Chylo Dynair - Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

All the characters shown in the movie/opening are teenage girls, who all seem to be obsessed with popularity and appearance. It could be suggested that this is a representation of a modern teenage girl living in the 21st century, as the majority of girls worry or would like to change something about their appearance or relationships with others of the same age.

Our opening titles could show white female teenagers as a social group that is highly affected by appearance, and also highly motivated by acceptance of people of the same (and the opposite) sex. Studies show that 53% female teenagers are unhappy with their appearance (31% claiming to have suggested surgery), and other statistics show that nearly 48% feel unaccepted within their social group. Although this movie/opening titles was not created to widen the amount of interest and awareness on teenagers self esteems, it could be something that is explored by the media to gain more attention for the movie.

In my opinion, the opening shows its audience that teenage girls are stereotypically self-obsessed. Every scene/shot in the opening sequence is only seen once, except for the shot of the girl putting lipstick on her lips (as it is shown 3 times). This could subconsciouslyshow the audience that teenage girls are dependent on their physical appearance (more so than their personalities, as the opening tells us nothing about the girl internally), and are reliant on seeming attractive to others - even those who are compulsive murderers. Again, this point is justified as (during the rest of the movie) it would soon be revealed that the main character kills all these other teenagers (those seen in the scrapbook) because they have been voted the most beautiful at prom.

(Several shots of character putting on lipstick)