Schmidt’s character in “21 Jump Street” is the antithesis of masculine according to characteristics on the Bem Sex Role Inventory. As he enters the police academy, Schmidt is easily beaten by Jenko in their first combat training and must rely on him to pass any physical test to become a cop. When they later screw up a drug bust, Schmidt and Jenko are put into an undercover high school program because of their immaturity and childlike nature.
The moment they step foot in the high school parking lot, Schmidt yields to the pressure of his fellow students and “two straps it” because it’s what everyone else is doing, despite Jenko’s insistence that it isn’t cool. After impressing some hipster students with his terrible participation in a track relay, Schmidt is invited into the “cool” group wherein he fails to stand up for his best friend Jenko as they all talk down about him for being weird. Because Schmidt was unpopular in his real high school experience, he is overly yielding to the cool students who befriend him while under cover. He throws a party, joins a theatre group, and plays dumb to impress them all.
Schmidt’s most prominent trait throughout the movie is his inability to make decisions easily. He froze during the initial drug bust that got him sent to Jump Street, and continues to freeze up at important moments such as he did during a car chase with the same drug dealers later on in the movie. He is only able to overcome this inability to make decisions at the end of the movie, shooting the drug supplier to save Jenko.
Shared by: Riley Schwahn
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