The Impact On Teens.

After thinking about the many acticles I have read in the last little while about how many teenage girls turn to hurting themselves because they suffer from deppression or eating disorders etc cause of the things they see in the media and some even turn to suicide because they think it's the only way to stop them from hurting inside for not being that skinny, beautiful, talented or whatever. I saw this article, It has statistics about how the influence of celebrity suicides impact teens and how the victims friends follow.

http://teenink.com/hot_topics/health/article/53124/Suicide-and-the-media/

Its so sad to think they did this all cause of the effect the media had on them. The bullying from peers and being called ugly. The models themselves look like everyone else. But after photoshop, they are a different person. Some models and celebrities are shocked at how much they have been changed in some adverts. I would be too if i was them.

 If only the media didn't sell fake. If only real was what we all saw. IF ONLY.

Real Life BARBIE Dolls

I never thought this could become reality. I was so shocked but this is something you should watch. Who would want to become a real life BARBIE?? It is unreal but you have to see for yourself. And can you believe she didn't even use a mirror?
This would be great for a costume party but the way she describes looking like a 'plastic Barbie' is just plain scary.

Plastic Barbie Make up Tutorial

The stereotype type of Barbie is a doll, (well she is..) but we see barbie as blonde, blue eyed, always wearing make up and tight clothing. The way this girl does her make up, wears a wig, puts on fake eye lashes well it really does make her look like Barbie which is shocking.
But why would you want to look like a Barbie doll?? It might shock some people but guys don't like girls with lots of make up and looking cake faced and fake.
Think about if teenage girls saw this. They would think 'oh it's normal to cake my face in loads of make up cause I saw someone else do it.'
Teenagers are always influenced by older people. Obsession to be the girl everyone wants changes their attitude, personalities, looks and many more. Also if they think they don't look beautiful like the people they see everyday it creates self esteem issues, depression and health problems for the teens.
So this 'how to look like a plastic Barbie' video, is creating a false image to teens about how they should look in everyday life and one day it could be them that has all the bad effects of this.

Click here to read the article I found

Stereotyping in the Movies

Every movie we see we become immediately attracted to the drama of the characters and their story. Stereotyping in movies is a way the viewers can clearly make assumptions about the character.  Usually they are based on sex, race, religion, profession or age. Everyone stereotypes people, it's a way we try to make sense of the world.  
"Filmmakers often rely heavily on stereotypes, because they're a quick and simple way to establish a movie character's traits. Blonde women are dumb, for example; foreigners are villains, Mexicans are lazy, and blacks are great athletes. Teenaged characters are variously shown as sex-crazed, uncivilized, moralistic or shallow, and they tend to be lumped into groups of either popular kids or geeks." Media Awareness Network

When I read the statement above I thought wow, this is so true. When we see a particular sex, race, age etc in movies or a TV show and we immediately guess their life story and try make connections through out the duration. That's what the director wants us to do. Their aim is to hook in his/her audience early. 
I would never want to watch the end of a movie or TV show if the first 20minutes doesn't make me want 
to watch the till the end. We have all had the moments when we have bought a movie ticket, walked in to the cinema, sat down, the movie begins and we think what a waste of money this is. 

Mean Girls Cafeteria Cliques

Mean Girls Cafeteria Cliques

The typical teen movie stereotypes are shown in this clip. But are these stereotypes taken to the extreme? Do we really have 'plastics', 'asian nerds', 'art freaks', 'jocks', 'unfriendly black hotties', 'girls that eat their feelings', 'girls who don't eat anything', 'desperate wannabes', 'burnouts' and 'sexually active band geeks' at high school? Well, I'm a high school student and I can tell you now, we definitely do not have these types of stereotypes. All teen movies have stereotypes taken to the upmost extreme because thats what makes the audience get hooked with the drama between the cliques in that movie.

The main characters in the movie 'Mean Girls' are mostly female. It is a very female dominant film, which wasn't very common when it was released in 2004. The four characters we see most are Cady (Lohan), Regina (Adams), Gretchen (Chabert) and Karen (Seyfried). These four girls are the 'plastics' in the movie. They are the rich, popular, hot, blonde girls that everyone wishes they could be. But they are also bitchy, mean and cruel.
So why is every still obsessed with their lifestyle? Because it looks like they have it all? Everything they have is what we wish for? It's just the perfect barbie image that they portray that everyone falls in love with. We put them on a pedestal. They aren't better than ANYONE else. Everyones equal.
In 'Mean Girls', if you have seen the whole movie, you see the way the school looks at the 'plastics' in envy of their lives. The 'plastics' have the entire school wrapped around their fingers because they make people scared of them which gives them more power. And therefore.. Popular bullies.
To be honest why would anyone want to be like that? It's not the perfect world if you have to make yourself feel better by hurting others. Thats just not fair. NO ONE should ever have to put up with it.
But in the movie the director (Waters) shows the different stereotypes and they way they all treat each other. They tend to stick to themselves through out the movie but they ALL have an obsession with the 'plastics'. Everyone wants to date them and be friends with them. I think Waters did a great job at making the 'plastics' look desirable. This then makes the story line and plot for the movie and 'Mean Girls' is created.

I recently watched 'Easy A' (2010) again and I looked at how they different stereotypes compared to the stereotypes I saw in 'Mean Girls' and I noticed that 'Easy A' was different to 'Mean Girls' but had similar stereotypes such as the good girl, the mean girl, the cute guy etc. But it wasn't as far fetched as I noticed 'Mean Girls' was. For those that haven't seen 'Easy A' It's a movie about a good girl high school student, Olive (Stone), who is at first invisible but when a false rumor spreads the school about her she decides to live up to her new stereotype, the school 'slut'. Olive alters her attitude and the way she dresses to embrace her new title. We see her in corsets with a big red 'A' sewn on, tights and heels as her entire wardrobe begins to change, copying a character from the novel she studies at school, The Scarlet Letter. At first she doesn't mind what people say about her. But eventually it gets to her.  Girls can't stand being on the outside. They need their friends around them. It's just who they are. So Olive seeks help and finds the answer is to video blog to the entire school the truth about the rumor and therefore lives happily ever after.
In real life our problems don't disappear with us riding off with a cute guy on a lawn mower like Olive does. We have to deal with them. Stereotypes make high school high school. It's never easy, always a challenge but when you get the right people around you everything becomes a little easier and you can stop worrying about what you look like, what your wearing, how you act etc but enjoy who you are and be your own stereotype. YOU.

L'Oreal's Misleading Avert Has People Questioning

This L'Oreal advert of Rachel Weisz has been banned as misleading because the photo has been so digitally enhanced. It's pretty clear that she clearly does not look like that in real life... This advert is a bad representation to all who saw it and I agree that it should be banned. I have noticed lately that more 'flawless anti-wrinkle' campaigns have been in magazines and I know for a fact that these actresses that model for the campaigns do NOT look like this in reality. It's a ploy to get their target audience, older women, to think they can look 35 again by using photoshop to make the actresses look so much younger than they really are. If you think about it this has a bad effect on all women worldwide no matter what age they are. Because everyone girl dreams for the perfect body, beautiful face and gorgeous smile that will attract the opposite sex, the out come of these photos for women and teenage girls can cause self esteem issues, weight issues and depression. We all know what high school is like and there is so much pressure to look perfect in every day life no matter what age you are. The fact that more than enough photos in magazines make people feel miserable about themselves than good, it shows that too much of the wrong representation is shown in the media and it's causing bad flow on effects for everyone. All girls compare themselves to the people around them. It's just what we do. I now have the habit of picking up the magazine that looks less photoshopped because I don't want to read fake things about products that will never work etc. It's getting boring and I have better things to do, and you do too.

Dove Beauty Advert

Dove Evolution 

This Dove advert shows how 'models' look so amazing in all those photos in the magazines. But we are all being tricked by the fact that their number one make up item is actually photoshop. How do you feel when you see these stunning women in magazines and you feel like you couldn't compete because you don't look like that? Well everything we see is false. Photoshop has changed the way models look in photos for years and now we are believing that they really do have that flawless complexion, beautiful big eyes, long necks, perfect figures etc. The model in this Dove advert looks completely normal before the hair, the make up and of course photoshop. But after... Well thats another story.

We see billboards everywhere trying to sell us the next upcoming product by making the model look absolutely unbelievably gorgeous; therefore we believe we can look like this to if we buy the product and BAM they win. Current score; Them one - Us zero.. We have all fallen foolishly for these misleading adverts.

What is a 'Stereotype'?

What is a stereotype? Well everyone has a fair idea as we are constantly judging, characterizing and analyzing the people around us of how they act, what they wear and the things they say. A stereotype is a way in which we classify others around.
The Oxford Dictionary states that the word 'stereotype' is a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.
We are aware all through high school of the different stereotypes; the jocks, nerds, cheerleaders, emo's and the list could go on but you get the idea.
We are always unconsciously acting with out thinking. We judge the type of person someone will be before we meet them just by looking at their appearance and their behavior. Everyone has. It's a problem that effects us all but there isn't a cure unfortunately.