Bad Girls Club Negative Effects On Young Women

Objectification includes the perception that individuals can be treated as objects or tools. For instance, social media like the different social networking sites and other forms of media like commercials, and reality television treat women as objects to be used, for example to sell cars, to advertise different merchandise, even food. In Sabrina Rubin Erdely’s article “Kiki Kannibal: The Girl Who Played with Fire”, Erdely explains the drawbacks of creating an online image by focusing on the tough and harsh treatment that Kiki faced over the internet. In Rachel Kadish’s article “Who Is This Man, and Why Is He Screaming?” she states her concern in that “there is something dehumanizing in the spectacle of a young man’s face being carried on the wind like dust” as she debates the uncontainable spread of her cousin’s image. Finally, in her article “Ghetto Bitches, China Dolls, and Cha Cha Divas”, Jennifer Pozner reveals the ways in which she thinks reality television stars are manipulated and edited into extremely typecast images in a way that

When analyzed on a sociological level, the movie Mean Girls demonstrates the difference between certain aspects of society within different cultures. In the movie, Cady Heron, the main character, moves from Africa, after living there for twelve years to Evanston and begins attending North Shore High School. Cady is not familiar with the customs of a North American high school and the hierarchical social structures within it. She quickly associates herself with a group of girls referred to as “The Plastics” who hold a high degree of power in the school and they start influencing Cady in unfavourable ways. This paper will discuss the sociological factors of the movie Mean Girls.

Modern media has a massive audience with more than 115 million American household families owning a television (NewsWire). Everyday viewers devote time to watching programs and are intrigued by the attractive actors and the situations they encounter. Although these characters and their lives seem to be unbelievably attractive, many of the shows have stereotypical gender qualities. Regina George in Mean Girls frequently portrays qualities that are often seen as ideal ways for women to live, though a closer look reveals the limitations with these ideas.

Girls behaviour is policed in that they cannot do anything that is strictly for boys, for example “Girls can’t surf!” and “Girl’s cant’ eat in front of boys” are two quotes from the movie that dictate how a girl must behave. Gender roles even transcend the social heirarchy, in that even the popular surfie girls are subject to being used by boys and told what to do. It even affects typical coming of age rites of passage, like when Debbie and Sue are drinking tequila and a boy goes “Tequila? Pretty strong stuff for a little girl.” It seems that to become a popular girl, you must assimilate into the feminine gender

“The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of a women begins when the doctor says, ‘It's a girl!’” Women are forced to conform to a set place in society, and the pressure they feel to conform starts when they are born.

In the movie Mean Girls, many different social psychology traits were displayed. The traits displayed included different parenting styles, role identity, and much more. The movie Mean Girls was based on 16 year old girl named Cady who has been homeschooled her whole life, and is thrown into a public high school. She begins to get involved with the schools popular groups called “The Plastics”, from here things escalate causing Cady to move in the wrong direction. This movie depicts some exaggerated, but very real situations that high schoolers today face every day.

In Katha Pollitt 's essay entitled "The Hunger Games ' Feral Feminism," Pollitt writes about what reality television might look like if taken to extremes. Reality television is a huge part of our culture today, and I not only agree with Pollitt 's views and ideas of what reality TV would look if taken to the extremes, but I believe that we have already gotten to that point. Today 's reality TV shows such as "Keeping up with the Kardashians", "The Bachelorette" or any of the "Real Housewives" are among many of today 's popular shows that focus on extreme aggression, bullying, physical beauty, and sex appeal. These TV shows teach us that it is not only ok to compromise morals and values, but that type of behavior accepted and rewarded. In today 's age, reality TV generally has to go negative and go to the extreme in order for it to be interesting despite the lasting impact that it may have on viewers. Reality TV has an impact on the values of their viewers and alters how they may perceive real-life situations. Therefore, it 's important to take a look at some of the standards portrayed by reality TV.

Society’s high expectations of females guide their everyday actions and decision making whether consciously or subconsciously. In Stephen Hinshaw’s essay “Impossible Expectations” he discusses what he calls the “Triple Bind” where girls are supposed to be good at both typical girl and guy things as well as conform to a specific set of standards created by society. These contradictory expectations shape girls’ lives and drive their decision making from what type of career they will pursue to how they dress. Hinshaw also explained that girls are supposed to fit a cookie cutter image portrayed by the media yet encouraged to break the mold at the same time,

When I was younger their were more inspirational television shows to watch, such as Thats so Raven, Full House, The Cosby Show an many other television shows that you and your family can sit down and watch together. Today the younger kids do not have anything like those positive television shows to look at anymore. Nowadays we have T.V shows that got to do with cheating, lies, and deceit. What ever happen to those T.V shows that you parents wouldn’t mind you to watch without having their parental advisement. One T.V show that is so disrespectful and degrading to me is the television show “Bad Girls Club.” Bad girls club is a reality television series. It centers on seven rebellious women aged from 21 to 27 with different personalities and backgrounds, who have a number of behavioral problems. its original plot was to try to help seven behavior problem women change their self destructing antics, while they spend three months in a fine mansion with one another, during which they have to go by some specific rules, which they must get kick out of the show if they don’t obey them. The women on the show have negatively influenced the younger viewers with 24/7 drinking and partying, the promiscuity, and the constant fighting. The show fails to show the outcome of the actions the women on the show will have to face in real life, but instead it paints a picture that there are no real consequences to the actions that they chose to follow but getting fame.

The Bachelor is a T.V daring show, In the reality show the bachelor women are often portrayed as the stereotypical woman. Women on the show all have this dainty appearance which also enforce stereotypes of femininity like cattiness, and a dependency on men. In general, many of the women who go on The Bachelor are portrayed as overly emotional, jealous, possessive or even crazy. The Bachelor preserves a part of gender roles that include dating as well as marriage. The show displays a particular kind of femininity that has to do with a world that is run by a man. The “good girls” are defined by their passivity and commitment to real true love on are against the “bad girls” who seem to be in the game for themselves or do not show the proper attitude. The shows grabs the audience by displaying certain behaviors that some will be acceptable and another would not be acceptable for a young women to act.

Mass media not only reflects gender stereotypes but also plays a role in changing them. Females used to be portrayed as less brave and more dependent. Now there are strong, independent female characters like Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games and intelligent, brave female characters like Hermione Granger from Harry Potter. Like women’s changing positions in society, more aggressive and dominant females are being featured. Mass media molds new stereotypes but not all the ideas that are communicated are positive.

Are you a victim of cyberbullying on the internet, or a victim of all the positive impact that social media can offer ? In the articles, “Student examines negative effects of social media on teens” by Aurelie Krakowsky, and the article, ¨the upside of selfies: social media isn't all bad for kids” by Kelly Wallace (CNN), the authors argue about how social media can be bad for kids but can also be very useful at some times. Over all social media can harmful in many ways; however there are more benefits that truly exceed them.

Sexualtizing young girls and women in the media can lead to harsh thinking about one another or themselves. The media puts young girls through many tough situations with the unrealistic standards

The director of Mean Girls, Mark Waters, has misinterpreted popular teenage girls to be “mean.” The movie has drawn people to believe that “nice” girls cannot be popular unless they completely change how they dress, act, and talk. “Nice” girls have to give up their moral values to become popular. Indeed, some popular girls are snobby and bullies, but not all.

Our sex saturated media is also generating conflict in young girls’ development. The portrayal of women as sexual objects is discussed in the article “The sexualization of Girls is Harmful” by Olivia Ferguson and Hayley Mitchell Haugen. The article cites statistics of “prime-time television shows popular among children” remarking that “12% of sexual comments involved sexual objectification toward women” and “23% of sexual behaviors involved leering, ogling or catcalling at female characters”.(par 6) The feature provides www.aboutkidshealth.ca/ as an “online resource for information about areas of children’s health and family life”. (Par 1) This web site states “depression, low self-esteem and eating disorders” as consequences for media sexualizing women. (Par 2) The research defines “the objectification theory as a psychological theory explaining the