Teenage Representation in Media

                                         Teenage Representation in Media

       A group that I would like to represent are teenagers, specifically teenagers in high school. These people would be from 14-18 as those are the ages of people in high school. I do not think that teenagers are represented well in the media. Teenagers are also made out to be disobedient, reckless, and selfish, having no regard for anyone but themselves The media also makes teenagers out to be sex-hungry and have lives enveloped in drama. This is an issue that I may want to represent in my project because as a teenager my self, I know that many of these characteristics are not true and I want to possibly prove this within my  project.

 One example of media that represents teenagers is the movie "Mean Girls". Mean Girls represents teenage girls in particular, as catty brats who only care about boys and being the prettiest and the most popular. In mean girls, there is a friend group called "The Plastics". "The Plastics" is composed of Regina, the beautiful, vindictive ringleader, Gretchen, the "gossiper" and Regina's most devoted follower, and Karen, the dumb blonde. These girls lack qualities such as tolerance and integrity, qualities that many teenagers have in real life.They are highly exclusive and act as they are above everyone else. They get away with it because their peers also believe that statement as well, going as far as copying the way that the dress. Within their school, their are many cliques and everyone seems to fall into one, insinuating that there is little individuality among teenagers. Cady Heron, the new student, ends up joining the plastics because at their school, everyone must be in a clique. They must hang out with people "of their own kind". But I know for fact that this is not true at every high school. At my school, there are very few cliques .This is because my school is extremely diverse as there are people of many different cultures. People are friends with  many different types of people form the what mean girls would make out to be the "jock' and the "art geek" . Also, mean girls represents teenage girls as "flawless".They are skinny, and have perfect, enviable bodies and have no acne. This is a huge problem because this is not representative of teenage girls in real life. Many girls have acne and are not a size 0. "Mean Girls" portrayed teenage girls in a negative light, unfairly establishing a poor depiction of this group of people.

      Another example of media that represents teenagers is the television show "Glee". This show is overflowing in stereotypes. "Glee" portrays football players as rude, cocky, dumb, and reckless. They shove the "nerds" into lockers and trashcans. They are the bullies of the school. This is a very unfair stereotype because athletes are not always the bullies. Anyone can be a bully, not just the buff foot ball players. Also, I would like to point out that I have never  in real life seen a kid at my school throw another kid into a trash can. That is very extreme and rarely happens in real life. The show dramatizes kids because it makes the show more entertaining, but then consequences arise because people then start to believe stereotypes like this. "Glee" also portrays cheerleaders to be dumb, pretty, and blonde, and drama students to be snobby and full of themselves. These are just stereotypes. Yes, some of these stereotypes are true, but they are not indicative of people as a whole. The characters also have far more drama than an actual high school student would. People are constantly cheating on each other, and stabbing each other in the back for self-gain. The teens are made out to be selfish, which I think is a very unfair statement because there are many teens that strive to help and motivate their peers. 

    There are very few representation characteristics that I would retain from "Glee" and "Mean Girls". To some extent, a lot of these stereotypes are true. However, in my project I would attempt to not dramatize stereotypes such as rude jocks and dumb cheerleaders. I think the media dramatizes stereotypes because it is more entertaining for the viewer. Many are in fact  are rude, selfish, vindictive, dumb, and other "negative" characteristics. The problem is that Mean Girls and Glee put little emphasis on the positive qualities in teens like kindness, tolerance, and integrity. I would make sure to show that every teenager is unique and does not just fall into one specific category or clique.