Women. Girls. Teens

Women. Girls. Teens. Where do we fit into the media? What are we? Are we represented fairly and accurately? Media is such a massive chunk of our lives and these days it has a massive influence in our daily lives. It is everywhere we look on the billboards, t.v,film, pictures,music, and everything in between. Yet is what we see reality or is it Fiction?

T.V these days is a huge section of teenagers lives, almost everyone has that one show they love, or that show that they know everything about, they get a lot of their ideas of how and who people are by how they are portrayed in shows.If I didn’t know better and watched pretty much any television show i would think every girl had or wanted a boyfriend and that they all had such dramatic, eventful lives. This is what is teaching girls about life and it makes them want what they see on the screen. They want that kind of life which isn’t real and is staged, they themselves know this but it doesn’t mean they don’t want it for their very own. How often do we see the girl as the hero as the strong one in T.V, even from a young age we see men as the dominant character with the important messages about being brave. A statistic that came out a couple of years ago said that in Family films there is only 1 female character for every 3 male ones; this is telling kids from such a young age that Men are the important ones and its carrying on to when they are teens, and is making males believe that they have right more than women. Kids NEED to see entertainment where females are valued as much as men, because men are no better than women. The question though is why men are more dominant than women in film and T.V and its simple women don’t share the backstage positions equally. Women are only 20% of the behind the scenes work. In 2011 women only made up 14% of the writers in film and T.V, with that statistic it tells us men mostly write the female parts, and men don’t usually understand women, so get it wrong, and they make women out as sex symbols.

Looking as a whole stereotypes of women are soo generalised. Gossip girl is one of those shows which has very cliche representations. It is based on the lives and scandals of the upper east siders, and is cleverly told through the voice of a secret gossip blogger it is a really good example of how these general stereotypes are used, Gossip girl has the ‘It girl’, the jock, the player, the queen bee, overprotective mother, the controlling father, the absent mothers, and of course the outsider. In the first episode we see Serena the it girl at the centre of attention, she is seen coming back after a sudden disappearance and a supposed stay at boarding school. Its all big news and everyone is talking about it after seeing it on ‘gossip girl’ in the first few minutes were are introduced to the characters, they are all rich and privileged. This show focuses on the dramatic and juicy extracurricular desires and doings of the private school students on the Upper East Side. It depicts the life of 5 main teenagers who have absent parents,maids who do everything and money at their fingers and yet they aren’t happy. It gives insight into lives only seen by a few.

Gossip girl Portrays coloured women terribly there were very few women shown in all the 5 season. Viewers watching are shown racist stereotypes  when intoduced to Blair’s sdekicks. Both have no personality, no interests( other than running around for Blair), and both are coloured blair treats them like slaves and this reinforces the racist stereotype that has been fought for so long to avoid.

A very chiche stereotype shown in ‘Gossip Girl’ is Serena  van der Woodsen she is the pretty and popular ‘it’ girl. She is blonde, skinny, tall and rich. She is constantly talked about and everyone wants to be her. She has guys lining up wanting to date her, even her best friends boyfriend. Her father left when she was really young and we find out in Season 3 that she acted out to get in the tabloids to try and get her father's attention. She has a rather absent mother who hates her childrens mistakes as they paint her in a bad light. A brother who has been the only consistent in her life they have grown up taking care of each other and are very close, he is the reason she came back to New York after a year at boarding school. She had issues with drinking and drugs which is discovered through a flashback story it is what prompted her into leaving New York, this kind of representation shines a negative light on the lives of rich kids.They have too much money and don’t learn from mistakes. Upon coming back to Manhattan in the pilot she is seen almost as an outcast after being away and even though she is talked about they all don’t really care they just want the gossip. She always has the latest fashion and even when dressing down she looks dressed up.Serena starts dating the ‘Lonely Boy’ the outsider, Dan is the scholarship kid of the school he lives in Brooklyn and is of completely different to Serena’s Stereotype. Once we look deeper into the show we see a lot of development in her character she of course is still the 'It' girl but she has a really down to earth peronality and she would prefer pool and beer to a posh and fancy dinner espically with Dan. She learns that life isn’t all about her and that status isn’t important.

If i was to compare her I think that Serena is very similar to Hanna on Pretty Little Liars. Both of them come from money and have impecable fashion taste. They are blonde and skinny and have issues with their father’s. They both fall in love with the outsider and it brings both of them down to earth bit.

The other Main female character in ‘Gossip Girl’ is Blair Waldorf. Blair is a scheming and insecure teenager whose mother always critiques her. Blair previous to the pilot struggled with Bulimia. Her father left her mother for another man, and her mum owns a successful fashion line. At the start of season 1 Blair is in a long term relationship with Nate Archibald they have been together forever and are well you could say practically betrothed to each other. Nate’s father is controlling and when Nate expresses his concerns about the strength of the relationship forces Nate to fix the problems and stay with blair for business. This along with the fact that Nate slept with Serena whilst he and blair were together causes Blair to act out and after fighting with Nate meets Chuck at a burlesque club and in the end losing her virginity to Chuck. From Season 2 onwards Chuck and Blair have a complicated on/off relationship. Blair is Queen Bee and it is clear she is in control  Constance Billard. But upon leaving she struggles with not have control while at college and after a few bad decisions finds her feet. This stereotype of Blair is one that a lot of people think is normal but it isn’t. No where is there proof that sex has become the expectation and definitely not with your boyfriend’s best-friend or your best friends boyfriend.

The expectation to be model thin and that you should be having sex i think is partly because of the negative stereotypes being portrayed in shows but also because of the raunchy and sexist things plastered on billboards.

Girls see these big billboards all around the city and on them a lot of women are seen objectified and as sex symbols or barbie thin bodies and start to think well i don’t have a boyfriend maybe this is why, and at the same time boys are seeing the same thing and expecting something that is unattainable to anyone. Because of all of the negative things people say about looks size and race girls from such a young age are hurting themselves emotionally and physically, I was listening to a talk about bullying and media pressure and heard a story. The guest speaker was saying that they knew a little girl who at age 9 was so unhappy with herself she resorted to cutting herself this story broke my and and when i heard about the Campaign in NYC created to raise self-esteem in teenage girls i was very happy this campaign has been started which is taking on the “popular,unattainable notions of beauty promoted by professional image makers with a campaign that tells girls THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL THE WAY THEY ARE.”

This campaign is being promoted with upbeat and positive subway and bus ads aiming to reach out to girls who are 7-14 years old, as these are the girls most at risk of negative body issues that can lead to drinking, eating disorders,suicide and acting out sexually. This just one small campaign that is addressing the issue of and fighting against sexualisation of women in the Media.

Today we are becoming a much more equal world, but women are still not represented for who they really are, and most of the time we are just there as eye candy for men, or as sex symbols with no real goal. We are worth more and we aren't just here to be objectified we are here to make a difference and help save lives and be equal to men. After all we make up 51% of the worlds population.

Magazines

When you look at a 10 year old girl what do you see? Do you see a girl with flawless skin and a model ready body? No you see a little girl finding her way in the world and struggling to come to terms with the fact her body is changing-she is hitting puberty. Yet the magazines they are buying are telling them they need to have flawless skin and a models body. This makes them look at themselves and see their flaws rather than their amazing qualities.Girls begin to doubt themselves and try and change to meet highly impossible standards of perfection.

If you look at this Creme Mag you see the preppy and stunning Sarah Hyland who has had hours of hair and makeup and a tonne of photoshop to look the way she does. she Has awkwardly big eyes and tiny wrists and hands making it look as if she has stuck a fishbowl in front of her face. What girl actually looks like that? This image and the articles advertised on the cover demonstrate and skew the perception that others have on how teen girls act and what they are like. If i looked at this Magazine from the mind of an adult I would think that all girls were interested in were celebrities and how to be cool at school.

This kind of Representation has some impact on girls even if they think it doesn’t, there subconscious is taking in all the negative stereotypes and they start wanting hair like Taylor Swift or Make-up like Lorde.  They then see the beauty section and see all of the amazing clothes and look alike outfits, they see the makeup tips and then think, yah i can look like them and then go out and spend alot of money on things that won’t really make a difference in who they are as a person and even if there is one clothing item like jeans they love and go out to buy it they then see the cool top that goes with it and have to get shoes to match and accerories and then they see the other cool things in the store and the price really gets up; and for what - a couple of compliments. They think that just because they get these things they can change and “be cool”.

Creme magazine and girlfriend are the number one best selling magazines for girls aged 9 to 14, And if you look at the same creme issue the Magazine theme is ‘I Heart Pets’ which is fitted for the age of girls buying the magazine, they love animals and seeing celebrities with cute pets is cool and at the same time gives props to celebrities and enforces the fact they are normal people; which girls love because they can relate even if its only a little.

But the rest of the articles are telling or implying that girls should look a certain way or do a certain thing to be popular, for example an article that was not important and not exactly great information was an article about how to be the teachers pet, because that is an important thing to know! but of course learning study skills isn’t. This kind of representation is bad for girls because they don’t learn life lessons or anything school related that is important, like study tips or how to keep focused.

But is it reality? Do girls really look perfect and retouched like it is portrayed of course not. They are just normal girls who get pimples and aren’t splashed all over the gossip pages or constantly being talked about, its great they have so many people as role models but sometimes the people classified as role models are people who are messed up and do things that they shouldn’t and when they do it’s in the public eye and they can influence what girls think is right. This is something that is inevitable because of course nobody's perfect and everyone makes mistakes but advertising so many celebrities and their advice about how to become famous just makes girls want to be more like them. Why don’t we ever see things about real life heroes or people who do amazing things plastered on cover of magazines, why aren’t they recognized for their achievement? The simple truth is that having famous people on covers sells magazines and makes money and that is what girls want to see and it may not be right and it may give out some bad influences but we have to trust that girls realize that all the photos of celebrities are retouched and that nobody is perfect. Girls want to know the gossip and thats ok and that what sells. But.. Why not stick some real life juice into magazines and show girls that being you is ok and all these celebrities aren’t the only people who can make great role models.

Pitch Perfect

While watching pitch perfect I saw really interesting stereotypes being portrayed, these stereotypes were in some ways more sophisticated than ones usually portrayed in a lot of movies centred around and for teenage girl’s eyes. I think this happen for 2 reasons; firstly the movie was based around 19-21 year olds rather than 15-18 year old characters so they had to be more mature and grown up, so the typical stereotypes like the popular bitchy girl and the sporty jock aren’t shown as university is a lot different to high school and the bits that are portrayed from these stereotypes are small and different than normal.

One thing that I thought was how well the women/teens were portrayed in the film because unlike many films there were larger looking girls. This is not to say some of them weren't completely cliche but overall the representation was done well especially for plus sized women. The image portrayed by these characters has a positive impact on telling teen girls that its ok not to be twig thin and having a body with more than bones is actually ok and in fact normal. It is shown as more normal and not quite as shocking to have a bigger female. this is shown in pitch perfect with Cynthia Rose,Denise and Fat Amy. None of them are stick thin, and they are all busty and have more to them than the characters like chloe and Aubury. In the film Fat Amy especially uses her weight as a plus, she doesn't worry about her weight or how she looks. If you look at the way she talks you automatically see that she doesn't want to be bullied about her weight and the first words she speaks are "I'm fat Amy." She doesn't just say I'm Amy.  She does this because she is confident and content with how she looks and doesn't want them to back chat about the fact she is fat so immediately tells them to call her Fat Amy.

This kind of representation is a positive for all girls out there as it demonstrates that its ok to be bigger and that if you are happy and don’t care what others think, you are Perfect the way you are. You shouldn’t change for others. If you look at Amy’s costume and hair in the film we see the small things that help develop the character she has her funny t-shirts and orthodox Jew hairstyle and this just reinforces the idea and image being portrayed that Fat Amy is a bit quirky and a joker. Fat Amy is also the joker which is something that we don’t see often.

Although this representation is a positive one it has some consequences because a lot of teenage girls aren't as confident and self-assured as Amy; they can’t joke and make fun. and people may not realize this and expect them to be happy with who they are and maybe bully them without even realizing it. The representation even if it can be a positive one isn’t a reality that is seen very much. It comes across that Amy is ok with her weight, but if you look a little deeper I think she does have some insecurities about her weight and she uses her humour to hide this fact. That alone is something I think girls shouldn’t try and live up too. Using humour and rude sarcasm to hide insecurities isn’t a good idea as it can hurt people’s feelings and make them feel as insecure as Amy and yourself deep down.

But on the other hand if you look at Beca she is completely parallel to Amy. Beca is someone who hasn’t had many friends and is a bit of a loner. This is the way she grew up and it is because of her issues with her parents’ divorce she can’t get over the fact that her dad and mum gave up and her dad left. This impacted her hugely and made her introverted; it made her clam up and shut everyone out. You see this so clearly when she is sitting with Jesse in the quad area and instead of watching movies(which she doesn’t like) she says “or we could relive my parents’ divorce” which gives the impression that she never really got over it and never really learnt to trust and love because she believes that love doesn’t last.

Beca’s character love to make music mixes and doesn’t really want to be at University, she constantly has headphones in or around her neck, she has dark eye makeup, multiple earrings and with darkish clothing (nothing bright). This representation in the film is both positive and negative, I think it starts off as a negative representation as she is cold and stand offish towards everyone especially her dad. She doesn’t want to be there and sulks a little- not going to classes and complaining. But towards the end she starts opening up and accepting people and where she is and actually learns that sometimes love does exist. But at the same time she stays true to herself and doesn’t change who she is to fit in she just changes the way she see things and learns some great life lessons. This Positive Representation is good one for girls to follow because you don’t have to be the follower and you can be yourself but you need to remember that you are not always right and that sometimes taking risks or meeting new people or trying something new can be the best thing ever and you learn more about yourself than you know. If someone saw Beca their first thought would probably be that she was alternative and slightly emo, but I think that if they looked deeper they would learn that she is actually normal and just is herself. This stereotype is actually quite accurate, there are a lot of girls out there who are a lot like Beca, the difference would probably be that some girls aren’t really themselves and are just acting out or they aren’t and haven’t learnt to be themselves. Her stereotype is one that girls can easily relate to as they have all been there or are in a rift where they are still learning who they are and What they want out of life Beca goes through this in the film and is at the end finally happy with who she is and instead of wanted to leave she wants to stay.

Pitch Perfect is a great movie which has a lot of realistic and true representations they help teach girls that life doesn’t always go the way you want but sometimes that way is actually better. For so long ,Media has been tipptoeing around those difficult and controversial stereotypes and characters they have played over and over again the Blonde cheerleader and the jock, but finally they are starting to portray some of these controversial charactersThey have opened the door for more movies to start breaking down barriers with stereotype portrayal, Now I beleive that more and more movies are coming out with controversial issues and stereotypes which is somethig that has needed to happen.

What is a stereotype?

That girl must be dumb, she's a bitch. She must be a geek. So often teenage girls get stereotype​d because of how they get portrayed in the media. And so often they get judged before they have the chance to show who they really are. The dictionary definition of a stereotype is... A widely held but over simpli​fied image or idea of a particular type of person. It is used to categorise a group of people or person, making them simplified and easy to identify with.

This image is a perfect example of how the media uses the stereotypes that we have all grown up with. In this image of 5 school girls from the movie St Trinian’s we immediately look and can say the blonde on the right is the pretty, posh and ditzy blonde who is also the popular one. Whereas next to her we see a girl with black hair and dark eye makeup and automatically class her as emo. This movie’s director has used the common stereotypes we have to create easily recognised characters that people can relate to. We look at how they look and can guess the basic personality traits of the character. The media use this to make the development of the character quicker during the short time they have to portray the person.  

Automatically stereotyping has both advantages and disadvantages; by stereotyping we have the ability to rapidly respond to situations because we have had an identical or similar experience before. But in doing this we can ignore the differences and uniqueness in individuals and come to assumptions that are not true.

The reason we inevitably stereotype someone sitting with glasses and reading a book as a geek or need is basically because us as humans are lazy, we use stereotypes to simplify our social world so we reduce the amount of processing we do when we meet someone new. And by doing this we clump the person with a group and assume that they have the exact same characteristics and abilities as the members in the group. When in all honesty the person with glasses reading a book might actually be visually impaired and have to read the book for class or work. 

A lot of research has been conducted into how the brain processes stereotypes and how we detect our lazy mental habits in order to avoid harming others by automatically stereotyping. A website about phycholoical science wrote this in an article. 
"Psychologist Wim De Neys of Leuven University, Belgium, decided that the best way to explore these questions was to actually look at the brain in action. Past research has shown that a particular region of the brain’s frontal lobe becomes active when we detect conflict in our thinking—between an easy stereotype, say, and a more reasoned and complex view. But actually overriding stereotypical thinking requires another part of the frontal lobe. De Neys basically wanted see if stereotypical thinking is a detection problem or a self-control problem. To see, he watched these two brain regions during stereotypical thinking, to see what lit up.

He used a classic psychology problem to make people summon up the stereotypes residing in their neurons. Here’s how it works: Say there’s a room with 1000 people in it, and we know that 995 are lawyers and the other five are engineers. We get to meet just one of these people, named Jack, picked randomly from the group. We learn that Jack is 45-years-old and has four children. He has little interest in politics or social issues and is generally conservative. He likes sailing and mathematical puzzles. Is Jack a lawyer, or an engineer?
De Neys watched volunteers’ brains as they puzzled through this and similar problems. He found (and describes in the May issue of the journalPsychological Science) that the brain’s stereotype detector lit up regardless of whether the subject answered stereotypically or rationally. So apparently we all detect the stereotype and recognize that it is out of sync with reality. But the brain’s inhibition center—the part of the brain that says, “No, I am not falling for that simplistic idea”—lit up only when the subjects actually reasoned that Jack was a lawyer—that is, only when they overrode the stereotype and made a calculation based on probability. Apparently some of us find the ready caricatures too tempting and use them anyway, against our better judgment." 

This study is an interesting one that reinforces the idea of us automatically stereotyping but its also saying that thinking it through is what a lot of us do and its what we should do before coming to judgement on someone with little infomation.