Why are teens filming fighting and/or brutality and putting the films on the internet?

Five girls from Roger Williams Middle School got into a fight on school grounds, someone filmed four girls beat up a fifth girl then was posted on You Tube. In the blurb on NBC 10 a representative from Butler Hospital spoke about the incident. She says the rise of publicizing fights and brutality is due to teens wanting to show power, inferiority, and to intimidate and instill fear in others.

How many teens affiliated with the same political party as their parents or guardians?

80% of the thirty teens I interviewed affiliated with the same political party as their parents or guardians.
13% affiliated with a didn’t party
7% did not affiliate with a party or did not know what party their parents or guardians affiliated with.

Gold Locks

I felt as though there was an overwhelming amount of information on the Listen up site. Because I didn’t really know what to look at I found navigating through out the site frustrating. I think this is an interesting website, but I wish there was more direction. Although I felt overwhelmed by the quantity of videos but, there was one film that stuck out to me; Gold Locks. Gold Locks stuck out for me because I just recently donated 13 inches of hair to Locks of Love. I was very surprised to learn it takes approximately 5 ponytails to make one wig. With 9,500 children diagnosed with cancer in 2006 alone there is a great need for hair. I hope that I will be able to continue donating my hair in the future.

“AS IF”… Pop Culture Totally Effects Teenagers.

As Greenfield states, “teens are greatly influenced by the television and films they watch, the magazines they read and the music they listen to. The 1995 film Clueless was an influential film for many teens and preteens during that period of time. The film is based upon the lives of high school students from Beverly Hills. Cher, the most popular girl in school, is the main character. Although Cher and her friends are barely 16 years old, they live more lavished lives than middle aged millionaires (That’s because they are the children of those millionaires.) “If anyone in Beverly Hills is clued in, it's Cher. She's almost 16, she's rich, she's way popular, and she loves letting the world benefit by her expertise in all of life's important issues--like dating, fashions and looking good.” (http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/info) Clueless was one of the most popular films in 1995, grossing more that 56 million dollars in the box office.

What messages are popular teen films, such as Clueless sending to young adults?
“My whole self image has been formed mostly by others or underneath my worries about what I look like are of being exposed to TV images of girls and their set roles given to them by TV and the media.” (Unlearning the Myths That Blind Us.) Cher influenced me as well as thousands of other young ladies. When I was younger I wanted to be Cher, I wanted to look like her, drive a car like hers, my favorite saying was “as if”, Cher’s signature motto.The characters of Clueless were digital natives of their time, with cell phones and pagers. OMG! Did you see Cher’s closet? I even had a Clueless hands free telephone.

Like the students in LA showed Greenfield, the characters from Clueless showed the viewer “the powerful allure of the Hollywood dream.” The movie created the allure of the Hollywood for many viewers. High school students around the country were made to believe that they to could have all of the luxuries that Cher and her friends possess. This notation plays into the idea that teens have become “preoccupied with become other than who they are.”

The film also deals with the “importance of image, celebrity, and popularity.” When Tai, the new girl, arrives at Beverly Hills High Cher and her best friend Dion (the two most popular girls in school) give her a makeover. With a new image Tai becomes just as popular as Cher and her friends. Tai went from being the new kid in school who no one wanted to be associated with, and by changing the cloths she wears, the way she speaks, and who she hung out with, she became popular.

Real Women Have Curves

On April 21st I attended an event put on by LASO, Latin American Student Organization. We watched the film Real Women Have Curves then discussed issues relating to the movie. Real Women Have Curves is a film about Ana… “Ana Ferrera has an appetite for life, for love, for ideas. But not everybody appreciates where that appetite is taking her. Real women take chances, have flaws, embrace life… and have curves.”
Thomas Hines talks about teenagers, “figuring out where they fit in-to the universe, the world, the economy, their social circle, their family- is a project on which teenagers spend a lot of their time and energy.” In this film I feel Ana knows where she fits in, her struggles lie with her family accepting Ana’s decision to be an independent woman. Hines also talks about the common misconception about “the concept that a teenager rests in turn on the idea of the adolescent as a not quite competent person, beset by stress and hormones.” I feel Ana’s family, especially her mother, have the same misconception about Ana when she is a intelligent, strong willed, independent female who is looking to further her education.

Some issues that came up in our discussion:

“In careers women are paid less”: Not only do females in the same positions as men get paid less but female dominated professions such as at teaching and nursing tend to receive a lower salary than male dominated professions such as electricians and plumbers.

“Women are only housewives”: Is there a head of your household? If so, who is the head of your household? The idea that women are only housewives may depend on your family’s costumes and values, which may determine what is expected of you as a wife or daughter. The terms women and housewife are associated with one another. Why can’t there be a househusband? Although it seems as though these stereotypes are changing from generation to generation housewives still exist. My generation, living in the United States, seems to have less tolerance for this concept. In some households today it isn’t just about expectation put on women but what each woman allows. A way to break expectations such as the women must take on all household responsibilities is to not allow it, expect the other members of the house to share the responsibilities with you. Standing up for yourself from the start and letting your partner know exactly what you will and will not allow is a way to break the housewife stereotypes. Rather than having your partner take you out to dinner take them out to dinner. Don’t always let the other person drive you around, you can drive too. People (men and woman) will treat you the way you allow them to treat you. Set your standards from the beginning.
In “Unlearning the Myths That Blind Us” Christensen talks about the “secret education, which instructs young people to accept the world as it is portrayed in movies, cartoons and other various form of pop culture.” The dominant discourse of our society plays a huge role in gender stereotyping.

“The perfect body”: In Greenfield’s preface she expresses her concern about the widespread “early loss of innocence.” “Teens are greatly influences by television and films they watch, the magazines they read and the music they listen to.” The most common imaged we see are the media and Hollywood’s perception of the perfect body. It is also difficult to deal with family pressures, “you’re too fat, loose weight”. There is no “perfect body” your body is perfect, that’s why it was given to you. There seems to be more stress on females to have the “perfect body” because the images we see are mostly female. About 90% of the fashion industry is female oriented.