Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Phoebe Cates (left) and Jennifer Jason Leigh star in 1982's "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." (COURTESY OF UNIVERSAL PICTURES)

With school back in full swing, I want to spotlight the teen film “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” which despite being best-known for Sean Penn’s stoner character Jeff Spicoli, was, in its own way, ahead of its time.

Released in 1982, it was among the teen sex comedies that flooded the market following the tremendous success of 1981’s “Porky’s.” Films like “The Beach Girls,” “The Last American Virgin,” “Let’s Do It ” and “Going All the Way” were full of female nudity and sex-obsessed men. In these films, women were little more than sex objects.

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