Pop Culture's Influence in High School

High school is a complete reflection of pop culture. The movie Mean Girls depicts what high school life is like for many teens in America. Mean Girls is all about high school cliques interacting with each other and how the more popular cliques usually consist of girls who aren’t very intelligent and wear short skirts to attract guys. However, the movie goes on to show that girls in these cliques don’t always have things go their way and that a girl can get a guy to like her without degrading her value and trying to enhance her appearance.

In the movie, Lindsey Lohan plays the role of Cady Heron. Cady is an exchange student from Africa and is not familiar with the teen pop culture that she is exposed to in America. She is a math geek and doesn’t have a very good eye for fashion. Rachel McAdams plays

the role of Regina George. Regina is the “queen bee” of a clique on campus known as the Plastics. The Plastics is the school’s most exclusive clique. Everyone at school is intimidated by the Plastics because of their perfect appearances and reputation of being very judgmental.

Hanging out with the Plastics begins to change Cady. She begins following stereotypes and loses her own individual personality. She dresses like all of the other Plastic girls and also gains an attitude. The Plastics were first embarrassed to be seen with Cady when she wore her own baggy clothing. Once they influence her to change her outfits and get her wearing short skirts and more revealing outfits they are satisfied with Cady’s addition to their clique. In one scene Cady takes part in a dance performance at a talent show with the rest of the Plastics. Her performance is very promiscuous and her parents are appalled by her new behavior. Cady very casually joins the Plastics in their dance because it seemed like it was her place to join them.

Along with changing her appearance, Cady’s geeky side becomes hidden and she pretends to be bad at math just to attract a boy in her math class. Regina tells Cady that being good at math is too geeky for guys and isn’t very attractive. To get a guy to like you it is important to let him dominate and be better than you in subjects like math and science. Having this kind of mentality gives the Plastics a very unsophisticated look.

The Plastics are greatly influenced by the standards that pop culture has set for teen girls and follow those standards like puppets. This prevents them from developing their own personalities and educational interests. Maintaining this look also causes the Plastics to hold emotional burdens as they are pressured to be the best looking girls on campus and to go out with the best looking football players at their high school. They are secretly unhappy inside as they are limited to what friends they have and are forced to segregate themselves from anyone who doesn’t follow their standards. Though they may become tired from having to keep up with such a classy reputation, they can never break away from their already known look. It is unthinkable for them to ever show their skills in class or to wear the clothes that Cady once wore. They must be perfect. Perfect is what pop culture tells them attracts guys. But, perfect doesn’t always win in the end.

When Regina and Cady are both after Regina’s ex-boyfriend, Aaron, they go out of their way to impress him. At first Cady believes that being more like Regina would get him to like her. Being pretty and dressing like Regina may attract him at first but it’s not what he was looking for in a girl. When Cady shows who she truly is in front of Aaron she finally catches his attention and doesn’t seem like the plastic Barbie doll that Regina strives to be at school.

The perception that pop culture gives on women is never truly accurate. Following it like Regina and her clique can actually cause you to gain negative feelings from the ones in your surroundings just as the Plastics had. Being natural and sticking to what you love is really what matters. You might catch a guy’s attention by looking like a perfect Barbie doll but you only catch his heart by being who you truly are.

References

Mean Girls. Dir. Mark Water. Paramount Pictures, 2004. Film.

Varma, Sujit R. “Plot Summary for Mean Girls.” 2004. Internet Movie Database. Web. 12 October 2011.

How women in pop culture define what "true beauty" is.

The Merriam-Webster definition for beauty is stated as “the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit”. In other words, beauty is something that should be unique to each person in their own right. There should be no set criterion that defines if one is beautiful or not. Unfortunately, today’s modern society seems to have just that: a set criterion that determines if one is considered beautiful or ugly.

Influencing society’s youth from a young age, pop culture plays a substantial role in defining this criterion. According to a 2007 study done by the American Physiological Association, early exposure of women in pop culture can be extremely harmful to a young girl’s emotional and physical health. From the age of toddlers to young adults, the brain is developing and is susceptible to impressions made by pop culture. For example, young girls usually get their first Barbie doll at the average age of three. Barbie dolls are marketed as being a skinny and curvaceous girl with a no flaws to be found. Barbie dolls have the typical “desirable” body, the hot boyfriend, and the successful career. Aspiring to have a successful career is an important goal for any young girl, but unfortunately it seems that more girls in today’s society are focused on achieving the “perfect” body rather than working for not only a successful career, but a successful future overall. If a standard Barbie doll is proportionally increased to human size (a standard Barbie doll is 11.5 inches, so increase by a 1/6^th scale), the “real-life” Barbie would stand at five feet nine inches, chest size of thirty-six inches, an eighteen inch waist, a hip size of thirty-three inches, and would weigh in at one hundred and ten pounds. The “real-life” Barbie would be roughly thirty-five pounds underweight and would most likely suffer from back problems due to a lack of lower back strength to support her breasts. Is this what young girls should be aspiring for from such a young age? Furthermore, it does not stop with the Barbie dolls. As young girls become teenagers, and eventually mature to become women, pop culture consistently bombards them with the “proper” definition of beauty.

As girls grow up, pop culture continuously surrounds them with undermining interpretations of what true beauty is. Many forms of social media such as music, movies, and television contribute to the overall “criterion” that has been set by pop culture for beauty. For example, today’s (October 12^th, 2011) number one R&B/Hip-Hop song on Billboard.com is She Will by Lil Wayne. The lyrics are vulgar and clearly objectify women as sex objects and nothing more. In the song, Lil Wayne continuously refers to women as “Bitch”. In one line of the song, Wayne raps, “Karma is a Bitch; well just make sure that bitch is beautiful”. With lyrics that degrade women to such a base level, it is troubling to see that the song is one of the most popular songs in today’s society. Songs that are found near the top of the charts often degrade and objectify women as sex objects. In television and movies, the majority of women are famous for their physical aspects such as their slender curves and pretty faces. It is extremely unfair that women in the media such as Megan Fox, Jennifer Aniston, and Kim Kardashian set unrealistic standards for beauty. These standards can damage the self-esteem of many women throughout the world. In a 2004 study done by the American Physiological Association, sixty-eight percent of women strongly agreed that media and advertisements set standards for beauty that are unrealistic for the average women to have. More surprisingly, only two percent of women considered themselves beautiful. More alarming statistics were to be found by the APA. Seventy-five percent of teenage girls reported having low self-worth and participated in activities such as disordered eating, cutting, bullying, smoking or drinking when feeling lowly about themselves.

Today’s youth should not have to grow up feeling uncomfortable in their own skin or have the feeling that they are not good enough because they do not look like Megan Fox or some Victoria’s Secret model they see on television. Parents need to inform their children of media literacy (ability to analyze and assess the messages sent out by media in all its forms) and also reassure them that they are beautiful. There is no specific way to be beautiful; each person has their own unique set of traits that make them beautiful in a completely different way than the person standing next to him/her.

References:

Breezysands. "Mass Media Has a Negative Impact on Women." Web log post. Teen Ink. Teen Ink. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. .

Carter, Dwayne M. "Lil Wayne - She Will Lyrics." Metrolyrics.com: Lil Wayne - She Will Lyrics. Metro Lyrics. Web. 11 Oct. 2011. .

Zurbriggen, Eileen L., Rebecca L. Collins, Sharon Lamb, Tomi-Ann Roberts, Deborah L. Tolman, L. M. Ward, and Jeanne Blake. Sexualization of Girls. Publication. APA, 2007. Web. 11 Oct. 2011. .

Androgyny and new women (edition1)

Super Girls was a reality television singing competition in China, whose mode is similar to American Idol, but only for girls. The fashion led by Super Girls swept China every year from 2004 to 2006. In 2005 its popularity reached the summit, producing a group of stars who shined in the next few years. Among these stars, the champion of that year, Yuchun Li (Chris Li), was definitely the most special and controversial one. She was not the best in singing and dancing. Nor was she the best in appearance. But she got the most vote from audience, especially female audience. A main reason for that strange phenomenon is that she showed a strong androgyny during the competition. Her androgyny, accompanied with "her proud and unpolished imperfection has charmed her fans."1

Short and straight hair, 175cm height (unusually high among Chinese women), jeans and T-shirts, a boy's English name and strong dancing became the typical mark of Yuchun Li. You can tell from the photo here that she was a tomboy, rather than an elegant lady. She preferred to sing the songs with fast rhythms and strength. Her tone was so low that you cannot tell whether she was a girl or a boy. After the competition, she published several albums and acted in a few movies. In 2009, she acted in the blockbuster Bodyguards and Assassins as Fang Hong, a female bodyguard who was good at martial arts. She showed her masculinity in the movie and sacrificed herself to prevent the explosion. Those are just some examples of Li's male properties. Because of these properties, Chinese people later gave her a nickname called "Brother Chun."

Despite her fame, some people, most of whom were male, had a different opinion on her. They thought she completely overturned the image of a Chinese women. Some of them claimed that the reason why she won the championship was that she took advantage of people's curiosity to androgyny (female androgyny in 2005 was not as common as now). Later, because of her peculiarity of female androgyny, a religion called "Brother Chun's religion" was created to make fun of her. To understand this, first, we need to have a look at male's psychology. Men have formed their own aesthetics and it is passed by generation. They prefer long hairs, skirts and lovely smile. That is perfectly illustrated by 2005's Super Girls. In that year, an organization did a survey "Who is your dreaming Super Girl?". The result was a bit astonishing. Most men chose neither the champion Yuchun Li nor the second place Bichang Zhou. Instead, they chose the third place, Liangying Zhang, who was of more femininity and had a better singing skill and a charming smile. The aesthetics itself has no problem, but the problem lies in the way people perceive that. For men, they want every woman to dress themselves as their aesthetics expects. If the woman is not willing to, those men will despise her, tease her, or just ignore her. (Above: Liangying Zhang; Below: Bichang Zhou)

On the other side, women's opinion towards this was totally different. They claimed that those "tomboys" were a kind of "new women", who had changed the traditional image of women. Because it symbolized freedom, innovation, and trend, more and more girls tried to dress up like a boy. They began wearing no make-ups and simple clothes such as shirts and pants, and shortening their hairs. They believed it's time to be strong and bold. This phenomenon, was a blend of the fashion led by those super girls and feminism.

Indeed, what a woman looks like should not be judged by men, even her husband. She has the right to determine her own appearance. Androgyny, in Super Girls and many other following shows, partially demonstrates a will of women to liberate themselves from the shackle of men's aesthetics and helps build up what a new woman should look like. However, it does not mean women should divide the masculine and the feminine apart and choose only the masculine. A proper attitude towards androgyny should be that women realize what kind of people they want to be and how they wish to dress up. They can combine masculinity and femininity and keep themselves "simple and natural."2 Androgyny is a beginning of women's liberation. Beyond this, a crucial goal, which feminists should strive for, is that women will be aware that they are not defined by the society, but by themselves. What's more, androgyny should lead an evolution that social environment, especially men, change their aesthetics and show more tolerance and respect to women's choice to support women to find their own unique identity.

Referrence：

1.Joffe-Walt, Benjamin. "Mad about the girl: a pop idol for China." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited. 6 Oct. 2005. Web. 12 Oct. 2011.

2. Gramstad, Thomas. "Androgyny and Gender Dialectics." n.p, n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2011.

How women in pop culture define what "true beauty" is.

The Merriam-Webster definition for beauty is stated as “the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit”. In other words, beauty is something that should be unique to each person in their own right. There should be no set criterion that defines if one is beautiful or not. Unfortunately, today’s modern society seems to have just that. A set criterion that determines if one is considered beautiful or ugly.

Influencing society’s youth from a young age, pop culture plays a substantial role in defining this criterion. According to a 2007 study done by the American Physiological Association, early exposure of women in pop culture can be extremely harmful to a young girl’s emotional and physical health. In the younger years, the brain is developing and is susceptible to impressions made by pop culture. For example, young girls usually get their first Barbie doll at around the age of three. Barbie dolls are marketed as being a skinny and curvaceous girl with a no flaws to be found. Barbie dolls have the “desirable” body, the hot boyfriend, and the successful career. Aspiring to have a successful career is an important goal to set for any young girl, but unfortunately it seems that more girls in today’s society are more focused on achieving the “perfect” body rather than working for not only a successful career, but a successful future overall. A standard Barbie doll is proportionally increased to human size (a standard Barbie doll is 11.5 inches, so increase by a 1/6^th scale), the “real-life” Barbie would stand at five feet nine inches, chest size of thirty-six inches, an eighteen inch waist, a hip size of thirty-three inches, and would weigh in at one hundred and ten pounds. The “real-life” Barbie would be roughly thirty-five pounds underweight and would most likely suffer back problems due to her not having enough strength to support her breasts. Is this what young girls should be aspiring for starting at such a young age? It does not stop with the Barbie dolls however, as young girls become teenagers, and then mature to become a woman, pop culture consistently bombards them with what the definition of beauty is.

NOTE: This is a very rough draft. I have not written it all, there is more to come!

Mean Girls

High school is a complete reflection of pop culture. The movie Mean Girls depicts what high school life is like for many teens in America. Mean Girls is all about high school cliques interacting with each other and how the more popular cliques usually consist of girls who aren’t very intelligent and wear short skirts to attract guys. However, the movie goes on to show that girls in these cliques don’t always have everything their way and that a girl can get a guy to like her without degrading her value and trying to enhance her appearance.

In the movie, Lindsey Lohan plays the role of Cady Heron. Cady is an exchange student from Africa and is not familiar with the teen pop culture that she is exposed to in America. She is a math geek and doesn’t have a very good eye for fashion. Rachel McAdams plays the role of Regina George. Regina is the “queen bee” of a clique on campus known as the Plastics. The Plastics is the school’s most exclusive clique. Everyone at school is intimidated by the Plastics because of their perfect appearances and reputation of being very judgmental.

Hanging out with the Plastics begins to change Cady. She begins following stereotypes and loses her own individual personality. She dresses like all of the other Plastic girls and also gains an attitude. The Plastics were first embarrassed to be seen with Cady when she wore her own baggy clothing. Once they influence her to change her outfits and get her wearing short skirts and more revealing outfits they are satisfied with Cady’s addition to their clique. Along with changing her appearance, Cady’s geeky side becomes hidden and she pretends to be bad at math just to attract a boy in her math class. Regina tells Cady that being good at math is too geeky for guys and isn’t very attractive. To get a guy to like you it is important let him dominate and be better than you in subjects like math and science.

The Plastics are greatly influenced by the standards that pop culture has set for teen girls and follow those standards like puppets. This prevents them from developing their own personalities and educational interests. Maintaining this look also causes the Plastics to hold emotional burdens as they are pressured to be the best looking girls on campus and to go out with the best looking football players at their high school. They are secretly unhappy inside as they are limited to what friends they have and are forced to segregate themselves from anyone who doesn’t follow their standards.

Androgyny and new women

Super Girls was a reality television singing competition in China, whose mode is similar to American Idol, but only for girls. The fashion led by Super Girls swept China every year from 2004 to 2006. In 2005 its popularity reached the summit, producing a group of stars who shined in the next a few years. Among these stars, the champion of that year, Yuchun Li (Chris Li), is definitely the most special and controversial one. She was not the best in singing and dancing. Nor was she the best in appearance. But she got the most vote from audience, especially female audience. A main reason for that strange phenomenon is that she showed a strong androgyny during the competition. Her androgyny, accompanied with "her proud and unpolished imperfection that has charmed her fans." (Joffe-Walt, Benjamin. "Mad about the girl: a pop idol for China." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited. 6 Oct. 2005. Web. 12 Oct. 2011.)

Short and straight hair, 175cm height (unusually high among Chinese women), jeans and T-shirts, a boy's English name and strong dancing became the typical mark of Yuchun Li. You can tell from the photo here that she was a tomboy, rather than an elegant lady. She preferred to sing the songs with fast rhythms and strength. Her tone was so low that you cannot tell whether she was a girl or a boy. After the competition, she published several albums and acted in a few movies. In 2009, she acted in the blockbuster Bodyguards and Assassins as Fang Hong, a female bodyguard who was good at martial arts. She showed her masculinity in the movie and sacrificed herself to prevent the explosion. Those are just some examples of Li's male properties. Because of these properties, Chinese people later gave her a nickname called "Brother Chun."

Despite her fame, some people, most of whom are male, had a different opinion on her. They thought she completely overturned the image of a Chinese women. Some of them claimed that the reason why she won the championship was that she made use of people's curiosity to androgyny (female androgyny in 2005 was not as common as now). Later, because of her peculiarity of female androgyny, a religion called "Brother Chun's religion" was created and many people turned to make fun of her.

Later, Androgyny elicited a discussion about what should women's image be like. First, we need to have a look at male's psychology. Men have formed their own aesthetics and it is passed by generation. They prefer the women who have more femininity. They prefer long hairs, skirts and lovely smile. That is perfectly illustrated by 2005's Super Girls. In that year, an organization did a survey "Who was your dreaming Super Girl?". The result was a bit astonishing. Most women chose either the champion, Yuchun Li, or the second place, Bichang Zhou. Nevertheless, most men chose neither of them. Instead, they chose the third place, Liangying Zhang, who is of more femininity and has a better singing skill and a charming smile. The aesthetics itself has no problem, but the problem is in the way people perceive that. For men, they want every woman to dress themselves as the aesthetics. If the woman is not willing to, those men will despise her, tease her, or just ignore her.

Liangying Zhang (Above)

Bichang Zhou (Below)

On the other side, women's opinion towards this was totally different. They claimed that those "tomboys" were a kind of "new women", who had changed the traditional image of women. Because it symbolized freedom, innovation, and trend, more and more girls tried to dress up like a boy. They began wearing no make-ups and simple clothes such as shirts and pants, and shortening their hairs. They believed it's time to be strong and powerful. This phenomenon, was a blend of the fashion led by those Super Girls and feminism.

Indeed, what a woman looks like should not be judged by men, even her husband. She has the right to determine her own appearance. Androgyny can partially demonstrate a will of women to liberate themselves from the shackle of men's aesthetics, but it does not mean women should divide the masculine and the feminine apart and choose only the masculine. Actually they can combine those two characteristics and keep themselves "simple and natural" (Gramstad, Thomas. "Androgyny and Gender Dialectics." n.p, n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2011.) A proper attitude towards androgyny should be that women realize what kind of people they want to be and how they wish to dress up. Beyond this, a crucial goal feminism should achieve is that women should be aware that they are not defined by the society, but themselves. What's more, social environment, especially men, should show more tolerance and respect to women's choice to support women to find their own unique identity.