independant study

"You need to stop calling each other 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 today’s society and the many problems that exist are reflected by the media into movies and portrays the zeitgeist which is present in teenage 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 interpretation of Rosalind Wiseman’s 'queen bees and wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence[1] . Directed by mark waters in the USA in 2004 Mean Girls[2] 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 Mulvey’s theory[3]. Although it is labelled as a teen movie it is set out to challenge those stereotypes most associated with teen movies and not to follow every convention a teen movie usually has. It had been an influential 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.

A typical teen movie consists of the pretty, aspirational character or ‘clique’ whereby people fight over to gain popularity and acceptance into the longed lifestyle of the ‘popular’ girls. "I’m sorry people are jealous of me. I can’t help it that I’m popular."[4]It also conventionally involves a girl working her way to get the ‘jock’, the guy that every girl wants and would do anything to get him and other conventional themes such as coming of age, first love, rebellion, conflict with parents, teen angst and alienation[5]. Mean Girls carries a lot of these narrative conventions and structures the ‘Queen Bee’s to their stereotypical form whereby they are labelled as ‘popular’, ‘bitchy’ and ‘pretty’ and according to critic Roger Ebert, “it is not only funny but smart. Its about cliques gossip and popularity”[6]. The ‘Queen Bee’s’ consist of three teenage girls: Regina George, the leader of the ‘pack’, Gretchen Weener, Regina’s follower and Karen Smith, the stereotypical ‘blonde bimbo’ Together they are known as the ‘plastics’[7]. That’s were Kady (Lindsay Lohan) comes into the picture and goes through the stages of adolescence through high school and is created to challenge the stereotype of female teenagers and lifestyle in which teenagers like the ‘plastics’ are portrayed in living in. She does this by getting involved with the plastics but then turning into a regular two faced female and is divided between two groups. The other being the ‘outcasts which turn out to be better friends to Kady then the plastics would ever be suggesting that the lifestyle they lead involves so much of themselves and materialistic objects and guys that they have distorted ideas on what friendship is. The difference with Kady going through these stages and changes is that the resolution of the narrative eventually challenges the role she is put in as she decides that living the life of the plastics is meaningless.
Representation is a concept whereby it provides a model of how wee see gender’ social groups, individuals and aspects of the world we inhabit. They are ideological in that they are constructed with a framework of values and beliefs and ‘its views are selective, schematic and constructed‘[8] . Representations are therefore mediated and reflect the value systems of their sources. No representation is ever real, only a version of the real [9].The idea that representations are mediated means that directors are consciously aware of how a certain group or individual should be represented and is there to sell, which created the idea that ‘stereotypes sell‘* as audiences like to watch things that they are familiar with thus being provided with these stereotypical ideas in the past, it has stuck with them and has become integrated into our minds and our consciousness is shaped[10]

Over the years women’s representations in film have always been changing since the early 1990’s until now but somehow the stereotype of women in particular groups or generations still remain in a certain way for example blonde women with blue eyes are, and have always been represented as dumb and bimbo-like, also upper class women have always been stereotyped as snobbish and stuck up. These haven’t changed up until now but representations in Tv are constantly changing and for the better in the view of a women. There are many reasons why these representations of women in Tv have changed and are still changing and this due to the change that women have made throughout history in order to break away from their restricted lives and become free independent women. During the war when the soldiers left for the war, the women were there to take over their jobs just while they were away, the women assumed larger roles in the social structure[11] and once the soldiers returned they took their jobs back. The war was over and traditional roles were resumed. This left the women wanting to take men’s roles in the workplace and were effected by the fact they had to resume back to their housewife duties when they wanted to do more once they had known they were able to take on these roles
Laura Mulvey questions about the place of women in the media in terms of broadcast and production and also the place of women in films and their role.[12] It is evident that in recent decades starting form the early 1900’s females in the media and on Tv had been subjected to the ‘male gaze‘ and used for males voyeuristic pleasures to satisfy themselves. They have also been portrayed as house wives who stay at home and cook for the men and take care of the children This linking with how historically women have fought for their rights and fought against these representations and roles they are put in, after the war had taken place. This eventually led towards a backlash against women from the men in the 80’s where films and other media texts further subjected females to the male gaze. This has now lead to a new term being created after the backlash which is referred as the ‘new women’ which has become the new media cliché overtaking the traditional domestic image of women[13]. Thus creating films where women are being portrayed and superior to men and independent, not depending on a man. Films such as Erin Brokovich and Charlies Angels display this. They are independent strong women taking on masculine roles and playing leading female roles but are although still subjected to the male gaze. Sexuality is considered one of the most powerful tools of marketing and particularly advertising [14] which in its simplest form is the theory that ‘sex sells’ therefore the only way for a Hollywood movie to be a success it needs to include sexual content of some kind. Mean Girls involves mild sex and teenage girls wearing short skirts and tight tops. Although the target audience is not male it may use shots of sex to entice males into watching the film and therefore entering the world of female teenagers

The clear representations that are portrayed through the movie of mean girls is different for each character. ‘The film tries to keep its teen movie element by including ‘The plastics’, therefore maintaining the typical representation of the popular boy hungry girls. Regina, the queen bee of the clique is blonde with blue eyes, skinny and pretty, portraying a negative ideology amongst teenage girls who aspire to be popular as the message that is being given out to young teens is that in order to be popular and pretty you need to be skinny and pay on interest in school work and instead pay more attention on how you look. This is emphasised when Kady gives Regina a bar that she says helps her lose weight because she needs to fit into a prom dress which she had ordered. The bar actually makes her more fat and because she has gone up in size the shop where she got her prom dress for wouldn’t allow her to sop there as they sizes were too small for her when in fact she wasn’t even fat. This makes viewers think that even if you are skinny you are still not skinny enough.

Since Mean Girls declared an instant success after its opening weekend made the film $24.4million and the #1 film in America [15] it is safe to say that it would have been a massive influence on the many young American teens that watched it.‘75% of Mean Girls' audience was female, while 50% was under the age of 18‘, according to Paramount's research.[16] This is an over welming majority of the audience who are young female teenagers. Researchers Blumer and Katz (1974) [17]stated that individuals might choose and use a text for the following purposes (I.e. uses and gratifications) which are: diversion as a form of escapism and escaping from your everyday problems and routines, Personal relationships which is using the media for emotional and other interaction (mainly focusing on soap opera’s), Personal identity which is finding yourself reflected in texts and relating to characters where learning behaviour and values and lastly Surveillance which is using the media for information that you might need e.g. weather reports and the news. The uses and gratification theory that is most relevant to Mean girls would be Personal identity where young teenagers would act upon the behaviour they see in teen movies to try and become like them as they aspire to their lifestyle which is why these representations are not such a good thing

However as I stated before that the representation of the teenagers in Mean Girls is different for every character. Kady Heron(Lindsay Lohan) is the character that challenges stereotypes and promotes a positive ideology amongst teens "cementing her status as the new teen movie queen," wrote Brandon Gray[18] .She is the female protagonist of the movie and therefore we see the film from her point of view so the audience is made to identify with her the most which is why she challenges stereotypes and most effectively creates a positive influence on the audience as she decides for herself that you don’t need to be pretty and skinny to be happy and popular. She also gives a message that being teenager isn’t about being popular, its about finding yourself as a person and using it to your best ability for yourself and no one else. It is important to have a female protagonist playing this role as it injects female lifestyle and ideas into people who may not be aware of it or even use to it as ‘the media is already dominated by males therefore portraying mostly their views and opinion’s on things[19]. Mean Girls studies a different aspect of teen life and movies on the whole

Being an established actor, Lindsay Lohan herself by starring in this role would have a major influence on young teens and her fans as “The media industry relies heavily on the concept of celebrity”[20] as people would go and see a movie just because they like the actor who is starring or leading in it and also gives them an idea of what kind of film it is going to be because the audience associates different actors with certain genre’s of movies. This is a way of selling a movie and we would associate Lindsay Lohan with teen comedy movie so the same type of audience would watch, and previously playing a leading role in the film Freaky Friday[21] which is based on a children's novel by Mary Rodgers first published in the USA in 1972,[22] in which a teenage girl switched bodies with her mother so that they understand each other and the teenage point of view is therefore exaggerated and magnified through the eyes of an older generation, her mum which made her character stand out more in a comical way. Although this movie is classified as a teen movie (which could be due to the fact that Lindsay Lohan is associated with teen movies) it didn’t have many of the conventions of a teen movie such as the poplar clique and the issues of weight and gaining a popular lifestyle, however it id have the factor of the teenage girl falling in love with the perfect guy and trying to win him over which is not necessarily a negative convention in the way that It happens in most girls lives today. The movie encourages you to be yourself around a guy which is the best way to have him which is the same in Mean Girls as Kady learns that it is best to be yourself and not become a popular ‘Plastic’. This was shown through the realisation that by Kady becoming a plastic she still never ended up with her crush Aaron Samuels. It was only when she showed her true colour that she got him.

Unlike Grease[23] which portrayed opposite ideologies to that of Mean Girls and Freaky Friday. Sandy was originally a shy, good girl that fell in love with a bad boy, Danny but for him to officially be with her she needed to look sexier and become a bad girl. The message was that to get the guy you want you need to suit his needs and become what he wants you to become. Mean Girls has come along way in terms of teen movies from Grease and it is clear that female voices are more important and morals has been changed to the advantage of younger women to create ideologies that do not cause them to feel insecurities within themselves but to feel good about who they are and that they are fine the way they are.

Other media texts are still not compromising to this and the effects that these ideologies have on young women For example Americas’ next top model[24] promotes an ideology that in order make money and be successful in the media industry, you have to be skinny, pretty and be a certain way. This may be more effective than movies as this is a reality Tv show and although still mediated audiences automatically assume that this is what really goes on. It is commonly understood that eating disorders can be attributed to the pressure society puts an women to be thin[25] which is influenced by these Tv programmes and which is why the representations that are shown of women are becoming a more dangerous thing rather than something that feminist go against as it subjects women.

T o conclude women’s representations are not just something that we have to consume as audiences, it is something that controls some women’s lifestyle habits or eating habits. The media has a huge impact on its audiences and the change in representation of women over the years has proved that as lifestyle of women today in society is reflected upon in the media and whether the negative representation is a form of backlash from males or something that is a microcosm of today’s lifestyle of women it is providing women with false ideologies but Mean Girls could be the catalyst to female representations being positive and to the advantage of the female and carry forward the genre of Teen Movies to challenge more of the stereotypes we see in them today.

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1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_Wiseman
2 Mean Girls (2004)
3 Laura Mulvey handout
4 Mean Girls (2004)
5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teen_film
6 http://www.meangirls.com/indexflash.html
7 Mean Girls (2004)
8 Jackson, Stevi (1993): Women’s Studies, A Reader. Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire: Harvester Whealsheaf.
9 representation hand out
10 Jackson, Stevi (1993): Women’s Studies, A Reader. Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire: Harvester Whealsheaf.
11 (http://www.answers.com/topic/little-women-novel-5)
12 The cinema book:2nd edition (Pam Cook)
13 Jackson, Stevi (1993): Women’s Studies, A Reader. Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire: Harvester Whealsheaf
14 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_sells
15 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_Girls#Box_office
16 http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=1325&p=.htm
17 http://www.mediaknowall.com/alevkeyconcepts/audience.html
18 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindsay_Lohan#_note-mgbox
19 Jackson, Stevi (1993): Women’s Studies, A Reader
20 Wall, Peter, (2002), p.g. 48
21 Freaky Friday (2003)
22 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freaky_Friday
23 Grease (1978)
24 America's Next Top Model (2003)
25 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_disorder