Blog Post #2

The group that I'm representing is teen drama films. Teen drama films usually represent girls as  a constant source of drama and limit people by being in cliques. Another stereotype of girls is the airheaded female shown in characters such as Karen Smith in “Mean Girls. Guy are stereotyped as well. In these movies you get the usual male characters: the jock, the geek, the bad boy. The thing about those archetypes are that while they do exist in the real world, they are usually not as cliched or dramatic as in these shows. These characters in these movies aren't really accurate to how it is in real life. Also many movies portray teenagers as emotional, overly dramatic and immature subjects who cannot make rational decisions. When in reality a lot of teens are focused in school and want to get good grades and test scores. These portrayals make real teenagers feel they are missing out on the teenage “experience” that the media likes to grossly exaggerate. Another unrealistic aspect of these shows is how teenage characters “live in the moment.” Fictional teens rarely seem to be preparing for any sort of higher education, a concept that can influence the young, impressionable audience that is watching. However there are some movies that represent teenage life well are movies like Perks of Being a Wallflower. We see characters dealing with issues of fitting in, identity and emotional trauma, and it doesn’t seem phony or fake. That movie is a good portrayal of how normal teens are because a lot of teens are dealing with their own struggles and also try to deal with the stresses of school and finding themselves. Hopefully movies will start to represent teen life in the way it actually is rather than over dramatizing everything and stereotyping typing individuals.