Femininity and Adolescence in the Context of Relationships - Essay Example

“Nobody will ever win the Battle of the Sexes. There's just too much fraternizing with the enemy.” Henry Kissinger. This paper revolves around the topic of feminity. Specifically, this study examines the representations of female adolescence in the film Mean Girls since the emergence of girls in crisis and the girl power discourses (approximately 1995-2005) with an aim of addressing the following question: does the cinematic representation of adolescent females respond or contribute to either the girls in crisis or the girl power discourse? Within this broad inquiry, this particular study will focus specifically at discourses around the female beauty, body, dressing, fame, sexuality, perception of intelligence, and those of female peer relationships, fame among girls and, the relations of socio-economic status and sexuality. It also focuses on the discourses of the adolescent female body as portrayed in this film, the extent to which these discourses rely on specific representations the extent to which these portrayals rely on specific discourses of girlhood. Underlying all of these points is an awareness of the powerful commercialism of media like film. In relation, the study also investigates the extent or level to which consumerism permeates these texts. Most of the discourses obtained have resulted in the seclusion and bad perception towards popular and rich girls. Some of the discourses presented assert that physical attractiveness is crucial for girls, a girl has to be promiscuous to be part of the popular clique in school, a girl to has to be sexy to get noticed and has to be rich so as to be popular and liked in college. Discourses around Femininity and How Feminism is portrayed in Adolescent Girls Introduction An understanding of the discourses on femininity and their justification is important because they not only help in understanding women/girls but they also affect how women/girls are treated. Feminism can be viewed as a social organisation of relations between women and men and among women which is mediated by media such as television, film, painting, writing, newspapers, magazines among others (Smith 1988). Leahy (1994) explains that there are a number of public texts that girls and women resist, negotiate or accept in practice. One finding on discourses around femininity touches on beauty. According to Labre and Walsh-Childers (2003), young women’s magazines have promoted women’s beauty as a central theme reinforcing the belief that physical attractiveness is an essential element for young women. The media covers various categories of women differently. Female politicians and young working class women for example, are portrayed as being promiscuous and people who are out to seek personal gain (Tyler, 2008, Cherrington & Breheny, 2005). The category “girl” as a socially constructed identity has been used as a coercive tool of consumer capitalism and patriarchy. Such systems subordinate girls in many ways, most obviously as adolescent and as females. More so, this situation is exacerbated for non-white, lower class girls, working or queer or who fit in two or more combinations of these. The representations of girls by the media demonstrate class and race distinctions, examples of young women from various backgrounds embodying or embracing this term proliferate. Evidently, there is little literature on the discourses around femininity that have been constructed from female relations, meaning that there is a gap in the examination of the discourses around femininity. This is the rationale of this study. The study was based on the Mean Girls film. The film was chosen because many girls have it and will watch it. It is popular among women and teenage girls. Figures from the big box office films indicate that the film has sold over $86 million units in the US alone and over $129 million units worldwide. In addition, the film makes a special focus on female adolescence relationships, the sexuality of girls and conversations between characters are very clear making it easy to follow and retrieve helpful quotes. The study tackles a sensitive topic which does not encourage the target people, girls, to open and reveal much about their take on various issues. For example, if they are jealous of other girls, if they dress seductively to be seen by men among other points of interest. Even if they participated they are unlikely to give the most truthful information but would seek to defend their gender. On the other hand, macro discourses is not concerned with individuals or their personal experiences. Instead, it analyses the language they use to describe the subject or object and the possible meanings of these. In addition, macro discourse analysis is concerned with social positioning, creation of subjectivism and criticism. It provides an unobtrusive means of analysing interactions among people and it gives an insight into complex models of language use and human thought. Objectives The aims of the research included to explore the representations of young women in “Mean Girls”, to explore how these representations draw upon dominant discourses (shared ideas of society) about femininity, to explore how teenage sexuality is represented in “Mean Girls”; and female beauty, body, dressing, fame, sexuality, perception of intelligence, and those of female peer relationships, fame among girls and, the relations of socio-economic status and sexuality and to consider how the discourses identified position young women and the possible implications of this.   Method Text media was chosen as the data collection method given that the study focuses on the discourses around femininity generated by media and their effects. The analysis of media content looks directly at communications on a given topic and hence gets at the core aspect of social interaction. The use of a film as the main media was preferred because it facilitates a virtual phenomenological-like type of approach to female relations unlike print media analysis through magazines or newspapers. The researcher is able to virtually follow the actors and pick out the discourses on femininity presented by observing their interactions and use oral and body languages. A truly phenomenological study would not have been possible and it would be difficult for a researcher to move about with a group of girls in order to obtain information without infringing on their privacy. Subjects would also behave technically if became aware of this close observation and thus the results obtained would not be valid and truly representative under normal circumstances. The film Mean Girls in particular was selected because it mainly revolves around the representation of girls in female relations, something that lacks in previous studies that looked at the discourses around femininity. Poststructuralist analysis was used to analyse the data obtained. Burman & Parker (1993) explain that poststructuralist analysis attends to the power given to certain individuals by discourses. The various discourses were drawn by looking at the languages used by the girls in the film to express their feelings, describe their surroundings and other girls, the possible meanings they carry, and the resultant treatments that they receive. Findings/Analysis During the study, various discourses surrounding femininity were identified from the interactions taking place in the film which portray the traits of women. These discourses revolve around three major recurring themes namely bitchiness, image and social status, and sex. The prominent theme is image and social status. Under this theme, wealth, image and money feature as the things that are highly valued by girls. Girls are portrayed as being self-loving and self-conscious and so they worry about their weight and appearance. “A hundred and twenty calories, and calories from fat..only eating foods with less percent calories from fat.” “God, my hips are huge! Oh, please. I hate my calves. - My hairline is so weird.” These are the insecurities arising from having body shapes, sizes and features that are perceived by girls not to be ideal showing that physical attractiveness is crucial for girls. From the film, it is evident that women are fashion-conscious and cautious, and wear provocative clothing purposely to get noticed by men. The new girl dressed as a zombie bride was rejected by the clique as the mode of dressing was not popular with the plastics that preferred bunny ears and limited clothing clover. This shows that for a girl to get noticed, she has to be sexy. In the film, a woman is portrayed as an object to be viewed while the man is always assumed to be the ‘bearer of the look’. The origins of this discourse can be traced to the ideas on Freud. As film theory (and cultural studies more generally) developed in the 60s and 70s, the reigning theoretical approaches depended on psychoanalytic criticism. Discourses of the pleasures of viewing/ being viewed and the notion of “the gaze” draw heavily from Freudian theory. In the film, the popular girls are those who wear designer brands and come to college in nice cars. They are referred to as Plastics. The popular girl seems to be all-knowing and full of secrets. “Gretchen Wieners...She's totally rich because her dad invented Toaster Strudel...knows everybody's business.” “Regina George is flawless.... has two Fendi purses and a silver Lexus... her hair's insured for $10,000....” (Mean Girls). The above script shows that for a girl to be popular and liked in college, they have to be rich. The rest of the girls look up to the plastics and imitate everything that they do be it good or bad, intentional or accidental. “I saw Cady Heron wearing army pants and flip flops, so I bought army pants and flip flops.” (Mean Girls, 2004). The plastics have their boss who lays down the ground rules to be followed by the other girls for them to belong to the popular clique at school. “You can't wear a tank top two days in a row...only wear your hair in a ponytail once a week...only wear jeans or track pants on Fridays...if you break any of these rules, you can't sit with us at lunch.” Through an examination of the interpersonal relationships and the importance of peer groups, it has been found out that paradoxically, friendship rituals among girls are more evident than body rituals and at the same time, more insidious. The popular girls dictate the rules to be followed by their admirers who are only too glad to be groomed by the latter group. This is in line with McCord’s (2008, p.18) statement that “This system consolidates popularity within one or two groups of girls, minimizing competition from outsiders”. Another discourse that is related to this is that intelligence is looked down upon, especially among the popular clique. Cady, the dumb blonde girl from South Africa was intelligent. She scored highly in mathematics despite having been home-schooled. Because of wanting to be accepted by the plastics and to get Aarom Samuels, a guy she had a crush on, she intentionally starts failing maths. Regina, Gretchen, Damian and Karen advised her “You can't join Mathletes, it's social suicide.” And she agrees, “thanks Damian.” Cady, ultimately succeeds in diffusing into “girl world” and developing a peaceful landscape with her peers, thereby giving an example of how girls can survive in this tumultuous time in their lives, ostensibly alleviating an aspect of the moral panic surrounding the girls in crisis discourse. Another discourse that comes out clear in the film is that a girl has to be mean to be popular, “ me and Regina George know we're mean.” (Mean Girls). Women apply meanness in a manner to suggest that other people or situations do not matter to them in their pursuit for fame to a point that they are willing to forego the very personal relationships that they cherish as noted by McCord (2008). “Mean” is preferable to “stuck-up” since the latter faces the risk of loss of status. The other prominent theme is bitchiness. Traits that portray girls as bitchy include being catty, two-faced, back-stabbing and jealous. They are revengeful, fake, snitch and malicious. Others include spreading rumours, lying, and being deceitful and reckless. There are many incidences in the film where the girls back-stab, spread rumours, engage in malicious talks, and tell lies about other girls and guys in the school. “Let me tell you something about Janis Ian.. She was a LESBIAN.” “you know she cheats on Aaron? Regina evidences the two-facedness of girls. This shows that girls cannot keep secrets forever and girls who break their friendships are likely to betray each other (Mean Girls, 2004). Bitchiness among girls is also expressed in the film through being unfeminine aggressive, assertive, domineering and, strong-minded and thick-skinned. It is also expressed trough characters like being boisterous, threatening, masculine, stubborn, loud mouthed, demanding at times. Regina who is the queen is seen to be domineering, demanding and threatening when she claims that “hoops earrings were ‘her’ thing” others were not “allowed to wear them anymore.” She is also ruthless and catty to the point that she is willing to ruin other people’s lives to achieve her desires. Gretchen, a fellow plastic testifies that “my parents got this pair of really expensive white gold hoops and I had to pretend like I didn't even like them.” Regina as a representative of powerful girls is seen as “fierce”. This reveals that even among females in female adolescent relationships, masculinity is associated with strength and power whereas femininity is associated with weakness. Such findings contribute to the belief that among girls, manipulation is an avenue to power (Adams 2005). Sex is the third recurring theme in the film. Girls keep talking about sleazy boys, sexual innuendo, past relationships and crushes. They also talk about romance, relationships, pursuing and heartbreak. Others still reveal about their invitations on a date and their encounters with the deception of males. It was also noted that most of the girls’ talks concerning relationships and attractions revolve around the plastics, “That's Regina's ex-boyfriend” “Regina took Aaron back.”, “seen any guys that you think are cute yet?” “Ex-boyfriends are just off-limits to friends.” Discussion Through the interactions of the various characters, the film Mean Girls brings out the negative and pronounced traits of women/girls. Many discourses around femininity were generated from these interactions and the discourses address the research questions satisfactorily. In the film, women are represented as being catty, two -faced, back stabbing, jealousy, vengeful, self-conscious and self-loving. They are also represented as rumour mongers, gossipers, aggressive, competitive, demanding, domineering, threatening and people who love social recognition among others. Each of the discourses defines the position of girls in the society and each has potential implications on how women/girls are treated by fellow girls and men/boys. Despite being mean or less emotionally mature, girls who are popular and outgoing have more influence compared to less known and reserved girls despite being mean. For example, members of the popular clique influenced other girls into desiring to have lunch with them, joining them, or even to drop their performance deliberately just to fit in with them. This is ironical given that most of them were not high performers or had dropped deliberately to earn social recognition. Social recognition and acceptance is more valued than intelligence. Girls who are associated with other striking qualities like popularity or richness are more liked while the geniuses are mostly ignored and secluded. For an illustration, the intelligent girl from South Africa is referred to as the dumb blonde girl who cannot spell “orange”, “She asked me how to spell orange.” According to the clique members, intelligence is nothing for the clever girl to them is the “dumbest girl you will ever meet”. As a result, girls are ready to compromise performance for recognition and acceptance. In line with the observations of Wilcox (2005), physical attractiveness is thought to be crucial for girls. This has made girls, especially those who belong to the popular clique, to be so cautious of their facial and general physical appearance and diet. This discourse has led to the social seclusion of girls viewed as ‘unattractive’ regardless of their intelligence. It also confirms the notion that men are real, women are made up as stated by Black and Sharma (2001). Masculinity is associated with strength and power. Girls driven by this discourse report rampant girl-girl fights. It encourages girls to fight for influence and dominance. Generally, teenage sexuality is represented as revolving around sex and the ability to attract lovers. Teenagers fight for new catches and only the popular boys/girls get the girl/guy. However, there are some elements of promiscuity which is also associated with popularity, especially among teenagers. This situation has somehow become a self-fulfilling prophecy because popularity predisposes girls to promiscuity. It puts them in a so called ‘sought-after’ class. A lot of stereotypical notions are presented in the film. One of these is the idea that everyone from Africa is black. Yet another stereotype is that popular girls are those who are wealthy and mean. In reality, this is never the case as many white and colored people reside in Africa. Yet again, there are popular girls across the globe who are not necessarily rich. The media analysis approach used was effective in discovering the discourses around femininity. This is so considering that the study revealed the popular views held by the society toward women as they apply to various contexts and various classes of girls. However, the post structural discourse analysis does not capture the actual feelings and experiences of the target group which is exposed to the negative discourses compared to other types of analysis like narrative analysis. Living in a society that is so stereotypical and focused on wealth and fame, it is worth noting that some of the presentations in the film are representative of the society. However, in certain respects, the portrayal of popularity, sexuality and intelligence is overstated. This is so considering that intelligence today is valued even among girls across the world. Furthermore, there are female personalities who have achieved fame not because they were rich but because perhaps they worked hard in one area or another. Further developments in the field should include a closer examination of the feelings of girls as a result of exposure to such discourses. References Black, P. and Sharma, U., 2001. “Men are real, women are ’made up’: Beauty therapy and the construction of femininity.” The Sociological Review, (1), 100-116 Burman, E. & Parker, I., 1993.Discourse Analytic Research: Repertoires and Readings of Texts in Action. Routledge. London. Cherrington, J. &Breheny, M., 2005. “Politicizing dominant discursive constructions about teenage pregnancy: Re-locating the subject as social.” Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, (1), 89-111. Cheryl, S., 1998. Gender, genre and globalization : discourses of "Femininity" in the popular culture of the 1990's. PhD thesis, Concordia Day, K., Gough, B. & McFadden, M., 2004.“Warning! Alcohol can seriously damage your feminine health”: A discourse analysis of recent British newspaper coverage of women and drinking.” Feminist Media Studies, (2), 165-183. Gergen, K., 1994. Realities and relationships: soundings in social construction.University Press. Cambridge. Labre, M. & Walsh-Childers, K., 2003.“Friendly advice? Beauty messages in web sites of teen magazines.” Mass Communication & Society,(4),379-396. Leahy, T., 1994.Taking up a Position: Discourses of Femininity and Adolescence in the Context of Man/Girl Relationships. (1), 48-72 McCord M. (2008). "So Very," "So Fetch": Constructing Girls on Film in the Era of Girl Power and Girls in Crisis. Women's Studies Theses. Women's Studies Institute. Georgia State University. Mean Girls (2004)" retrieved from www.alluc.org/movies/watch-mean-girls-2004-online/26414.html Smith, D. 1988. Femininity as Discourse, in ‘becoming feminine: the politics of popular culture, edited by L. roman and L.K. Christian-Smith. Falmer. Philadelphia. Tyler, I. 2008. ‘Chav mum, chav scum’: Class disgust in contemporary Britain. Feminist Media Studies, (1), 17-34. Wilcox, P. (2005). Beauty and the beast: Gendered and raced discourse in the news. Social Legal Studies, (14), 515-532. Appendix: Film Transcript Read More