...are some things that we hold to a higher standard than other. These include appearance, employment and socioeconomic status to name a few. Although disheartening, some believe they cannot achieve everything they deserve without some if not all of these attributes. This tends to be true for adolescence who have been brought up by these ideals. The film Mean Girls directed by Mark Waters, makes it clear that popularity and appearance is all that teenage girls need to get ahead. That females who have these characteristics will ultimately succeed in life. Not only does that give a false hope to those watching the film, but it emphasizes the effect of bullying that is shown throughout the film. Cady Heron, played by Lindsay Lohan, moves to Illinois after being in Africa for twelve years with her parents who are in the zoology field of work. Cady is taken by surprise by public school life after being home schooled and meets up with Janis Ian and Damian who are more of the social outcasts and into theater and art. Cady is...
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...Mean Girls is a film that shows the relationships between Cady Heron, a new student, and the Plastics, a stereotypical group composed of Regina George and her side-kicks, Karen Smith and Gretchen Wieners. During the movie, Janis and Damien (who are friends of Cady) convince Cady to become Regina’s friend in order to destroy her reputation. Once Regina realizes Cady is faking everything, she frames her by giving the principal the Burn Book, a gossip scrapbook that the Plastics wrote about their classmates. The classic pop culture film revolving around four high school girl’s popularity is the perfect set up interpersonal conflicts. While Mean Girls portrays many aspects of interpersonal communication such as gossip and stereotypes, the main theme in the film is power. Regina George is the most beautiful and most popular girl at North Shore High School. She has control over everyone, including the boys, teachers, and her closest friends. However, the Plastics’ friendship suffers from an imbalance of power. Regina dominates their relationship, making ridiculous rules like wearing pink on Wednesdays and not being able to have their hair in a pony...
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...We have all seen the movie Mean Girls, directed by Mark Waters. The film delves into the life of a modern high school student and the timeless stereotypes. Today’s society idealizes “popularity” to the point where it is unhealthy. If we don’t conform to the mold of a seemingly perfect person, we are marked as outcasts. Everyone wants that feeling of belonging and are willing to sacrifice who they are in order to obtain it. “The most hated young woman in America is a blonde — well, sometimes a redhead or a brunette, but usually a blond. She has big hair flipped into a swirl of gold at one side of her face or arrayed in a sultry mane, like the magnificent piles of a forties movie star.” (High-School Confidential Page 819-824, David Denby)....
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...Teen films may characterize the female adolescents by having their personalities and story-lines directly reflect the film setting’s era and culture. In comparing Mean Girls (2004), Clueless (1995), and The Breakfast Club (1985), together, these films demonstrate and exemplify how the film industry has been influenced and altered by time, culture, and society in their portrayal of teenaged girls over the past 30 years. The Breakfast Club (1985) is a cinematic view on the struggles of adolescence wherein five troubled teenagers with adversely differing personalities spend a Saturday in detention and eventually grow to confess their fears and secrets and find their true selves outside their segregated stereotypes. Claire Standish is a spoiled,...
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...Although nowadays there are many feminists against gender stereotypes, gender stereotypes still exist everywhere. It is hard for people to eliminate gender stereotypes overnight. Most people know that stereotypes are not true, but many still assume of roles based on gender. We may all be guilty of many gender stereotypes, such as assuming that men have to make money for supporting family, and women are supposed to be housewifes. In “ How Toys teach children stereotypical gender roles”, Denise Starr summarized traditional gender rules, which was “ Boys are doctors; Girls are nurses. Boys are football players; girls are cheerleaders. Boys invent thing; Girls use the things boys invent, Boys fix things; Girls need things fixed. Boys are presidents;...
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...gender stereotypes present in the reality television series America’s Next Top Model (ANTM). Race is a symbol of what a person looks like physically. While on the other hand, ethnicity entails nationality, regional culture and language. ANTM, a show by Tyra Banks, is one of the many streams of pop culture that creates a mold of what stereotypes certain people fit into and justify these stereotypes for audiences to see them as real. One group that seems to always be plagued by media and pop culture is, African-Americans, specifically, women. Women are generalized to be, “Angry Black Women,” and it is broadcasted heavily. The “Angry Black Women” stereotype...
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...and find time to be sexy and feel beautiful. The male stereotypic role is to be the financial provider. He is also to be assertive, competitive, independent, career‐focused, and always initiate sex. These sorts of stereotypes can prove to be harmful; they can suppress individual expression and creativity, as well as hinder personal and professional growth. Children learn gender stereotypes from socialization. Gender socialization is the process where children learn to develop behaviours regarding what constitutes being a male or female. Beginning at a young age, parents, school, peers and the media highly influence the gender behaviours children replicate and ultimately internalize. My compilation of media entries focuses on the progression and adaptation of gender stereotypes in the media. Over time, perceptions of gender roles have changed, causing the media to modify traditional marketing tactics to conform to them. I chose to organize my entries into three sections. The first category, incorporating the first three entries, provides examples of existing gender stereotypes in the media and consumerism. The following two entries fall into the second category, describing products and their accompanied advertisements that break typical gender stereotypes. The final section, incorporating the last three entries, illustrates various campaigns that raise...
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...Mean Movie By Elton James Y. Gagni A typical movie about girls getting eaten by their own insecurities; that is what Mean Girls is all about. One minute you’re best friends and the next thing you know, you’re worst enemies. Released on the 4th of May year 2004 and adapted from the book written by Rosalind Wiseman, Director Mark Waters gives us a movie that shows how a home-schooled girl becomes a plastic in the most twisted way. The story, plot and dialogues were pretty easy to understand since it was made to show the life of teenagers in a twisted way. I did not lose my interest while watching the movie for the simple reason that the presentation of the conflicts from one character to the next and how these conflicts would end up being tied together making one whole mess in the end. Although it was exaggeratedly presented, it was still believable because this shows one aspect of a girl’s life where she forms a group and gossip about how they hate people and would only dream of having such chaotic confrontation as that of the movie. As expected, the movie used many gender stereotypes especially on women since the movie title already implies of such. Unfortunately, it did not break any gender stereotype thus; it ended up taking those stereotypes to a whole new level. The director’s touch is obviously seen since the whole movie made use of close-ups, if not extreme close-ups, and a lot of point-of-view shots. These shots helped a lot to show character development especially...
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...cause boys and girls to not to be able to work as good together. Not being able to work together makes a lot of people not get jobs and have to worry about financial needs. Although I understand that single sex classes can provide the right learning environment, I still believe single sex classes are not good because they cause poor social skills with the opposite sex. Same sex classrooms are not beneficial, therefore American schools should not create same sex classrooms because they promote poor social skills, cause gender stereotypes, and high tutions. Having same sex classes protes poor social skills with the opposite...
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...more beyond the surface of the toy. Toys are some of the first things kids interact with, which means the messages that these toys send to the kids are impactful and will leave an impression on them. Boys and girls’ toys enforces multiple ideologies on how boys and girls should act and be. When going to any type of toy store, people can clearly see difference between the toys for girls and the toys for boys. Even the simplest of toys are separated by gender just because of the color scheme that it holds. Legos are simple toy blocks, but they have two separate sets, one for girls and one for boys. The appearance of the toy, the activities of each set, and the packaging of the toy reinforces stereotypes and the connotative meaning of boys and girls. One difference between the girl and boy Legos are their packaging. The packaging of the girl and boy Lego sets are almost completely different. The boy packaging has dark colors, such as blues, blacks, greens, yellows and reds. Some of the boy packaging also has just boys playing with the Legos on the front of it. When it comes to the boys’ Legos none of the colors are bright and colorful, but the girls’ Legos...
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...The Influences on Children Shows and How Children Interpret Morals: Leadership, Teamwork, and Compassion, Which Then Affects Series Going Against the Stereotypes RATIONALE: Children nowadays have ditched the children books and relied on children shows for morals, values, and education. Kids are constantly watching Netflix or Youtube when the moment they wake up to when they sleep. Behind the show, there are producers, writers, and directors that are of a stereotype threat in society. However, the entertainment industry especially emphasizes on stereotypes for people’s enjoyment. For instances, Mean Girls was based on stereotypical high school. When in reality, there is no Regina George or a group called the Plastics. If children were watching...
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...A stereotype is an idea or image overused on a person or thing. We tend to start stereotyping at a young age which is extremely problematic. It may be a positive or negative stereotype, but stereotypes in general do no good besides teaching children that labeling based on race,religion, and/or appearance is okay. These stereotypes affect how we treat other people and how people treat you. I've never suffered like African Americans or poor people do with stereotyping, so i've never truly been affected by stereotypes. I'm a typical white girl living in the suburbs. I'm not the skinniest, I wear the same few black outfits everyday because i dont have the confidence to wear anything else. People stereotype me as to lazy to wear anything else and are standoffish to talk to me because they think i will mean due to my RBF. But what I went through was nothing my friend ilana had to go through. Ilana was a 15 year old girl who moved from Dubai, United Arab Emirates to Cedar Park, Texas as a new incoming Freshman. Her ethnicity is Afrikaans, which is a White South...
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...revolved around because you were a girl. In the movie She’s the Man (2004), Viola Hastings is told just that. When the girls’ soccer team at her school is cut because of a lack of players, she is devastated. She seeks the help of the boys’ soccer coach, asking him to let them try out for the boy’s team. The coach laughs in their faces, saying “girls aren’t as fast as boys, or a strong, or as athletic. This is not me talking, it’s a scientific fact” (Fickman). Outraged, Viola does everything in her power to prove this, as well as many other stereotypes wrong. Viola, played by Amanda Bynes, disguises herself as her brother and try’s out for his schools’ boys’ team. “This transparently cross-dressed performance advances a distinctly conservative perspective on both gender identity and the human subject” (). She’s the Man uses a humorous approach to help viewers understand the gender roles of teenage life when Viola is able to break through the barriers of femininity versus masculinity, disproving stereotypes about romance, athletics, education, and beauty along the way. There are many different stereotypes of femininity and masculinity in the movie, but the main one focused on in the movie is romance and the different ways that each gender enacts the roles of their individual relationships. Main character Viola Hastings is in a relationship with Justin, who is a typical macho man with no respect for women. In society, women are usually stereotypes as timid, dependent on the men in...
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...An analysis of generic conventions in the trailers for the movies ‘John Tucker Must Die’ & ‘Mean Girls’ An analysis in terms of generic conventions in the trailers for the movies “John Tucker must die” and “Mean Girls”. Genre is defined as ‘A large category of stories united by their particular settings, characters, themes and narrative conflicts’ (Worland 2007, pg15). This assignment will look at the generic conventions a coming of age/ teen film (what we expect to see), aspects such as typical situations, stock characters, style, icons and setting. In terms of themes in coming of age (teen films) (subjects that are dealt with within the text) they tend to focus around, first love, rebellion, and conflict with parents, teen angst or alienation. In terms of what we would typically see within the genre ‘teen/coming of age’ film it is in the interest of the target audience and making the plot relatable and focus on their interests. The first trailer to be analysed is “Mean Girls”, a teen movie released in 2004. The style of “Mean Girls” is glossy, the use of high key lighting creates an expensive look and the contrast of high/bright colours makes the film more vivid and eye catching the use of the bright colours encourages a cheerful and young audience. In the first shot we see ‘Kady Heron’ in class she looks bland and has no character and is introduced as the new ‘student’ which is typical for the plot of a teen (coming of age movie) and the non-diegetic sound tracking...
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...biological make-up of males and females, or are they a product of the ways that males and females are brought up in society? (Nature vs. Nurture) SEX AND GENDER • Sex: (whether someone is male or female) refers to the natural or biological differences between men and women, such as difference in genitals, internal reproductive organs, and body hair. • Gender: (whether someone is masculine or feminine) refers to the cultural, socially constructed differences between the two sexes. It refers to the way a society encourages and teaches the two sexes to behave in different ways through socialization. • Gender role: is the pattern of behavior and activity which society expects from individuals of either sex – how a boy/man or girl/woman should behave in society. Gender roles may sometimes be referred to as sex roles. • Gender identity: refers to how much people see themselves, and others see them, in terms of their gender roles and biological sex. The differences between the terms 'sex' and 'gender' is best illustrated by the case of transsexuals: people who biologically belong to...
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