TEENAGE GIRLS STEREOTYPED
                             IN THE MEDIA

In our media assignment we had to choose a music video or ad that represented teenage girls in the media. I chose to do Pinks music video 'Stupid Girls' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR4yQFZK9YM  because I think it had some good stereotypes of teenage girls In it, its a positive and negative representation of teenage girls stereotyping the dumb, skanky girl and the smart, ambitious girl. It had good lyrics, camera shots, costume, layout and language in it to represent teenage girls in the media.


In pink's music video the layout of it is stereotyping teenage girls in the media today. The first important scene I thought that was representing teenage girls, was when it starts with the little girl maybe 10 years old sitting on the couch. Her costume shows us she is confused with what she wants to be because she is wearing a rugby jersey but is holding a Barbie doll in her hand, and on the left and right side of the couch that she is sitting on there is a rugby ball and on the other side more Barbie dolls. I think this was a good example of the representation of what little girls want to grow up to be when they are teenagers. If they want to be interested in sports or rugby, or interested in Barbie dolls and fashion it shows us the stereotypical image of society thinking we are either being a 'tom boy' or a 'girly girl' and that society can judge us on that. It also shows that you can't be both a 'tom boy' and 'girly girl' which is the medias representation of teenage girls; that we can only be one big stereotype. This representation affects teenage girls negatively because they think that if they are a 'girly girl' they have to wear pink and be into ballet etc. and if they are a 'tom boy' they have to be into sports and can't wear pink etc. because that would change their representation. On each side of her there is an 'angel' and 'devil' the angel is the one who is trying to influence the girl into being more ambitious and confident. The devil is the one who is trying to influence the little girl into being dumb, skinny, skanky and pretty which the media represents all girls to be. "Baby if I act like that, flipping my blond hair back push up my bra like that, I don't wanna be a stupid girl." This shows society's attitudes towards girls with boys using teenage girls just for 'sex' because they put themselves out there like that, instead of respecting themselves and getting into a proper relationship. This is a negative attitude from society and a negative representation for teenage girls.



The second scene shows the little girl she is watching these different stereotypes and how they act on TV the 'devil' is showing her this. The devil girl is showing the little girl the videos of the stereotypical pretty, dumb girl and the angel is showing the smart girls who stand up for themselves. The first scene that the devil shows the girl is these girls who are in an olden day school and being taught by a teacher how to flick their hair and act all lady like. A girl in the front row goes to bite her fingernails and gets told off by the teacher. The teacher is mouthing the lyrics that is playing "Stupid girl, stupid girls, stupid girls."  I think this is a negative representation on teenage girls because its saying to be a proper lady we pretty much have to be perfect to be lady like or else we are a stupid girl. This shows society's attitude of teenage girls having to have all these perfect traits in order to be respected and treated like a lady.  The second scene shows another girl who looks like she is very rich her costume is big massive sunglasses, short dress on, big handbag and lots of necklaces. She walks into the door and you immediately stereotype her to be dumb, she goes into a pet store and buys a Chihuahua which makes me think of Paris Hilton and how she puts her little dog in her handbag and wears the same sort of costume as the girl in the music video. The lyrics in this scene is "They travel in packs of two or three, with their itsy bitsy dogs and their teenie weenie tees." which is talking about cliques, cliques are stereotyped a lot in the media by being in a specific group and can have a negative representation on teenage girls because if they are not in a clique they are stereotyped as an 'outcast' or 'loner' by society.

The camera angles also can let us see how teenage girls are represented in the media by in the scene when the supposedly 'stupid Girl' is on a bowling date with her boyfriend and he is more interested in this other girl who has got a low cut top on and is skipping around acting dumb, there is a close up shot of the girl getting jealous so she pulls this tag and you see her boobs get way bigger. I think this is a really bad representation of teenage girls because it is saying that when we don't get the attention from other guys we will put out our body parts out and get labelled 'easy' just so we can have some attention it makes us be stereotyped as 'sluts'. This shows society's attitude again of boys not respecting teenage girls and just using them for 'sex' because this is how they are stereotyped so society thinks it is alright to treat teenage girls like this. In one of the scenes the 'angel' (smart, ambitious one) shows the little girl a scene where there is a female president who is saying "what happened to the dream of a girl president, she's dancing in a video next to 50 cent." and "where oh where have all the smart people gone." Its saying how Girls have given in to medias ways of stereotyping teenage girls and are just used for show "dancing in the video with 50 cent"  not actually being ambitious and smart and having an opinion "where oh where have all the smart people gone."




I think that Pinks music video is a positive and negative representation for teenage girls because she is trying to tell girls that they don't have to spray tan themselves and act dumb just to be pretty and liked, but the message I also got from her video is you can either be "smart" or "sexy." You can't be both which I think is a negative representation for teenage girls and isn't actually reality because you can be both and society knows that. At the end of the music video it shows the two stereotypes of this old lady who's costume is all in pink and has gotten plastic surgery, she is represented as a cougar kind of women. It is showing us that is not the way we want to portray ourselves as women growing up. At the end of the video the girl goes up and picks up the rugby ball and decides to listen to what the angel says not the devil she is immediately stereotyped as choosing to be the 'tomboy', not the 'girly girl.'

INSTYLE MAGAZINE

                          INSTYLE
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Instyle magazine is a magazine that is more recommended for women aged 30's to 40's, it mostly revolves around giving women advice about fashion, makeup, skincare and other stuff. Even though the magazine Instyle are trying to sell to women much older then teenagers, they still catch teenagers attention because teenagers also like to know and hear advice on fashion and hair tips etc. Instyle is very classy and high-class and are selling their clothes and stuff at a way higher price then normal stores would. For our media assignment we had to look at the magazine and determine what was in it that would catch teenagers eyes, and how Instyle magazine have used their magazine to stereotype teenage girls and represent them in the media.

In my team we did the Instyle magazine with Anne Hathaway as the cover picture, this photo of Anne Hathaway caught our eye because Anne Hathaway is a famous actress and as teenagers we have watched her movies and know about her. In the cover photo of Anne Hathaway she has a short brown bob, expensive earrings and a expensive dress which is bright purple which reminded me of a princess dress. it immediately made me think that she looked feminine, was rich, had a designer dress on and looked trendy. The media has obviously stereotyped teenage girls using this picture of Anne Hathaway because they think that if the person on the cover photo looks pretty and trendy, girls are more likely to pick up the magazine and read it, unlike if for example she was not photo shopped and had just jeans and a t-shirt on. It represents teenage girls as shallow and vain because it makes us look like we only care about our looks it could also affect society's view of teenage girls if the media are trying to show that, looks and the latest fashion are all that teenage girls care about.

On the front cover of Instyle magazine they use stories/advertisements that appeal to teenage girls to get them reading the magazine, “best with buys and 83 sites you need to know” which is online shopping, “how to make winter layers work and still stay slim.” Which is fashion advice, and  “New hair new you! Cuts and colours to transform your look.” Which is new hair styles. I thought these advertisements were very degrading to teenage girls because its using words in these advertisements like “still stay slim” and “new hair new you” and “transform your look.” Its telling girls that they have to be skinny and change themselves in order to be pretty, and in society these days all media talk about is that girls have to be skinny and have ‘thigh gaps’ and ‘collar bones’ in order for boys to notice them and think their ‘hot’ or ‘sexy.’ The effect of this representation on teenage girls having to be really skinny and seeing models who look like their perfect is having a negative representation on teenage girls, and can cause depression, bulimia and even suicide because of the pressure of looking like how the media thinks they should look like.

Inside the magazine I calculated how many advertisements there were and what they were trying to represent in teenage girls. There were a lot of advertisements to try get teenage girls to buy these products to make them "pretty and popular."

Makeup- 13
Skin care- 9
Hair- 5
Clothing- 34

As I was looking through these advertisements I saw that they all said something like 'buy this dress, you have to have it!' and 'lipstick that will make you 100x sexier' I felt like looking through this would have a negative effect in teenage girls, because of Instyle their products are a lot more expensive then some magazines like 'Girlfriend' and 'Cleo' so its more likely that teenage girls wouldn't be able to buy all this stuff, which wouldn't make them confident in themselves, for example they couldn't have the lipstick that makes them '100x sexier.' It also had a stereotype in teenage girls because of the models they were all skinny and looked they had perfect facials and perfect skin, when in reality they are all just photo shopped and don't look like that every day, but I think society forgets that and thinks that teenage girls should look like that and look 'youthful' and 'beautiful.'

The celebrity that is offered as a role model in Instyle Magazine is Anne Hathaway who is on the front cover. There are a lot of articles about her in this magazine because she is very successful and worked hard at being where she is now. When Anne Hathaway was a teenager she stared in her first movie which was called the princess diaries which was about a girl who gets appointed as a princess, later on they decided to do princess diaries two. Anne has gotten very far in life and is now an A list actress who is respected in society. I think she is a good representation and role model on teenage girls because she got where she was today by just being herself. Anne didn't follow the medias ways of being really skinny and wearing makeup all the time to be 'pretty and liked by boys.' Because of Anne Hathaway teenage girls can feel confident to inspire to be like Anne, without all the media pressure of how teenage girls should be to become successful and liked.


I think Instyle has a Negative representation on teenage girls but does have a positive by doing an article on Anne Hathaway and putting her on the cover page. Anne Hathaway is a role model to the majority of teenage girls today for being different and not being exactly how the media stereotypes teenagers to be. It does also have a massive negative representation on teenage girls because of the advertisements telling girls what they should look like, eat, dress like and be like and its just to much for girls to try keep up to medias expectations. I think the media should be more careful on what they say and stop being so judgemental to teenage girls. Media need to see the effect on what they portray teenage girls to be- skinny, pretty, boyfriend, popular etc. Teenage girls should just be who they want to be and not feel bad about it, they should feel confident in themselves.