Hero representations

In the entertainment industry, all of the heroes in movies tend to be males because they are widely known for their strength, power, bravery and success. Some superhero examples of this are Superman and Batman but we also see male characters who are genuine hero's such as Forest Gump. In a very large amount of movies such as 'Forest Gump' for example, the female role is the weaker, supporting role or the love interest. This automatically creates a representation of females/teenage girls because we see that they aren't strong enough to make a difference, they don't have enough courage to stand up for themselves, they are merely the love interest that distracts the manly hero. This creates a representation that affects teenage girls because it can make them feel like they can't stand up for themselves or that they are no more important than being a 'lover'. This also affects society's perception of teenage girls because some do think that women are unimportant. For example, years and years ago, males and females were treated very differently. The men would be in control of everything. Women and men would work the same jobs but men would be paid more. There was a time when women weren't even allowed to vote. This was until 'in 1897 when Millicent Fawcett founded the National Union of Women's Suffrage' to start trying to get women the vote. Even though times have now changed and the sexes have become more equal, teenage girls are still compared to boys and thought of as lower in everyday society. We see examples of it in activities such as some sports (eg. rugby and football), teenage girls are still thought of as weak and lower because our body shape isn't built with the same strength or muscle but in reality there are some girls who could do things just as well as the boys. But how girls are represented does affect girls because it means that a lot of girls don't try new activities such as rugby because it is seen as a 'boys' sport.

 

We do see some female heroines in the entertainment industry, such at cat woman and wonder women. These girl representations are very negative because they portray girls and women not for their strength, power and courage but for their looks. We see a very large contrast between the male heros who are almost fully covered-head to toe. Batman only has his mouth and eyes shown and superman just his face. The female heroines are wearing limited clothing displaying a large amount of skin. They wear seductive clothing that closely resemble under garments. This portrays females and teenage girls as a sex symbol which isn't a good representation because it makes them look more vulnerable in our modern society. This vulnerability affects girls in our society because it shows them as easy prey for the predators in our everyday environment, which puts them in risk. Parents are affected because they see their daughters as targets and find it hard to give them freedom because they're worried about their daughters safety. This affects the daughters because they find it unfair that their brothers were allowed freedom when they were the age that they're currently at. But the boys are allowed this freedom because they are not often seen as a sex object or a target due to their strength and build.

There are not many female heroines that are in the entertainment industry that show a positive representation of teenage girls. One of the few that do show a positive representation of teenage girls is 'Katniss Everdeen' from the Hunger Games. When Katniss's sister Prim's name was called out at the reaping (to play in an annual game in which the competitors fight to death in an arena) she showed an immense amount of courage, volunteering for her sister to save her life. Between this and seeing her hunting at the beginning of the film we can already see she has hero qualities. By the end of the film/novel, she has risked her life to help others and is an incredible role model and hero. Not only has she got the courage, power and intelligence, she also doesn't wear the skimpy outfits and use her looks as an appeal. This automatically takes her away from being a sex symbol. She always wears coats or jackets and not anything that flatters her body or makes her more attractive. She also isn't the most beautiful of all of the characters in the film/novel and has a very realistic personality of people in our world-shutting others out, moody, cares only for her family, hides her emotions ect. The realism in her personality also makes a good representation for teenage girls because they don't feel that they have to live up to the 'American-ised', perfect model stereotype of teenage girls but they can be who they are. Katniss shows that we all have flaws. She teaches us that who we are is more important than putting on an act (for example, she got her high score(the highest of all the tributes) of 11/12 in the training scores just because she got moody). Jennifer Lawrence (the actor who plays Katniss) is a very good role model who promotes her heroine part.
"I'd rather look chubby on screen and like a person in real life."
"I'm never going to starve myself for a part. I don't want little girls to be like, 'Oh, I want to look like Katniss, so I'm going to skip dinner!' [...]I was trying to get my body to look fit and strong, not thin and underfed."
"What are you gonna do? Be hungry every single day to make other people happy? That's just dumb."
All of these quotes are from Jennifer Lawrence. She is such a good role model and has such a positive representation of teenage girls that she expresses through her role of Katniss. She creates an image that girls can relate to and says the words that girls need to hear. She brings across a true teenage girl attitude, figure, look and personality which gives a representation which helps change societies stereotyped teenage girl image and take away all of the preconceived thoughts. The consequences of her actions are so positive, because she spreads the message that we aren't all perfect. She also doesn't make you feel like you 'need' to buy beauty products or clothing after watching the movie. The only thing it makes you want to do is be very good at archery so you can be like her. Although like any hero, we can't stop ourselves from wanting to be like her, she has created a hero that doesn't have strict requirements like being perfect or looking perfect, which is what really matters. She reinforces the idea that brains, courage and intelligence come before beauty.

Katniss also demonstrates leadership when she is at home amongst her family. She does this because she is the provider of the food that keeps them alive. She breaks the law and puts her life at risk, to hunt for food to keep her family alive. This shows courage, bravery and leadership. In our modern society today, this brings across a positive message because in our world, society think that woman leaders/ influential women are bossy. Some teenagers see being a leader as being a 'try hard' or 'suck up', which is what the media has led them to believe. 'The average girl's self-esteem drops by 3.5 times more than boys’ between primary and secondary school and that by the age of 12, girls are far less interested in leading' (quoted from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/beyonce-victoria-beckham-front-campaign-to-ban-the-word-bossy-for-female-empowerment-9183787.html). This just proves that the media creates an image that all female leaders are controlling which is why there has been less interest by young girls and as a consequence, young girls become less motivated to try and challenge themselves or take the opportunity. In fact, there has been a campaign started by Beyoncé, Victoria Beckham and Jennifer Garner to ban calling influential female figures 'bossy'. This shows the difference between how the media is portraying female leadership and how in reality, it doesn't mean that you are necessarily bossy and controlling. This difference occurs because the media portrays women in control as 'bossy' which is why the campaign started.The point of this campaign is to encourage young girls to go for leadership roles. This campaign is less subtle than Katniss's leadership to run her family but both get across the same message. It is important for teenage girls to aim high in life and take leadership roles that come up rather than thinking that the role may be for males. For example, when has there ever been a female president of America? Never. I personally have always grown up, since I was little, thinking that the president was a man's job because that's what the media has enforced. This is where 'The Hunger Games' shows another semi-good representation. They have a female president in district 13 (President Coin) who is willing to stand up to the Capital and to President Snow (the male president). Although we see Coin as a good representation because she is a female leader, she also brings a negative representation because she has a few bossy, controlling traits. But I think that in order to be a leader you have to take control, and that's what she was doing.These examples of female leaders bring positive effects on the girls in our society because it encourages them to get more involved and not feel too judged to lead others.

To conclude, female hero's generally bring bad representations of teenage girls in the entertainment industry by using them as nothing more than a sex object. This is bad because it creates vulnerability for the teenage girls in our society. There are very few female heroines who bring a positive representation of teenage girls but one of which is Katniss Everdeen(from the hunger games). She creates an image which doesn't require girls changing themselves or loosing weight because she has flaws and is seen as more than a sex object.

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/suffragettes.htm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jenny-trout/jennifer-lawrence-body-shaming_b_4521379.html

Gossip Girl

In a short clip of the pilot of gossip girl, we see an automatic representation of girls. Firstly, we see the representation of the popular blonde girl who everyone wants to be like. We understand that she is popular because when she was spotted in Grand central station by Melanie 91, it was the ‘goss’ and was sent to gossip girl to spread. We see that she’s popular because of everybody’s reactions to receiving a message about her return. We also understand that she is popular because she is referred to as the ‘it girl.’ When her best friend Blaire finds out she’s coming back, she tries to rush her relationship with her boyfriend because people thought that Blaire’s boyfriend Nate had a thing for Serena. This also give us an understanding of how popular Serena is, causing her best friends boyfriend to forget Blaire. Serena demonstrates a typical stereotype of the world. She is the popular girl with the long, beautiful, blonde hair and the pink lip gloss. She’s the one that all of the boys want and fall for, for example in the scene when she walks through Grand Central Station and the boy looks at her and there is romantic, sweet music playing behind the alternating shots of him and her, showing he likes her. The popular blonde is a very common representation used in the media. Gossip girl also creates a general representation of teenage girls that they are beauty driven, boy obsessed and put their beauty before their brains. 

In the picture above, we see Blaire (on the left) and Serena (on the right) and this picture demonstrates the different representations of the two girls that we see in the clip of the pilot. We see Blaire as the more controlling, catty, slutty girl of the two in the clip. When we see her in the opening, she is wearing fully black and in this picture she is also wearing a dark brown. The dark colours have connotations of having power, being mysterious and yet maintaining elegance which is also shown by her dark hair. This use of connotations helps create a stereotype of her to help us understand her character from the very beginning. In contrast to this, Serena is wearing lighter colours and beige-brown in the beginning of the movie and white in this picture. The white of her dress and the blonde of her hair has connotations of success, purity and goodness which we sort of see in her along with her being popular in that first clip. Also the background also enhances this with Blaire's side having brown and orange colours and Serena's side with just white. In the picture, Serena is squatting in an almost unnatural position which complements her best features such as her long legs and her body's curves. Her face isn't as pure and innocent as we associate with the colour white but is more seductive. This engrosses us immediately because she isn't standing with power but is lower and more on our level which makes her look more equal to us and more vulnerable. The simplicity of her white, bland dress, simple heels and minimal make up expresses her natural beauty and fresh skin. In the first 3 and a half minutes of the trailer, it was almost as if there were omissions on different looking people because all of the characters we saw had this typical perfection to them. This has an effect on teenage girls because the difference between reality and T.V programmes is that in reality, not everybody has this perfection because it is unattainable.

 The representations of teenage girls in Gossip Girl are made by the series creators Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz. Josh Schwartz is a 37 year old man who has been involved in a very large range of T.V shows and movies such as ‘The Carrie Diaries’, ‘The OC’ and ‘Chuck’. He is a writer, producer and director and is from Providence, Rhode Island, USA. This middle age male figure has control over the representation of the teenage girls in the media which says a lot because he creates a representation of girls which isn’t entirely accurate. In the first 3 and a half minutes of the pilot, I understand that the girls are boy crazed, catty and willing to forget about their values to get ‘the guy’ (shown mostly by Blaire). In reality, in our society there are few girls like this, a very large amount have good morals and are focused on more important things in their life than just being ‘loved’. Josh Schwartz isn’t the only one who created this very stereotypical teenage girl image, working alongside him, was Stephane Savage, a 44-45 year old women who is a producer and a writer known for 'Charlie's Angels: Full throttle', 'Hart of Dixie' and many more. Both of them were obviously a bit younger when they created Gossip girl as those are their ages now. The values and ideas of these two people are what is shown through the representation of girls. The representation that they create of teenage girls cannot be accurate because they create a precise image that you can't differentiate from much which makes it really unrealistic because not everyone looks the same. They also only highlight certain qualities in the teenage girls, for example, they aren't intelligent, sporty or arty but tend to just be popular. 

The representation that they have created has an affect on all members of society. It affects the teenage girls because they feel that in order to be popular they have to be the 'pretty blonde with pink lipstick and all of the boys love her'. It also affects girls because they see girls such as Blaire drop all of their morals and values just so that she can have the boy instead of Serena. Teenage girls live their lives thinking it will be like a movie such as 'the first kiss' or 'the kiss at the door at the end of your date'. In reality, this doesn't necessarily happen but we still do tend to take what we see as an example, so it's likely that there are girls out there who would see Blaire and act like her. It affects the teenage males in the community because an idea in their head might be formed that girls will drop their morals and values if you pressure them into it. It also creates the idea that teenage girls might all be interested in sex (as males tend to be), when in reality, a very large amount of younger teenage girls are not ready. It affects the parents and older members of the community because I feel they automatically judge teenage girls to be slutty when they have boyfriends. In our everyday lives, yes there are teenage girls who sleep around with guys, but I think this a generalisation that some parents see. But in saying this, a large amount of the girls are not even in relationships. 

The representation of teenage girls in gossip girl takes a social role in our modern society because (like previously stated) it sets and example of how teenage girls should act. It acts as a guide to teach girls what to do in certain situations when they haven't yet experienced similar situations. This is a very negative thing because girls may start feeling pressurised to act accordingly to what they are seeing. 

Another negative thing that occurs not only in Gossip Girl but in widespread media is that the teenage characters are played by older girls who are no longer in their teens. One reason for this is because they will be more experienced with their filming, but I think having older people playing younger parts makes creates this idea that we need to look older and need to behave as if we are older too. When we think of older people, we tend to think that they have already learnt from their mistakes. This means that when we think of older people playing teens, some people may associate them being older with not making mistakes. This is a bad representation for teenage girls because it creates the idea that teenage girls don't make mistakes so in our society, when teenage girls do make mistakes they are badly judged which may make some of them very self conscious. This should never be how people should feel because no one is perfect and people always makes mistakes. It is our mistakes that we learn form.

The overall representation of teenage girls in Gossip Girl is negative and has a negative affect on teenage girls today. This is because we take movies as example to how we behave, look and feel that we need to live our lives. We judge ourselves and compare ourselves to those in the movies which is why it is a negative representation.

Magazines

We see different representations of teenage girls in the media in a range of medians, one of which is in magazines. Even just looking at the cover of a magazine brings about a representation of teenage girls.

For example, this is the March 2014 girlfriend magazine cover. Even the name of the magazine has a way to pull in younger females as the connotations of the name girlfriend are a girl's best friend, someone to confide in and someone to share gossip with. The cover girl is Lea Michele who is known for being an actor and singer, mostly as the character 'Rachel' on Glee. Glee is a programme aimed at a range of aged viewers, but a large amount of Glee viewers are between the age of 10 and 14. Girlfriend magazine has a core target age of 14-17 year olds but because we always tend to act/ take interest in older activities and media, the target age group is really between approximately 10 and 14 years old. Lea Michele is one of the faces of Glee and both glee and girlfriend magazine appeal to the age group of approximately 10-14 so it means it's likely to be of interest to that age group. The writing on the cover is all in lilac and pink, the lilac matching Lea Michele's crop top and the pink matching her lips. These two colours also attract the younger girls because they are feminine, girly and innocent. The front cover stories are 'Lea Michele-hope and heartache', 'Love me syndrome-do you have it?', 'Get the secrets to a happy life' and a large amount of celebs names listed eg. The Vamps, Lorde, Bruno Mars ect. Even though girlfriend is a New Zealand magazine, only one New Zealander made the front cover and that's Lorde. The significance of Lorde being the only New Zealander on the cover is that it almost creates the idea that New Zealanders are not good enough or talented enough to make it on the front page. The whole magazine is made in the very American way, with not only the American celebrities but the typical American stereotypes (such as the pretty, fit, blonde, popular girl). This shows the contrast between how 'magnificent' and 'amazing' America is and how small and 'untalented' New Zealand seems to be. It also creates the idea that America is the glamorous place to be and would be a much better place to live in than New Zealand when in reality, parts of America, such as L.A are full of rubbish and bad traffic. All of the cover stories discuss topics that are of interest to young girls such as love, happiness and fame which is a good selling point for the magazine.

We see a picture of Lea Michele on the cover and her long, wavy, brown hair looks perfectly windblown and has volume. This single picture on the front of the magazine affects teenage girls in society. They see the picture of Lea Michele and think 'I wish I had her hair' when in reality her hair would have been worked on for a long period of time just to get looking like that for the photo shoot. This realisation came to me not long ago because when I was younger, I always watched 'Hannah Montana'. I always loved Miley Cyrus's long hair and always wished that my hair could just naturally be like that too. I was young and was affected by the media because Miley Cyrus's hair (most likely) would have taken just as long to do as Lea Michele's for the cover of girlfriend. It was not natural but that's what I was lead to believe at that age. The readers of girlfriend are all about the same age as I was at that time and don't think how much time would have gone into it but only how nice it looks. Lea Michele also has deceivingly natural makeup on and unnaturally perfect skin. This again is a trick of the media representing girls as perfect because facial blemishes (eg. pimples) are definitely an insecurity of young females/teens. By presenting this perfect skin, young girls tend to think, 'maybe that little bit of make up could hide it' or 'maybe if I used the same face wash my skin would be clear too.' Further on in the magazine they then advertise make up and facial scrubs and with the previous thoughts in their heads, they become interested in purchasing. Lea Michele's skin has been bronzed and she is wearing a lilac crop top displaying her stomach. Lea Michele wears an innocent yet seductive facial expression and has her arms and body in an unusual position.  Showing off her perfectly flat torso/stomach affects girls because for a large amount of teenage girls, maintaining a completely flat stomach is a difficult task. It affects teenage girls by making them feel uncomfortable and self-conscious about how they look compared to Lea Michele (who is most likely photo shopped in this picture). It could make teenage girls feel unhappy and depressed that they are unable to have that perfect body and be able to show their stomach. In very small writing at the bottom of the cover it says, 'Reality Check. This image was supplied to us retouched.' I think the media used the tiny writing as a strategy because a large amount of people wouldn't read the small writing as it's so small that it's unlikely to be important. For those who do read it, even though they know that it has been fixed up and photo shopped, that may make little effect on them because the size of the picture compared to the tiny 'reality check' is overpowering and we still tend to wish we look like her because it's programmed into our head to make a judgement (just as it is to stereotype.)

This doesn't just affect the teenage girls but also affects society's perception of them and their attitude. The males in our society judge female girls just as females judge themselves. This is because the media has created a barely attainable image for female girls which boys compare us to. The difference between reality and the media's representation is that in reality everybody has flaws and nobody is perfect. I think the idea of perfect was created by the media and is merely an illusion.  The consequences of these differences between reality and the media's representations are that girls feel more self-conscious, lack self-confidence and punish themselves for not being perfect (when perfect is unachievable).

Thomas Knoll and John Knoll were two brothers that started developing photo shop in 1987. They both enjoyed photography and computing and created the multi-million dollar application. Photo shop is used by the media to create an impossible image for girls to live up to. This makes them feel like they feel they have to purchase products advertised in the media (eg. magazines) to 'fix' their insecurities. Photo shopping  can cause serious issues to teenage girls as stated in my photo shopping blog because girls become insecure and can begin to get eating disorders or not be in a stable mental state. Which can lead to very serious consequences or (in extreme cases) death. "Epidemiological studies have suggested that the incidence of eating disorders among adolescent girls has increased over the last 50 years. The reported prevalence rate for anorexia nervosa is 0.48% among girls 15 to 19 years old. Approximately 1% to 5% of adolescent girls meet the criteria for bulimia nervosa (1). Today, more than ever, adolescents are prone to concerns about their weight, shape, size and body image, and as a result, diet to lose weight (2–5). Little is known about how these body image- and weight-related concerns arise. These behaviours have been suggested as possible risk factors for the development of eating disorders. Many researchers have hypothesized that the media may play a central role in creating and intensifying the phenomenon of body dissatisfaction and consequently, may be partly responsible for the increase in the prevalence of eating disorders." (Quoted from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2792687/). "Each year millions of people in the United States are affected by serious and sometimes life-threatening eating disorders. More than 90 percent of those afflicted are adolescent and young adult women." "An estimated one thousand women die each year of anorexia nervosa. As many as one in ten college women suffer from a clinical or nearly clinical eating disorder, including 5.1% who suffer from bulimia nervosa." (Both quoted from  http://depts.washington.edu/thmedia/view.cgi?section=bodyimage&page=fastfacts). All of these quote/statistics are true facts that are proof of the media having a negative affect on us. The life threatening eating disorders and the number of deaths just shows that the media has such a large impact on us and can drive us to our own death.

On the inside of the magazine, we saw 11 pages of make up advertisements, 4 of skin care and 18 on fashion and jewellery. In these 33 pages of advertisements, all of the products were within a reasonable price range which is affordable for younger girls to buy with their pocket money. All of the products were purchasable at local stores such as grocery stores which is beneficial for the media because it makes it much easier for girls to purchase them. The repetition of similar styles on those 18 pages of fashion and jewellery or the repetition of make up products (eg. mascara) on those 11 pages, makes young teenage girls desire the object or item more and more throughout the magazine. Clothing trends do this in particular as some teens try hard to follow the trends and they are advertised the most. The repetition of these items makes teenage girls more likely to buy them, benefitting the media. In a crème magazine, they used a different theory of advertising, they had a few products that were very expensive and said 'If you want to be gorgeous, you need these. Between the few items being sold, it added up to over $200, yet, many young teens would most likely take an opportunity to be gorgeous when they get the chance, therefore the media once again benefits.

In the magazine, there were 3 pages on beauty, 2 on friend relationships, 10 on boyfriend relationships, 6 on advice and 1 on sex. Compared to other categories, there were a very large amount on boyfriends and I think this shows a very clear representation of girls. It shows a representation that all girls are boy crazed and have a boyfriend or want one. This is shown by a range of different articles about boys. This representation affects girls and society, and I saw an example in my own life the other day. I was teaching about 50-100 year 7 and 8 girls dance (10-13 year old girls). Some of them came up at talked to me and the first two things that a very large percentage of them asked were 'What is your name?' and 'Do you have a boyfriend?'. This shows how much of an affect the media has, when 'whether you have a boyfriend or not' is more important than knowing someone's age, where they go to school or where they're from. When we meet people we ask important details about them to get to know them, and the fact that whether you have a boyfriend or not was on that list is truly shocking. These girls have been raised with the media creating an influence on their lives through T.V, magazines, newspapers and many other forms of media. The 10 pages about boys in that one magazine demonstrates that these young girls brains are programmed to be boy crazed. It affects the representation of teenage girls because it creates the idea that we consume all of our time with boy involvement when a very large amount of teenage girls do not have boyfriends. It also affects ours and societies view on teenage girls because the idea has been created by the media that if you have a boyfriend you're popular and if you don't then you're not which makes the girls desire having a boyfriend more.
Inside the magazine, there was a section called 'The new project you' which tells us that we are not good enough as we are and that we can just change ourselves to be happier. This is something that young teenage girls get sucked into because they just want to be happy. This brings across a very negative idea because we should never have to feel like we need to change ourselves to be accepted or to fit in. We are who we are and people need to accept that.

Through out the whole magazine, the stereotypical representation of girls is that they are white girls with flawless skin, flowing, long, wavy hair and a fit healthy body. A girl with lots of friends and a boyfriend or wanting a boyfriend. They have a special talent and are willing to change for others. They sometimes are sporty and sometimes smart. None of the girls are different looking and most don't even have short hair, all are flawless and this is portrayed as normal. This brings across a bad stereotype and representation of teenage girls because this perfect image is created as it is in all types of media and as previously stated is unattainable. There is no normal, we are all different, we are all unique and we are all individual. In some ways it can be positive because we saw fit healthy girls so it encourages us to do healthy activity but on the other hand, they don't encourage or explain how to maintain balance in your schedule to fit it all in (eg. boys, sport, school, fitness ect.). Throughout the whole magazine there were omissions on sexual preference, disabilities and career choices involving a position of power. The fact that there were omissions on sexual preferences creates the idea that we shouldn't even think about sexual preference or that it isn't even a topic to discuss. This creates the idea that it isn't alright to be gay or to not be interested in boys and I think that this adds to the homophobia that some people have, which affects those who are gay. It may have very negative affects on gay people because some people just can't cope with not being accepted. The fact that they had omissions on disability adds to the idea that they only put beautiful people in the magazine who have a beauty that's unattainable. By putting disabled people in the magazine, it would take away the idea that we all have to be perfect and look and act a certain way. This would mean less people would feel that they 'have' to buy products that make them look beautiful because the disabled people bring a message that it's okay to be who you are. This wouldn't be beneficial for the media so it doesn't often happen. There were no role models  in the magazine that were doctors or lawyers, only people in the entertainment industry. Lea Michele was seen as a role model for staying strong after her fiancés death, because he overdosed on drugs, therefore killing himself. We see her as a role model for mourning him yet we don't see people like doctors who cures diseases and saves lives as role models. I think this brings across the wrong idea because it makes the entertainment business look the most desirable because they don't show the negative things as much as the fame. They didn't have an article stating that it was Cory Monteith who was responsible for his own death using drugs and leaving behind his 'soon to be bride'. Instead they wrote an article on Lea Michele who loved him very much and didn't blame him for anything. When Philip Seymour Hoffman (who played Plutarch Heavensbee in the Hunger Games) died of an overdose of drugs, that didn't spread through the crème and girlfriend magazines. They leave the entertainment business to look glamorous and give no recognition to the educated leaders of our country or of the political world because they know it won't capture the attention of teenage girls in the same way that hearing what celebrities are dating does. There were no pictures of over weight people throughout the whole magazine unless it was in an article that showed how much weight they lost. This almost creates a juxtaposition because it shows how bad it is to be fat and how much better you look being thin and when you compare the two it makes the idea of being thin and having a fit, healthy body much more desirable which adds to the representation of a normal teenage girl that is created in the magazine. In the whole magazine, there was only one picture with a person of colour which shows the racism of the media. I believe this is because we have negative stereotypes with the colour of their skin and the media doesn't want to portray females in this way. Magazines also create a false perception of teenage girls because the people that they talk about (as if they were teens) are mostly in their 20's or above such as the cover girl Lea Michele who is 27 years old.

Pitch Perfect

In the film, Pitch Perfect we see many stereotypes, like one of the character Beca.

Beca is the alternative, emo-ish one of the group and the main leading girl. She is an introvert and enjoys being by herself and indulging in her music. She tends to shut people who care about her out (like she does to Jessie) because it is easier. Her appearance creates a specific image and character of Beca by the use of costume. We see that she has tattoos, wears black nail polish, thick eye liner, dark clothing and has several ear piercings which makes her look unfriendly and less approachable than another character such as Chloe. This appearance combined with her non-girly characteristics such as not boy-crazed or popular, make her a non-conventional character which is a shock at first to see as the leading girl. Her rapping in the riff-off shows she is different because it was very unexpected for her to start rapping when everyone else had been singing and it was also a song that nobody else knew. We also see her as different when she does her audition for the Barden Bella's which wasn't only a different song to the others but required the use of a cup as a musical instrument (which was a very peculiar) . She's a bit rebellious, as she talks back and also goes to jail and during the fight, she was the one who punched the guy in the face which shows how tough and independent she is.

"Beca: You called my dad?
Jessie: I know, I know. But they were putting you in handcuffs Bec, it looked pretty serious
Beca: That doesn't mean you call my dad
Jessie: Who else was I gonna call? Kay, why are you yelling at me? I'm the only one here.
Beca: I didn't ask you to be.
Jessie: I was just trying to help you
Beca: I don't need your help, you're not my boyfriend."
These quotes are from the scene when Beca is bailed out of jail. This shows us that she wants her independence. Beca is a strong young women who just wants to take care of herself. Although Jessie was just trying to help, to her, it made it seem like he thought she couldn't manage the situation on her own.  

She's does what she wants and doesn't care what other people think or how it's going to affect them (for example, when she changes the semi-final song mid-performance). Beca has so little enthusiasm compared to the other girls considering she doesn't even smile when performing. She is also a sarcastic character in the film which we see as she refers to her step-mother as 'step-monster' or when she says to Jessie, 'Wanna do something else? We could re-live my parents' divorce. Or visit a gynaecologist.' This adds a bit of a quirkiness to Beca's character because it makes her funny. Throughout the film, we see Beca's character develop as she starts to let people in rather than remaining to herself constantly. Although we stereotype her as having no friends and being an emo, she actually creates a large group of friends that are girls which is new to her since 'she had never been one of those girls who had a lot of friends who were girls'. At the end we see how much her character has developed, because she has made friends rather than spend her time alone and to herself, like at the start of the movie. We notice this change near the end of the movie when they are practicing at the Bella's rehearsal without her and Cynthia Rose says, 'We need Beca'. This helps us understand that she has made friends because for once they actually want her there.

Another movie with a character like Beca is twilight, with the character Bella. Bella is also not your typical new girl and like Beca, is quiet and keeps to herself . Neither of them come across as the popular, peppy kind of cheerleader. Both Bella and Beca do, in the end, fall for a boy which neither of which are the popular jock, or captain of the football team. Although both of them are very quiet, they form friendships with those around them which they become quite close to by the end of the film.

I think that Beca shows both a negative and positive stereotype and representation of teenage girls today. She shows us a negative stereotype and representation because at the beginning because she looks emo-ish and has tattoos so we stereotype her to be angry, a loner and rebellious. At the beginning of the film, we notice that in the whole first month of her being there, she made no friends. This confirmed our prior judgement about her being a loner. Her having this short temper and being moody confirms our stereotype as well. Although we see Beca be nice during this time, we do remember her being unfriendly and snappy. We do this because we tend to remember all the bad things someone has done or their bad traits rather that congratulate the good. An example of this was in the media not long ago. 'Justin Bieber has been arrested' was spread around the media, this is part of an article about it.  
'Bieber has pleaded not guilty to DUI, resisting arrest and driving with an invalid license. Breath tests showed that his blood-alcohol content was below the 0.02 level considered intoxicated for underage drivers, but the urine test found the presence of marijuana and the antidepressant Xanax.' This was a very foolish action taken on Justin's part, no one can deny that. But when we talk about Justin Bieber these days, nobody remembers that he supported 14 charities and 17 causes. Nobody rememberes when, 'On Valentine’s Day, 2011, Justin surprised six-year-old fan and brain cancer sufferer Avalanna Routh by flying her to New York, where he spent the afternoon playing board games and eating cupcakes with her.' We only see and remember the bad in people and things, and I believe this is due to the media because they reinforce the same idea and spread the same negative rumors to the point when you find yourself forgetting the good things about people. This, on a smaller scale occurs a bit with Beca, you remember that her intentions were to stop the fight but as soon as you see her go to jail and snap at Jessie for getting her dad involved you automatically jump to her being the 'bad guy' when in reality, no one would want their parents to know they went to jail for trying to make something right. So in this way I believe that it is a negative stereotype/ representation of teenage girls.

Beca does also show us a positive stereotype and representation. From the very beginning of the film, we see that she's not the same as a lot of the others girls and isn't boy crazed or confident. At first, this doesn't seem like a good thing, but in the end she is surrounded by friends and she didn't have to change herself in order to fit in. In a large amount of movies, the main character has to change how they behave or look in order to fit in with the cool kids. A prime example of this is Grease. A well-behaved, innocent school girl (Sandy) must get cool clothes, change her hair and start smoking in order to fit in and get the 'guy'. This has a very negative message for teens. Pitch perfect on the other hand creates a strong, positive representation of teens and message from the character Beca, that it's alright to be different and that others should accept you for who you are.  

Pitch Perfect has positive representations of girls because it hasn't got omissions on larger people, or different looking people or sexual preference. We see fat Amy who is a larger girl, and we see different races, we see Cynthia Rose who is lesbian and we see girls who don't have the 'typical American' stereotype look. Pitch Perfect shows all types of people and in the end they all come together, be themselves, are good friends and win the competition. This brings across the same positive representation that Beca brings because it shows us that we can all be different. We don't have to be the same size or have the same coloured hair, being ourselves is better than trying to change ourselves. Which is a very positive representation for teenage girls.

The representations of teenage girls in the movie pitch perfect affects teenage girls in our society and wider world because we learn that whether you are fat or thin, loud or quiet, girly or tomboy, you can be accepted for who you are.  The difference between our world today and the world of pitch perfect is that in our world, people aren't so accepting of being different. Being different may be the reason you're bullied or the reason you don't have friends. This is because the media has created a very definite image and personality that you must maintain rather than just be who you are. I think it would be incredible if society could take in this message that Beca, (and many other characters also) create. I hope that society can change their attitude toward teenage girls and see them, not by their stereotypes (e.g. 'the emo one' or 'the catty blonde one') but by who they really are and accept that.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/justin-bieber-jail-video-shows-wavering-pop-star-1.2552564
https://www.looktothestars.org/celebrity/justin-bieber

Photo shop

Here is an example from the media, this lady in a bikini shoot has been photo-shopped. The first is the original picture and the second is the photo-shopped one. The first noticeable change in the picture is that her whole body has become thinner and more toned, from the size of her arm, to her stomach, to her thighs. It has all been changed to create a cellulite free, more desirable looking female figure.
The next noticeable change is that they have made her skin tone darker so that she appears to be more tanned than she actually is. The media has spread the idea around that being tanned makes you more beautiful or look slimmer, which is why they have enhanced the colour of her skin. This is the reason why many teenage girls tend to do a large amount of tanning over the summer, so that they can have this desirable body, even though doing this does put them in danger of melanoma skin cancer. For some, the danger of the sun means nothing to them as they don't even put on sunscreen because they have such a strong need to look bronze. I think that this idea is ridiculous because how tanned you are depends on how much melanin is produced in your skin which for some people, is out of their control (which is why some people don't tan).
The third thing we notice is that her bikini changes colour. It changes from its initial greeny, unflattering colour to a white and beige colour that emphasises her 'tanned skin' and her 'slim body'. This is a prime, media advertising trick. We see this lady in the magazines who has this stunning body, glowing skin and a bikini on so we think, 'if I wore that bikini maybe it would make me look tan which would make me more desirable'.
 The last noticeable difference is that in the first picture the women is dripping with water which is is easily seen, where as in the second picture, the water dripping down her body and from her arm is still there but the water between her legs isn't there and I think that this is because a shower head is not seen, so it would be inappropriate to have water seen between her legs.

The photo-shopped picture used by the media has a strong effect on girls today. Even though the woman in the picture is most likely not in her teens, it creates the idea that 'even an older lady can look like that so why can't I?'  This affects the teenage girls living today because they see how beautiful the girls in the media are and how slim they are. This eventually begins to bother the teenage girls because they don't look like those in the media do, when really, in reality those in the media are photo shopped (like the above example). The unrealistic idea that they will ever look like those models clings to them and can lead to eating disorders. '46% of 10 year old girls are dieting, have a fear of “fatness,” or are binge eating.' This statistic is a disgusting thought. The fact that at the age of 10 the media can already have an impact on how such a young girl can think is truly unbelievable. '90% of those who have eating disorders are women between the ages of 12 and 25' (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, The Center for Mental Health Services, offices of the US Department of Health and Human Services). This is another unbelievable statistic, it definitely shows that it is the teenage group and young females that are targeted by the media and it shows the affect that they really do have on young women. This is a serious consequence of the media's actions and it can be caused by one little bikini shoot in a magazine. 

Statistic webpages:
http://www.eatingdisorderfoundation.org/EDFFAQ.htm
http://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/counseling/Eating_Disorder_Statistics.pdf

Stereotypes

What is a stereotype?
A stereotype is the instant idea that we get about a person's personality just by the physical traits they have. We tend to group those with similar traits together and automatically think they have the same personality (eg. all blondes are dumb). We seem to judge those on their appearance and build up our thoughts of them on our initial views of them.

How and why do we stereotype?
We stereotype by making judgments on people by what they look like before we get to know them. We stereotype because it is harder to get to know somebody and understand what their personality is like than to use the existing ideas that we already have of people who look like that or have the same characteristics. People also stereotype because that's how our brains are programmed. No matter whether we think it is wrong, you'll always subconsciously do it. " "Mahzarin Banaji, psychology professor at Yale University explains, "Our ability to categorize and evaluate is an important part of human intelligence. Without it, we couldn't survive.""This is a very true statement. Even though stereotyping may be bad, without stereotyping, how would we know what is bad? If someone wearing all black and had only little slits for eye holes was coming after us, would we know that it's bad? So even though it is negative it does have positive purposes too.

Why do the media use stereotypes?
The media uses stereotypes so that it is easier for the audience to watch. It allows the audience to use their preconceived ideas/ existing ideas on the characters rather than making them figure it out for themselves. This means some actors can be seen playing similar roles due to the stereotyping.

An example of how stereotyping can be seen in the media in glee. When we first watch glee, we see... 
-Quinn: the popular, catty blonde who is the cheerleader everyone wants to be
-Brittany: the dumb blonde, who also is a cheerleader.
These two different stereotypes in glee show the two different stereotypes that are commonly used in media, the dumb blonde and the popular blonde. By using these stereotypes we automatically have an opinion on these girls and it is not until much further on in the show that we can see their personalities may not be entirely what we had expected. For example at the end of season 3 we see Quinn as the nice girl rather than the catty, mean one, which took 3 whole seasons to change our initial opinion of her personality that we had stereotyped from that first episode. 
https://www.smartlivingnetwork.com/psychology/b/why-we-stereotype/