Representation of social groups in media productions

2. The particular social group represented in our film
opening Teenagers, all characters shown in the film
opening are teenagers played by teenagers.
However unlike most horror franchise we did not
choose to sexualise this particular social group, for
example Paris Hilton’s performance in the House Of
Wax.
Ms Hilton was blatantly placed in this film as an
object for sex appeal. Playing the typical role of the
hot blonde, far from a virgin, who dies first. She
spends around half of her short time on camera
stripping, giving strong evidence to Laura Mulvey’s
theory of the Male Gaze. The male gaze is a concept
coined by feminist and film critic Laura Mulvey. It
refers to the way visual arts are structured around a
masculine viewer. It describes the tendency in visual
culture to depict the world and women from a
masculine point of view and in terms of men's
attitudes.

3. In contrast, we represented our teenager in a much more modest
costume, not stereotypical of this particular social group. There is
zero sexualising of this character, no scenes were purposefully
placed into our film opening to create any sense of a sexual
tension regarding this character or any others. We challenged the
stereotypes that teenagers are sexually active, drinkers and drug
takers as none are expressed throughout our film opening.
However we did represent teenagers in casual very casual and
comfortable clothing, this could provoke stereotypes of them being
lazy and scruffy but it could also help the target audience to better
connect with the character because he wears the same style of
clothing. So we decided to risk creating a negative lazy
representation in order to connect with the target audience which
we believe is more important and will pay off.