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Why Sharpay is NOT the Villain

Writer's picture: WilhelmenaWilhelmena

Updated: Apr 8, 2023

Over the course of childhood, one will encounter many villains. As you become older the villains begin to have more backstory and often their actions are justified by a family crisis or personal illness. Sharpay in High School Musical (HSM) is not really one of these characters, she has a loving family as seen by Ryan and her parents in HSM 2. She is perfectly healthy, white, pretty and rich. She has next to nothing holding her down. I believe, despite these facts, that Sharpay is not the villain and just a normal teenage girl (that I low key relate to). Let's approach this chronologically:

In the first scene in which Sharpay graces us with her presence, she wears all pink and is texting as any normal girl would. She is then immediately objectified by a boy walking down the hall and she chooses to ignore him. She then tries to get through a group of guys and she waves her hands to get through them, this is a very large group of boys and she has one exit which is through them, I see no problem with this as men rarely move for women to walk through unless they verbally say excuse me or bump into them (many studies on this. Look it up!) The boys then accompany this with an 'ohhhh' as if it's the sassiest thing in the world. They then go on to make fun of her, calling her "ice queen". Sharpay works her ass off to be a shining star and become head of drama and then gets made fun of for it. THEN in the next second, even Taylor calls them "zoo animals" establishing how annoying they are.


In the next scene, we see Sharpay sign up for the Winter Musical. She signs her name fairly largely but that's more of a drama student thing than anything else. She then sees troy and Gabriella and says sweetly "My brother and I have starred in all the school productions and we really welcome newcomers", this is nice, it's welcoming and she simply wants to have more people in the theatre. She then goes on to say "there are lots of supporting roles, I'm sure we can find something for you" Now this may seem mean, but her tone simply makes it sound a little condescending. I think that if I had been the star of every school show and in my Junior year (before college got too stressful and exams were everything) someone took the spotlight with no prior experience, they were late for the audition and they didn't even want it at first AND "they didn't even join the drama club", I probably would have freaked out just as hard. During the audition, Sharpay is a little snappy, but she does everything with a smile and has probably worked with Kelsey for years, and has slightly forgotten her manners, I know I've done that before (sorry Sam VM). Let's not lie, all the other singers were ill-prepared or had the wrong style for the show. So maybe Sharpay is right to be a little arrogant in this environment, especially with Miss Darbus bowing over her every move.


Okay, so now onto the ‘status quo’, so from one perspective it's a song about sticking to where you're supposed to be, staying in your clique. On the other, it's about bonding friendships, hard work, and perseverance. In a school where drama is such a big deal (which is amazing!), It would be high competition for schools like AMDA, Penn state, and Tisch. So, many people would be sticking to just musical theatre and not try and tackle more than one extra curricular; mostly it's exhausting, which the movie presents toward the end when Troy and Gabrielle both rush to the theatre in the wrong outfits with no Kristin Linklater warm up. HOW WILL THEY PROJECT! Sharpay's song ‘Status quo’ was intended to be about the drama department exclusively which is a lot of work, with rehearsals, tech nights and line learning there's a lot to do. The song gets taken over by other characters who talk about baking and basketball which is much more manageable if neither is a serious career choice.


Gabriella then spills her tray all over Sharpay while wiping at it WITH HER HANDS, although she does apologize, Sharpay simply wants to remove the food so doesn't do the British sorry "no, it's my fault, sorry, no I'm sorry". Not to mention everyone laughed at her at the same time. When Miss Darbus intervenes Sharpay has a meltdown as any teenager does, she said that Gabriella threw the tray on purpose, which it could've been for all she knew and she calls out the guys that have been laughing at her whole life for being passionate about theatre. She then comments on how hard Miss Darbus has worked on the show, (which I stand behind working on a school show is hard) if you take out the romance, the other characters have no idea about, then it does seem very odd that Troy auditioned. He laughs at Sharpay, he gets put there when in detention so his auditioning would seem like a strange choice to Sharpay, Ryan and Miss Darbus.


Sharpay then goes to her locker to clean up, Zeke, one of the guys who has laughed at her throughout the movie so far, asks if she wants to watch him play basketball, what a treat! She retorts with "I’d rather stick pins in my eyes" which if a guy who had laughed at me my whole life suddenly wanted to date me I'd say something similar. Although the audience knows Zeke to be cute and nice, all Sharpay knows is that he laughs at her, doesn't care about theatre and plays basketball.


The ones to actually ruin the relationship between Gabrielle and Troy is their "friends" it just seems like Sharpay does it, but she doesn't care about their love she cares about the integrity of the show, which would be pretty shocking if these two had no acting experience and only a few months to prepare. As the callbacks draw nearer, the drama club and sports team become much closer and Sharpay is finally being respected a little more. The couple is reunited and the science and sports team also become closer. Sharpay and Ryan perform as the others win in their respective teams. Everyone is happy, until the theatre is filled with people and they all watch Gabriella and Troy without seeing Ryan and Sharpay. The audience is receptive and Sharpay is devastated because she couldn't get the same praise.


At the end of the film, Sharpay accepts Zeke's request, congratulates Troy and Gabriella and moves on, If that's not sportsmanship I don't know what is.


I write these pieces in the context of their time and my knowledge. My views and understanding of these topics will likely change and I embrace that. I will not make changes to these unless offensive language was used unintentionally. These pieces are a form of memory and part of my personal history. I want to recognise the mistakes I may have made in the past so that I can continue to learn. I upload it here not to force my views but just to have it somewhere. I acknowledge that sex and gender are complex, multifaceted issues that are subject to ongoing debate and discussion. You are welcome to your own views on these topics and I hope that you continue to look into these topics in your own space. I ask that you do not enquire to those within minority groups to ask for education. Use the tools at your disposal, the internet, books etc.

Thank you








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