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The movie, Cusp, portrayed a middle school experience with problems and hardship possibly quite similar to our own days of junior high. As we all did at her age, Alice is beginning to receive messages regarding gender and its relationship to power through her daily interactions with other characters and her observations of the relationships between the genders around her.
When Alice takes the time to put on lipgloss and is in turn late for her class, she illustrates one of the movie's obvious themes, that beauty is power. The lipgloss incident clearly reads that looking better is vastly more important being punctual. The beauty power equation is engrained into Alice by numerous characters and events. Take Becca, the popular bully. Becca is more developed than the other girls, with flashier clothes, and wears more makeup. She looks older and more polished than other girls, she is therefore deemed more attractive. Coinicidentally, she's the alpha female among these young girls and obtains their respect. Becca later even denies Alice entry into their clique due to the fact she doesn't find her pretty enough. The neighbor also portrays this message to Alice, she verbalizes this to Alice, insisting being gorgeous is everything. The neighbor hints she may have never lost her boyfriend if she'd been more attractive. Alice also seems consumed by thoughts of physical apperarence, given her fascination with the porn magazines in the convienece store and her countless minutes spent in front of a mirror. Remember the chant that Alice and her friend sang, "It doesn't matter what's out here, the beauty is in my tits" or something like that. Already she's been programmed to believe her physical attractiveness is the most important feature about her. Like mentioned by Plumwood, Alice is being geared by society to feel she's bound to her body. She spends so much time concerned by her appearence, it prevents her from gaining confidence to speak in front of the class. Right after she's told she is ugly, she's too ashamed to give a successful presentation.
Another message sent to through society is that women are passive to men. In the classroom setting, the teacher gives preference to the rowdy boys' demands for #19, while the female students sat quietly with their hands raised, ignored. The neighbor insists her passivity regarding her boyfriend was the only option she had to dealing with him, claiming she can't confront him. This causing great frustration with Alice who feels at first she cannot retaliate to Kung Fu Boy, finally she does, but only after submitting to his annoying martial arts for days. Or how Alice is willing to be short changed for the ring.
The third message worth noting is the one that men assign women value. Her neighbor only feels good and successful when with Sam, she feels beautiful when he says so. Without him, she's a neurotic mess! Like when the tall boy approaches Alice and her friend, his attention makes them feel important enough to smart off and saunter away. Or how Alice accuses her mother of being disagreeable because she's a single woman. Another example of this is how wide Alice's smile grows when complimented by the store clerk. She even admits in the beginning of the movie how desperate she is to have a boyfriend. Alice feels confused in such a world. She dressing flashily to gain male approval, yet feels slightly uncomfortable like children do when receiving sexual attention. Or how she blushes especially brightly when the boys taunt her regarding the science project, inhibiting her from doing well on her presentation.