"You need to stop calling eachother sluts and whores...it just makes it okay for guys to call you sluts and whores".How and why are females represented the way they are in contemporary teen movies with particular reference to mean girls?
Teen Movies have been around for many decades but the representation of women from the 60's to now has changed vastly. This is all due to the issues and debates that swarm around us in todays society and the many problems that exsist are reflected by the media into movies and portrays the zeitgeist which is present in teen lifestyle. Most current issues that involve youths and teenagers are incorporated into teen movies and stereotypical representations are put across to us which may be true to a certain extent but not always. Females are slowly beginning to get noticed in the media after all these years but are being represented in negative ways as will be proved in my study of 'Mean Girls' which is a interpreatetion of Tina Feys 'queen bees and wannabes'. Directed by mark waters in the USA in 2004 Mean Girls in many eyes is a significant film of its genre as it features women and includes female voices, females who are not just subjected to the 'male gaze' according to Mulveys theory. It had been an influential teen movie of its time for films such as Bratz, and pretty persuasion and had close connections with 1990's hit clueless and in a way reinvigorates it with a fresh look on the teen genre in the sense of representations of females and the ideologies they give out to its audience
Sunday 6 January 2008
Essay Plan
-Introduction
introducing the title of my independant study,introducing the text and summary of topics, issues and debates i will be talking about.
-paragraph 1
i will start with the main representation of females in Mean Girls which overall is for them to be looked at (sex objects) (voyeurism) link to mulveys theory
individually represented, Kady a good girld who is easily corrupted therefore has no mind of her own
Regina (villian) obsessed with the way she looks and how her body is, weight concious, hungry for boys and sex
Gretchen isa follower who would do anything to be popular and thinks that popularity is everything and is seen as having no brains
Karen is a blonde bimbo and people only lie her for her boobs (sex object) she acts dumb in the movie and there is no positive representation of her
-paragraph 2
arguably there is a female protagonist of the film and the film seems to be dominated by females showing a female veiw point of the world and female domination
This can be linked to historical information such as the wave of feminism and the growing number of women in the media and how men and women are more equal in this period of time compared to decades ago and this is represented in the movie
Book to refer to: Backlash: Susan Faludi
-paragraph 3
Other texts that i will be referring to :
Americas next top model as the show os telling the contestants that they have to be beautiful in order to win and have the lifestyle that they have always wanted, this is the same in Mean Girls if you want to be in Regina's clique and stay in there you have to remain beautiful and stick by the rules and therefore not be yourself
related to Regina being image conciouse and trying to lose wight to fit into a prom dress, americas next top model promotes getting in shape and having the perfect body in order to be successful
-Paragraph 4
the idea of the media today and how there is so much pressure for teenagers to be a certain weight and look a certain way,growing number of anorexic females because they are image obsessed , this is caused by the pressure of the media
refer to the cinema book
introducing the title of my independant study,introducing the text and summary of topics, issues and debates i will be talking about.
-paragraph 1
i will start with the main representation of females in Mean Girls which overall is for them to be looked at (sex objects) (voyeurism) link to mulveys theory
individually represented, Kady a good girld who is easily corrupted therefore has no mind of her own
Regina (villian) obsessed with the way she looks and how her body is, weight concious, hungry for boys and sex
Gretchen isa follower who would do anything to be popular and thinks that popularity is everything and is seen as having no brains
Karen is a blonde bimbo and people only lie her for her boobs (sex object) she acts dumb in the movie and there is no positive representation of her
-paragraph 2
arguably there is a female protagonist of the film and the film seems to be dominated by females showing a female veiw point of the world and female domination
This can be linked to historical information such as the wave of feminism and the growing number of women in the media and how men and women are more equal in this period of time compared to decades ago and this is represented in the movie
Book to refer to: Backlash: Susan Faludi
-paragraph 3
Other texts that i will be referring to :
Americas next top model as the show os telling the contestants that they have to be beautiful in order to win and have the lifestyle that they have always wanted, this is the same in Mean Girls if you want to be in Regina's clique and stay in there you have to remain beautiful and stick by the rules and therefore not be yourself
related to Regina being image conciouse and trying to lose wight to fit into a prom dress, americas next top model promotes getting in shape and having the perfect body in order to be successful
-Paragraph 4
the idea of the media today and how there is so much pressure for teenagers to be a certain weight and look a certain way,growing number of anorexic females because they are image obsessed , this is caused by the pressure of the media
refer to the cinema book
Saturday 5 January 2008
Historical text: Grease
Grease
Facts:
Year of release: 1978
Classification: PG
Director: Randal Kleiser
Starring: John Travolta, Oliver Newton-John, Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway
Plot: a guy and a girl fall in love over the summer on the beach, they return to school after the summer and discover they are from the same highschool.
Genre: Teen Movie, Love Story
Similarities: (M)
-Setting is in high school which is the same as Mean Girls. A generic convention of a teen movie is to be set in a high school where the audience can see that it is targeted at them as school is the centre of a teenagers life and contains other teenagers for the audience to relate to.
-Close up shots used to highlight male of female feelings towards another male or female, this shows the love story that is being created between the two main characters. For example.... in Mean girls there is a close up of Kady admiring Aaron from the back showing her likeness for him similarly on Grease when they are both songing and at the end of the song there are close ups of both of their faces and we can see their love for eachother through these shots because they are singing about eachother also.
-The Mis-En-Scene is similar in its props such as fancy cars only change in time and technology reflect the veiws of what a good car is at that period of time but in both the props that are used are concidered something to show of about. (Difference) However in Grease the boys are seen with a car and they make doing up a car a very manly thing and something that a women doesnt take part it whereas in Mean Girls it is Regina (the female character who is seen with the car and the girls are shown driving around in it and no guys.This shows women taking on male roles in more recent years and that in the 70's girls werent shown doing manly things (Backlash)
Differences: (M)
-The sound and music in both of the movies is very different from eachother and grease is a musical and mean girl isnt. Grease is more theatrical and has a rock edge to it whereas mean girls encorporates different types of music into it such as rock, pop ,and rnb, this shows the music industry was dominated with the rock genre in the 70's whereas nowadays there are more different types of music which are popular and as popular as eachother that appeal to teenagers.
-The costume is very different for both males and females in the 70's compared to the 00's. in Grease the females are wearing long skirts and fully covered tops, they are not being objectified in their everyday dress whcih is different in Mean Girls as the girls are all wearing mini skirts and tgght tops showing of half their body
-Similarity: (I)
Both hollywood produced (american), and both distributed by paramount pictures
-Similarity: (G)
Both teen movies and have love stories to them however Grease's main focus was the love story whereas in Mean Girls the main focus of the narrative was social lifestyle and popularity
-Difference: (G)
Grease is a musical and Mean Girls have no songs incorporated into it
-Similarity: (R)
The females are represented as boy obsessed and spend most of their time with boys or thinking about boys, and therefore dress to impress which is why they wear mini skirts and tight tops in Mean Girls and the end of Grease Sandy dresses in a sexy outfit to get Danny to go out with her as she used to be a good girl and Danny would lose his respect from his boys if they thnik he's fallen for a good girl. the males are very image concious as much as the girls are and allways like to look their best
-Difference: (R)
The boys are more open to love and relationships and the way peers talk to eachother about relationships in Mean Girls whereas in Grease Danny is embaressed to tell his firends he is in love and is only comfortable in talking about things that they did which is degrading the female cos he is exploiting their secret moments together
-Similarity: (A)
both the audiences are the same, they are targeted at teenagers
-Difference (A)
However Mean Girls is targeted mainly at female teenagers whereas Grease is more for both gendres but still mainly females
-Similarity: (I)
Similar ideologies are portrayed in these movies such as being hetrosexual although Mean Girls displays a bit of gay acting within one of their characters but this is not major, there are no homosexuals in Grease showing the 70's to be less unacceptable to gays than they are now
-Differences: (I)
Grease displays the ideology that if you like someone you need to change your image that will suit them in order to be able to go out with him however this is different in Mean Girls as it shows that you dont need to impress a guy to get them, just be yourself and there will be a happy ending for everyone
-Similarities: (N)
The story line is similar is both films as the main characters are falling in love with with a guy and are trying to get with them by impressing them
-Differences: (N)
Grease doesnt use any villians or heroes, the charcaters are just friends whereas Mean Girls has a hero (Kady) and a villian (Regina) and the protagonist is the hero only whereas in Greas there is no protagonist. Danny and Sandy are both the main characters. By Kady playing the leading female role it could reflect the ways that women are more active in society and are noticed more whereas in the 70's it had not totally been the case as both a male and female were the main characters showing them to be equal
Facts:
Year of release: 1978
Classification: PG
Director: Randal Kleiser
Starring: John Travolta, Oliver Newton-John, Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway
Plot: a guy and a girl fall in love over the summer on the beach, they return to school after the summer and discover they are from the same highschool.
Genre: Teen Movie, Love Story
Similarities: (M)
-Setting is in high school which is the same as Mean Girls. A generic convention of a teen movie is to be set in a high school where the audience can see that it is targeted at them as school is the centre of a teenagers life and contains other teenagers for the audience to relate to.
-Close up shots used to highlight male of female feelings towards another male or female, this shows the love story that is being created between the two main characters. For example.... in Mean girls there is a close up of Kady admiring Aaron from the back showing her likeness for him similarly on Grease when they are both songing and at the end of the song there are close ups of both of their faces and we can see their love for eachother through these shots because they are singing about eachother also.
-The Mis-En-Scene is similar in its props such as fancy cars only change in time and technology reflect the veiws of what a good car is at that period of time but in both the props that are used are concidered something to show of about. (Difference) However in Grease the boys are seen with a car and they make doing up a car a very manly thing and something that a women doesnt take part it whereas in Mean Girls it is Regina (the female character who is seen with the car and the girls are shown driving around in it and no guys.This shows women taking on male roles in more recent years and that in the 70's girls werent shown doing manly things (Backlash)
Differences: (M)
-The sound and music in both of the movies is very different from eachother and grease is a musical and mean girl isnt. Grease is more theatrical and has a rock edge to it whereas mean girls encorporates different types of music into it such as rock, pop ,and rnb, this shows the music industry was dominated with the rock genre in the 70's whereas nowadays there are more different types of music which are popular and as popular as eachother that appeal to teenagers.
-The costume is very different for both males and females in the 70's compared to the 00's. in Grease the females are wearing long skirts and fully covered tops, they are not being objectified in their everyday dress whcih is different in Mean Girls as the girls are all wearing mini skirts and tgght tops showing of half their body
-Similarity: (I)
Both hollywood produced (american), and both distributed by paramount pictures
-Similarity: (G)
Both teen movies and have love stories to them however Grease's main focus was the love story whereas in Mean Girls the main focus of the narrative was social lifestyle and popularity
-Difference: (G)
Grease is a musical and Mean Girls have no songs incorporated into it
-Similarity: (R)
The females are represented as boy obsessed and spend most of their time with boys or thinking about boys, and therefore dress to impress which is why they wear mini skirts and tight tops in Mean Girls and the end of Grease Sandy dresses in a sexy outfit to get Danny to go out with her as she used to be a good girl and Danny would lose his respect from his boys if they thnik he's fallen for a good girl. the males are very image concious as much as the girls are and allways like to look their best
-Difference: (R)
The boys are more open to love and relationships and the way peers talk to eachother about relationships in Mean Girls whereas in Grease Danny is embaressed to tell his firends he is in love and is only comfortable in talking about things that they did which is degrading the female cos he is exploiting their secret moments together
-Similarity: (A)
both the audiences are the same, they are targeted at teenagers
-Difference (A)
However Mean Girls is targeted mainly at female teenagers whereas Grease is more for both gendres but still mainly females
-Similarity: (I)
Similar ideologies are portrayed in these movies such as being hetrosexual although Mean Girls displays a bit of gay acting within one of their characters but this is not major, there are no homosexuals in Grease showing the 70's to be less unacceptable to gays than they are now
-Differences: (I)
Grease displays the ideology that if you like someone you need to change your image that will suit them in order to be able to go out with him however this is different in Mean Girls as it shows that you dont need to impress a guy to get them, just be yourself and there will be a happy ending for everyone
-Similarities: (N)
The story line is similar is both films as the main characters are falling in love with with a guy and are trying to get with them by impressing them
-Differences: (N)
Grease doesnt use any villians or heroes, the charcaters are just friends whereas Mean Girls has a hero (Kady) and a villian (Regina) and the protagonist is the hero only whereas in Greas there is no protagonist. Danny and Sandy are both the main characters. By Kady playing the leading female role it could reflect the ways that women are more active in society and are noticed more whereas in the 70's it had not totally been the case as both a male and female were the main characters showing them to be equal
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