Perfection

 

Adriana Lima one of the Victorias secret model, viewed by teenage girls as the perfect-everything!

Today in our society its all about the looks, studies show the teenage suicide rates have risen over the last decade, as if it wasnt obvious its always the pressure to be perfect."Your a size zero? stop starving yourself anoerexic!" "You ate 5 slices of pizza?lay of the food fatty", "you cut yourself you must be emo". Everywhere we go we are bombarded by the media's idea of the "perfect" body. This unrealistic stereotype is portrayed in music videos, movies, magazines and on television.

Surrounded by images of  celebrities who are thin— with large breasts, It is the media that is responsible for turning our society into believing that to be a successful happy person, you must be thin. The media sets standards on appearances that are impossible to meet.


Trying hard to look like their idols, some fall as victims to eating disorders, and some abuse drugs to help them lose weight. Others,  TV shows like Extreme Makeover  that make physical transformation look so easy, turning to plastic surgery. 

It appears that their lives are trouble-free, happy and constantly entertaining—and the drive to be perfect that is to have a perfect, skinny body.

Ironically, young celebrities themselves are hardly immune from the pressure. "In this industry it's at a huge, elevated level," says The Sopranos' Jamie-Lynn DiScala, 23, who suffered from anorexia and now works as a spokeswoman for the National Eating Disorders Association. "When you're sitting in an audition waiting room, how can you not look at every other girl around you and start comparing yourself?"

For teenagers, aspiring to unrealistic standards can lead to self-doubt, depression, extreme dieting and eating disorders.

 "I've been there, trust me,When I was younger, I tried to be skinny. There is so much pressure in today's society to look like the girl on the cover of the magazine. But [those photos] are airbrushed and have special lighting. She's gone, through two hours of hair and makeup. That just sets expectations really high for young girls." -Jessica Simpson




airbrushed image of Kim Kardashian

The message Jessica Simpson is trying to get across to us is that images or advertisements like the one above of Kim kardashian is not realistic its all airbrushed and fake, to not always think that they're all pretty and perfect when they have been photoshopped to be perfect,she hides under ten pounds of makeup. Celebrities like her are just as human as us we all have cellulite, blemishes, pimples and bad hair days!



Kim Kardashian without makeup



 Perfect is never the same, perfect is the impossible. Perfect is different to everyone, in which: no one can be perfect


The message that many people, especially teenage girls, take from this is that they are not pretty enough or skinny enough. Billions of dollars each year are spent on diet regimes, supplements and exercise equipment. These are purchased mainly by healthy girls who are plagued with feelings of insecurity.

 Most teenage girls look up to celebrities like Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and the Kardashians. When they're the one's prancing around in their birthday suit or bras on television. They're also caked in makeup and designer clothing, how do you think that is making an impact on our children or other teenagers? It's going to make them feel fat, ugly, gross, not good enough, they'll  start going to desperate measures to make themselves look and feel like those girls. It's just not right, society is ruing our teens, even worse – it's ruining us.
 

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Mean Girls

Mean girls an American teen comedy film directed by Mark Waters in 2004. In the popular movie Mean Girls, Lindsay Lohan plays a confused teenager struggling her way through high school hierarchy. Her character, Cady, is a transfer student that finds herself in a place where everyone is categorized in some kind of group, whether it be jocks, art freaks, or something else. Some of the cliques were seen as more powerful than others, but each had some kind of reputation.


The representation of teenage girls in mean girls affects teenage girls because girls are looking into the media for guidance on what to wear and how to act. When they see the girls behaving the way they do in mean girls there starting to behave the same way.


The differences between reality and representation. For teenage girls to feel pretty and be popular they need to be thin, busty, and wear revealing clothing while gossipping about their friends and others and spend most of there time worrying about boys and parties rather than their school work. This is exactly what mean girls is all about. The movie Mean girls is turning into a reality. The representation of the way the girls speak to each other in mean girls is rude and appalling. They call each other whore's and biaach. This is mainly said by the head Mean Girl Regina George. This dialogue is showing that people can call you all types of names but its normal and you shouldn't be offended its just the way to talk and treat each other. In reality you would have no friends and not be very popular if you called your friends these names. The way these girls are representation is in a very bad way its giving teenage girls unrealistic ideas on how to behave ,act and dress in the company of others. Regina George is the head plastic she is mean, manipulative and nasty, i feel the reason she is like this is because she was brought up a spoilt child, and for most of her life she could of been the only child which is why she was so spoilt because we she her sister which looks to be 10 years younger than her. I feel that Regina is mean because she was brought up spoilt and not taught any better and got whatever she wanted. In mean girls Regina takes her parents for granted she bosses them around for example she makes them swap bedrooms with her because she wanted the bigger room. In reality most parents would be a lot stricter and would tolerate such nonsense from their children. How Regina treats her parents is showing that if you treat them like that there will be no consequences.

The clothes they wear in mean girls is very revealing, short, pink and shows a lot of skin in all places. Above is their Halloween costumes and below is there everyday clothing. As you can see they are all wearing very short skirts, high heels, all have their hair down. This shows that they are all the same they wear the same things and there all doing a 'sexy' pose. This message shown through the way these girls dress is that your only going to be pretty and popular if you dress less.

The film hugely stereotypes teenagers, by using cliques to show the different stereotypes. The film stereotypes pretty people as the 'plastics', the intelligent people as 'nerds', the people that are dress differently and wear dark clothes as the 'art freaks'. The film is a very wrong representation of teenage girls because it shows that you don't fit in if you are not a particular stereotype and that you can not have individuality. The film shows the fight between girls to be noticed, love for the 'jock' and popularity. The film only represents teenage girls in a negative way. The girls in the film all talk behind each others backs, they where unappropriate clothing and are represented as a crazy, uncontrollable and disobedient age group. The film also shows that if you are not like this then you don't fit in and are unwanted.


Gretchen Weiners, one of the girls in the 'Plastics' group says,"I'm sorry that people are so jealous of me ... but I can't help it that I'm so popular!"





 This is a very wrong representation, just this quote can effect what young girls think of what high school is like. They can think that being envyed, being mean and being fake is going to earn you more friends and get you more attention. Younger girls may get this idea when watching this film as they are still young and do not quite understand the moral of the story but teenagers understand the moral of the story which is that being pretty, popular, skinny and fake is not the person you want to be which can effect them because they may start to worry less about what they look like and being judged and can be more individual. The way in which this film may influence or effect young girls is they see the way the 'Plastics' where pink and this colour relates to them as most young girls love the colour pink. Seeing this colour on the 'Plastics' may make them feel that because they can relate to this colour that this is what they are expected to look like as a teenager.


In conclusion Mean Girls is a reflection of the kind of drama that goes on in real high schools. While high school can be chaotic and dramatic, the movie showed the exaggerated extents of these concepts especially in the typical fields of high school love, popularity, and friendship.



 

 Serena van der Woodsen is the main character in Gossip Girl and is portrayed as Manhattan's "it girl". She is shown to be the perfect girl, Everyone wants to be her or to be just like her. Serena is tall, blonde and thin, she has a laid back personality and does not care what anyone thinks of her.She seems to always get what she wants because of herlooks and  comes across as a threat to the other girls in town and her school because she is beautiful and all the guys want her.The director has styled her in a brown coat, striped top and skinny jeans which shows her casual but stylish fashion sense.

Serena van der woodsen arrives back home

Teenage girls in the media are represented in the media in "groups" such as emo, sporty, rich, nerdy,then there are those who don't fit in, Serena is in the rich and popular group and having the perfect life, this is how she is portrayed as everyone in town knows who she is and wants to be friends wit her, she has the fashion sense, the pretty facr and a laid back personality.This makes the audience want to watch Serenas character because it is what every teenage girl aspires to be.