http://brianair.wordpress.com/film-theory/teenage-representation/
http://my.hsj.org/Schools/Newspaper/tabid/100/view/frontpage/schoolid/2108/articleid/353863/newspaperid/2094/Media_communicates_false_definition_of_beauty_to_teens.aspx
http://www.helium.com/knowledge/23015-how-the-media-changes-our-perception-of-beauty
http://www.helium.com/items/1615209-sex-appeal-media-advertisement-ad-industry-female-beauty-women-and-ads
http://moiradunn.blogspot.co.nz/2012/04/mean-girls.html
http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book/excerpt.asp?id=1
http://rayuso.hubpages.com/hub/Mass-Media-Influence-on-Society
Monday, 3 September 2012
Essay
In the media women are used in many ways to sell the companies products, everywhere we go we are bombarded by this image in the magazines, ads on tv, music videos movies and billboards.Women are shown to be perfect having the perfect body, with perfect hair and skin! The problem is that these images are unrealistic and fake, they have been photoshopped by photographers to sell their products. This makes teenage girls feel insecure about their self-image due to the medias high standard of what a girl should look like.
Women are represented in the media as all they care about is their appearance and something to look at. In Disney cartoons like Cinderella, beauty and the beast and the little mermaid the media stereotype women as weak and vulnerable who are dependent on men for strength and survival. Here is a list of other stereotypes on women: the dumb blonde, the bitch, the whore, housewife, they are hardly represented as a woman with intelligence and independence and they always need to rely on men. The Medias stereotype of women as objects and helpless human beings creates very low expectations for the women in our society.
The message Jessica Simpson is trying to get across to us is that images or advertisements like the ones we see on the covers of magazines and billboards is not realistic its all airbrushed and fake, to not always think that those models are all pretty and perfect. But the reality is that no one actually looks like that everyday in real life! The models you see on billboards and magazines are generally photoshopped and air brushed so that every flaw, mole or pimple cannot be seen by the viewers eye.
The way teenage girls represented in movies has changed over time. Females used to be presented as passive and small roles, often just there to be an object of the mans desire. Nowadays girls are often the main character and the story is often told from their point of view. This is shown through the movie Brave in 2012 about a girl named Merida who changes the media stereotype on what a girl should be, this movie portrays Merida as the opposite of what a girl should look like with her curly red hair also as the hero instead of a male lead
Why is the media doing this to our children?The answer is simple!For the media the more products the companies sell based on the images we see, the more money they make! So it goes on and on, not caring of what effects it might have on the customer buying or consuming their product.
I believe our society today are slowly changing especially here at school, from teenage girls hiding their true colours under wraps by straightening their hair every morning just to fit in with the crowd and also wearing a lot of makeup is now makeup free and isn’t afraid to let their true colours show.
Women are represented in the media as all they care about is their appearance and something to look at. In Disney cartoons like Cinderella, beauty and the beast and the little mermaid the media stereotype women as weak and vulnerable who are dependent on men for strength and survival. Here is a list of other stereotypes on women: the dumb blonde, the bitch, the whore, housewife, they are hardly represented as a woman with intelligence and independence and they always need to rely on men. The Medias stereotype of women as objects and helpless human beings creates very low expectations for the women in our society.
This stereotype shown in other media types such as Mean Girls a film directed by Mark Waters in 2004. The film 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’.
Like a girl wants to be a celebrity, the rest of the girls in the school want to be someone from the plastics because essentially they are like the celebrities of the school, their prettiness makes them so popular and the not so pretty girls are jealous of them “I saw Maddie Gardner wearing army pants and flip flops so i bought army pants and flip flops. “This quote from the film explains it perfectly. You are uncool if you do not meet the standards of the plastic image. These stereotypes are mentioned because these cliques are stereotypically portrayed in every high school. If you think about it, there are little kids that look up to the celebrities we see in the media and if you look at the way they dress provactively and how they act, well they have a good chance of growing up to dress like that. This is shown in the film when the plastics are at Regina’s house: it shows her sister watching mtv and imitating the sexual dance moves from the TV. This is an example of how easily young girls get influenced by the media. By observing this, the kids learn how to act what to believe and fear in their lives
Living in our society today where perfection is everything, especially teenage girls who get affected by this pressure to be perfect, where they feel if they don’t look like the celebritys and models they see in the magazine their not good enough. The Media is presenting a false image of teenagers to the world. It sends the message that teens must be a certain weight and height, and have certain features and clothes in order to be considered "beautiful" and "fashionable". Their definition of a beautiful girl goes way beyond Barbie. Think skinner waist, bigger chest, tanned skin and taller.Nowadays the definition of beautiful is losing its meaning in our society, this is shown in other media types such as Jersey Shore and The GC where they need to tan and wear a lot of makeup just to look beautiful. Another way to be beautiful in the medias eye is to be thin, There was a time when the ideal body weight,women wanted to be and aspire to look like was famous celebrities like Raquel Welch, Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Sophia Loren with their voluptuous hourglass figures and curvy shape. Nowadays the media bombards us with images of models and celebrities photoshopped to perfection
Like a girl wants to be a celebrity, the rest of the girls in the school want to be someone from the plastics because essentially they are like the celebrities of the school, their prettiness makes them so popular and the not so pretty girls are jealous of them “I saw Maddie Gardner wearing army pants and flip flops so i bought army pants and flip flops. “This quote from the film explains it perfectly. You are uncool if you do not meet the standards of the plastic image. These stereotypes are mentioned because these cliques are stereotypically portrayed in every high school. If you think about it, there are little kids that look up to the celebrities we see in the media and if you look at the way they dress provactively and how they act, well they have a good chance of growing up to dress like that. This is shown in the film when the plastics are at Regina’s house: it shows her sister watching mtv and imitating the sexual dance moves from the TV. This is an example of how easily young girls get influenced by the media. By observing this, the kids learn how to act what to believe and fear in their lives
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
Watching the dove evolution advertisement, made me realise that what we see on the TV, magazines and billboards are not realistic it shows how much makeup goes into making someone look beautiful in the media. The hours they spend into applying makeup and doing her hair is still not good enough to make her beautiful and so they must photoshop her to perfection. nowadays it is easier to fool the consumers. With the developing technology and cosmetic surgery it has become a common practice for celebrities in the medias spotlight to cover certain imperfections and to hide flaws. This is shown through Kim Kardashian who is famous for a sex tape and her hit family reality tv show "Keeping up with the Kardashians". Kim denied she went under the knife but then again she denied having a sex tape but we all know how that turned out!
No matter how much you spend on beauty products and surgery, you can never be perfect
I dont think teenage girls and women understand the meaning of beauty. They define beauty as someone with perfect skin, tanned skin, thin with large breasts and hardly any clothing, it is the media that is responsible for turning our society into believing that to be happy in life, you must be thin. The media sets standards on appearances that are impossible to meet. Trying hard to look like the celebrities they see on the magazine covers billboards and movies, teenage girls start obsessing over there weight, the makeup and skincare products she uses, the people she hangs out with, and the boys she dates, just to ensure she is fitting with what she sees in the media. Beauty is not in looks, not in what they say, just in who you are
I believe our society today are slowly changing especially here at school, from teenage girls hiding their true colours under wraps by straightening their hair every morning just to fit in with the crowd and also wearing a lot of makeup is now makeup free and isn’t afraid to let their true colours show.
Tuesday, 28 August 2012
Perfection
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| 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
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| 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!
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| Kim Kardashian without makeup |
Perfect is never the same, perfect is the impossible. Perfect is different to everyone, in which: no one can be perfectThe 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.
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.
Tuesday, 21 August 2012
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.
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.
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| 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.
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