The group in society I have decided to focus on for this internal are teenage girls/young women and how they are represented as sexualised/beautified to market a product to a viewer. Also how they are shown as promiscuous, beauty driven people who are obsessed with achieving physical “perfection” based on their favourite celebrities throughout the media.

The three media texts I have chosen that I think best portray the idea of teenage girls and how they strive to be physically perfect are; the film ‘The House Bunny’ , the television show ‘Gossip Girl’ and the magazine ‘Cosmopolitan’. (Mainly the cover)

My first example is the television series ‘Gossip Girl’

The first image is a photo from the March 2011 Cosmopolitan magazine of Blake Lively portraying her character Serena Van Der Woodsen in the T.V series ‘Gossip Girl’. Serena has been styled based on her character, beautiful and desirable (mostly due to her wealth and social status in the show). She has been dressed in entirely white, surrounded in a completely white background, this allows her skin to be the main aspect of focus, and it portrays perfectskin and skinniness. Most girls who see this aspire to imitate these images and may inspire feelings of failure when they do not achieve the exact image. Her lips in the picture are pouting making her look sexy and draws attention to her lips by also making them look glossy and shiny. Her face has been ‘retouched’ (or photoshoped) giving her a look of perfection and youth making her look envious. The photo is then accentuated by an unnatural pose, giving main focus to the viewer of her of her long legs and body shape; she is squatting down and staring directly at the viewer. Her stare, rather than being aggressive or emotionless, is confident and seductive as it engages the viewer directly, also the way her arms are positioned emphasises the unnatural pose and creates an atmosphere of sexualisation towards the viewer, but the entire photo itself shows simplicity which adds effect to the atmosphere of sexualisation . The plainness of her dress creates a clean, fresh natural beauty that is simple but difficult to imitate for the viewer.

This second still (screenshot from episode) is of Leighton Meester portraying her character of Blair Waldorf in the same television series. Blair (compared to Serena) is shown in a completely different scenario (running through the street contrasted to Serena at a photoshot) She is shown wearing a tiara and a long, attractive white wedding dress. The tiara shows connotations of superiority and self importance which suggests that Blair is a high achiever, it shows high position of popularity and social status at her school, and suggests like she relies on her looks to get her through school/life. By using stereotypes like crowns and tiaras, and using it widely throughout many forms of media, it compels teenage girls into becoming like the stereotype. This has importance on specific demographic groups, in this case teenage girls that have relatable desires and morals, so it can be easier to market products to them. For example in the picture of Serena above, it shows her wearing a tight white dress which makes her look desirable (which most girls want) and so they buy it, so when there is only one image of what a target group should be and act like, they are a lot easier to market to. In the image Blair is a tall, beautiful women who is wearing an attractive white gown. This appears to suggest that superficial goals such as prom queen and achieving physical ‘perfection’ are the most important things for a teenage girl to aspire to if they want to be like their favourite celebrity. And from buying these products what better way to discover what we ‘should’ be doing from teenage girls who appear surface happy in the media.

A study has shown that by the age of thirteen/fourteen half of American girls are unhappy with their bodies. These increases to 78% by the time girls reach seventeen. Teenage girls can also have body insecurities due to these characters portraying "teenagers" When in fact the actresses playing these characters are in their twenties. The characters are therefore more developed physically giving teenage girls a misrepresentation of reality who want to look like these ‘women’. The two examples above are playing roles of 18-21 yr olds in the t]T.V show but in real life and in late 20’s early 30’s.

My second example is the Film ‘The House Bunny’

These are images from the 2008 film “the House Bunny” directed by Fred Wolf, staring Anna Ferris and Emma Stone (to name a few)

The movie is about a group of smart, geeky social outcasts who need pledges for their sorority to stay in college, so with the help of an ex-playboy model, she turns them into superficial/shallow girls who eventually start to only care about their looks and social status. The woman who becomes the ‘house mother’ is skinny, blonde and not very bright, something that all the men notice and want. She teaches the girls to dumb down and be sexually attractive. This not only creates an unrealistic stereotype towards teenage girls about only pretty girls get popular but also puts in place an idea that stupid pretty girls are more likely to be the centre of male, and female, attention. The message seems to be that beauty will cause all our dreams to come true, the only way for women to get what they want is to be beautiful and not ‘too’ smart. This movie is also slightly saying that it is not acceptable/right to be smart and intelligent in this day and age. It is mostly common throughout the world that teenagers, boy or girl, want to be popular, and if a teenage girl was to watch this shot of the actors walking down a street with people staring at them and wanting to be them in the movie, girls will imitate them. This makes it easier to market these clothes, because if every girl wanted to be like them they will eventually decide to dress like them, ending up buying sexual clothes. In this image the main focus is on the girls, by the use of bright colours and seductive clothing. By emphasising this stereotype they are encouraging more people to follow the stereotype and encouraging people who follow the stereotype to buy their product over other products that are less likely to make them popular.

My third example is of the October 2012 issue of ‘Cosmopolitan’ magazine

‘Cosmopolitan’ is a magazine directed to mostly teenage girls and young women, the topics are usually based around the idea of sex and appearance. On this issue, on the cover is Jen Hawkins, an Australian beauty queen and television presenter. Even her status as a person already connects to the idea of ‘physical perfection’ by her being a winning beauty queen. She is picture wearing a gold, sparkling dress, which makes her the centre of attention compared to the light pink colours of the words around her. The dress is also quite short so the viewer can see her legs and make a judgement on how tall she is and skinny. Her facials of happiness and joy create a joyful vibe/emotion towards the viewer so they will be more tempted to buy it. Her facials are also like that to give her the innocent yet seductive look mostly because it is attractive for the viewer and because sex sells. She also has long ‘golden’ hair which makes her look like an almost unreal girl. All the titles around her are publicized in pink and light colours (mostly because it is girl related) except for the big black, bold words of “EPIC SEX” which captures the viewer’s eye. The use of the word sex being pushed into the viewer captivates them because ‘sex’ is a word that interest people. On ever ‘Cosmopolitan’ magazine there have always been tall, skinny (models) girls...

Because these are the kind of women we always see in the media and are led to believe this is how women should look. Most reasons why they are always perfect girls in the media is because men like it and they want to see it.

Even thought there have been movies like ‘The House Bunny’ for ages and ‘Cosmopolitan’ has been running for many years which show perfect, skinny, tall girls in the future more and more women will strive to look exactly like these girls which different body disorders could arise from, and also standards for men will increase causing men’s expectations of women to amplify.