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.