Blog Number 1

Blog Assignment #1

There seems to be a change in the way in which teenage girls are being portrayed in movies, if Ten Things I Hate About You, Juno, Whip It, and Easy A are examples of things to come.  Up until very recently the popular adolescent movies ranged from finding buried treasure to excelling in sports to teenage gangs.  The protagonists in all these movies were teenage boys.  If there were girls in any of those movies they were secondary to the story.  The teenage girls were friends, girlfriends or tag along sisters.  The point of view of these young women was never shown, even though the actions of the teen boys affected their lives.  The teen age boys behaved like they were the princes of their kingdom, and they were treated like royalty by all. 

Th The movie industry made these teenage male driven movies, of course, because they felt they would be money makers.  The film marketers knew they would be able to draw in millions of teenage boys to see themselves portrayed on the big screen.  However, the movie industry was also reflecting society.  Females were seen by society as the "weaker" and "passive" gender.  Even though the feminist movement began in full strength in the 1960's, it took decades for the movies to reflect the changes in society.  Even today we still hear such Oscar winners as Halle Berry and Meryl Streep say that it is hard to find a movie with a leading role for them.  Hopefully, with this current influx of teenage girl driven movies that lament will end and this new generation of  "girls" will have many "women" roles open to them.  As Catherine Driscoll states in "girls", "Youth has been consistently important to cultural analysis because it presents a crucial point of cultural reproduction and cultural change.  Youth names a field in which society reproduces itself and makes changes through the incorporation and exclusion of individuals and groups in relation to social systems that precede and contextualize them" (p.10).    

      The first movie I remember seeing in which I felt empowered was "Ten Things I Hate About You."  Even though that movie is based on Shakespears's "Taming of the Shrew", the teenage girl was definitely the leading character.  In the play the "Shrew" is a female, but her character is not the protagonist.  In the movie, Kat is the leading character.  She has standards which she adheres to no matter what her father, peers, or school officials tell her what is the "right thing" really is.  Kat does not represent the obedient teenage daughter of earlier times.   Also, in the movie "Whip It", the lead character, Bliss, follows her inner voice.  Her mother wants her to be a demur young lady, while Bliss does what interests her, joining a roller derby team.  At the end of both of those movies the parents have accepted the choices their daughters have made for themselves.  I feel these movies reflect the real teenage girls of today, pursuing their interests, not going down a path their parents have planned out for them.

      Probably the most realistic movie I have seen about a contemporary teenage girl was "Juno."  Of course it was written by a female, but it shows that the movie industry is willing to makes movies about an unashamedly pregnant teen.  Even the relationship between Juno and her parents is refreshing.  They do not tell her the "right:" thing to do, they let her make her own decisions without parental pressure.  This same kind of parental  acceptance is found in "Easy A."  The audience sees that Olive's parents love her and care about her, but they let her make and live with her choices.  This is also a societal change the movies are reflecting, parents accepting the way daughter are choosing to live their lives.  In "Easy A", Olive is shown as being in charge of defining who she is.  Although my one complaint about the movie is that after she confesses to all over the internet about her scheme, a teenage boy is there for her to lean on.  However, this one complaint is still small, compared to the days when the male would have entirely fixed the situation.  The movies are definitely beginning to represent teenage girls as the independent, capable and smart people they are.     

       Mary Celeste Kearney's article, "Producing Girls - Rethinking the Study of Female Youth Culture", states, "Because of the success of the feminist movement in decreasing discriminatory practices based on sex, as well as in empowering females of all ages, the numbers of all girls completing high school and college education is greater than ever before, and there are more opportunities for girls who want to move outside the traditional female roles of wife and mother and the conventionally feminine spaces of the domicile and shopping center" (p.289). These changes as stated by Kearney are being reflected today in the movie industry.  We see teenage girls going off to Ivy League schools, joining the roller derby, be unashamedly pregnant, and facing the consequences of their own actions.  These certainly are opportunities not considered to be part of traditional female roles.  The movie industry is to be giving some credit for now producing these kinds of movies, however it is not only because this media recognizes societal changes.  This industry also recognizes the fact that they can make lots of money from millions of teenage girls buying tickets to see a reflection of themselves on the big screen.                   

Works Cited

Driscoll, Catherine. Girls. New York: Columbian UP, 2002. Print.

Kearney, Mary C. Produicing Girls. Girls Make Media. Print.

 

       

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