1. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In the making of the media product the initial idea was to include a girl in the film. This is
because i believe a female character can have several representations and can be a flexible
character in the different roles and the different stereotypes girls can have.
Therefore in my product female teenage girls are being represented in two different ways:
vulnerable and powerful.
One of the girls is represented as a vulnerable character in the way that she is being picked
on by a group of powerful girls; therefore she is represented in a weak character.
The reason why it was chosen to represent the girl in a vulnerable way was because it fitted
the typical stereotype of women and girls are perceived by society as weak and vulnerable,
so my film partner and I decided to include this stereotype in the product.
Another way that we represented women is as powerful characters. This is shown through
the use of a trio of three girls, who have the power to intimidate the weaker characters. I
thought the use of a trio was quite significant, for example the 3 Musketeers, Powerpuff
Girls, Charlie’s Angels, are shown as powerful, strong characters that don’t fear and take
control of situation.
In horror, this group of mean girls tends to be the first targets and victims as even though
they are seen as popular and powerful, but in the eyes of the murderer/killer they’re seen
as easy and vulnerable as they believe all the confidence is a mask to cover their worst fears
and flaws. For example, Saw have elements of this as John places their victims and tortures
them in order to unveil their worst fears and dark secrets.
However, we seem them losing their power as one by one dies, which makes each one of
them lose the confidence and power. So the use of the weaker character is purposely
inserted to show that the innocent and more conservative characters are the ones to
survive and gain the power of the situation.
Teenage groups are represented in order to aware the audience about the potential youth
issues that there is in society today such as bullying is one issue we have considered for the
making of film.