Stereotypes in the Media

The representations of teenage girls by the media is usually different from reality. Movies, magazines and advertisements stereotype girls into different groups. The most common and followed stereotype of teenage girls is the popular "It Girl" who has perfect hair, clear skin, confident personalities and in-style fashion. This represents teenage girls to be involved with beauty and fashion as well as gossip and boys. People would say a "typical" girl. This is what the media wants us to think all teenage girls should be like in order to sell products and achieve high ratings. 

The types of media I have chosen to study point out that teenage girls are almost always represented by the average beautiful girl. Although they do have their own uniqueness's, each girl has certain characteristics and traits. Because teenagers are the targeted audience for my studied media, what they see impacts them and their society. The values shown in these types of media effect girls as they absorb most details shown. With all of the context of magazines, beauty advertisements and themes in the movies, gossip, fashion and beauty are shown as three important values a teenage girl should have. With the glamorous ways of The Bellas and The Plastics, to the cover girls and spokeswomen, a silent expectation of teenage girls has arisen. The creators of the media I have studied have skillfully crafted these values in a way which impacts society. They compare the local teenagers to the media's representation of them which puts pressure on the girls to act a certain way. 

In Mean Girls an Pitch Perfect, the reasons for creating such characters as The Plastics and The Bellas, was to show the change in their behavior once they stop judging everyone for what they do and just accepting them for who they are. I believe this i what reality is like. Yes there are some girls who consider themselves superior to everyone else but at school especially, there isn't one superior clique which dominates the year level but different cliques based on interest and mutual respect for each other.

The advertisements and magazines representations of teenage girls is close to reality of a celebrity but not for an average teenager. The reasons for they way the present teenage girls to us is so that they can sell their product. When we see a gorgeous girl using a certain product in a magazine or on the television we assume that the product works and therefore will work for everyone.

The impact which the media has on teenage girls and their societies impacts their way of life.