prevent them from being bullied, then there is a large backlash against her with people even holding signs calling her a slut and a jezebel, it seems as if they are trying to get her kicked out of school. The film is inspired by the Scarlet Letter, as Olive then adorns a scarlet A on her wardrobe.

But this is just the trailer, and i don’t want to jump to conclusions. There are some things that seem great and others that seem problematic. First off, she isn’t really having sex, and it might be because, while treating slut-shaming as wrong, they still have a problem with the female lead actually having  sex. But it also might be addressing the fact that at some point, almost every woman is slut-shamed, virgin or not. Also, i’m concerned about the fact that the reputation she built was about helping gay classmates stay in the closet because i’m afraid it might be sending the message that gay men and women should pretend to be straight, but since it’s to prevent these guys from being bullied i doubt it’s homophobic, since Olive seems to care about the way these guys are treated.And i can’t tell if the reason she wears the scarlet A is in defiance of slut-shaming, or to get attention and become popular, or possibly both.

Even with my doubts, i am very excited to see this film because it seems to be potraying slut-shaming in a negative light, and i would love to see a mainstream teen comedy with feminist values, even if it seems like a long shot. What do you think?