Examples Of Gender Stereotypes In Clueless

Gender is a sociological idea, in which it is not based on biology. While there is some biological differences between the sexes, the “meaning” of being male or female is based on social norms. Like race, these “biological” differences provided a system of enabling inequality between the sexes. History offers many examples of the gender norms over time. Women, for centuries, are few as the homemakers and often viewed as intelligent. Despite living in the twentieth century with greater equality, one does not need to go far to see how society and media influence our perception of gender. Advertisements in various media persuade its audience to buying their products. However, the means of attracting and persuading the audience can have underlying messages. Even in entertainment for young girls these underlying messages are prevalent. One example is the popular film, The Little Mermaid, in which the main protagonist is a young female. The protagonist gave up her identity to satisfy her lover. Even traditional gender roles are at work; the film showed young girls that to be happy and successful one had to find a husband and must relinquished one’s identity (Wood 1994). The generalized perception of male and female are polar opposites. Males are viewed as masculine, strong, authoritative, powerful, and devoid of emotions. Females are viewed as beauty, fragile, nurturing, emotional and sole purpose is to please men. These ideas can lead to sexism, which can have negative effects on

Stanley is a good example of the stereotypical male. He is portrayed as the dominant husband of Stella. He is always trying to prove he is in charge. As well as being very simple, and wanting very few things. “Nothing belongs on a poker table but cards, chips and whiskey” (42). All he wants to do is play poker and drink with his friends. Stanley is an aggressive character, his dominance is shown through his

The theme of struggling with identity, present in all three of the abovementioned films, is significant in characterizing the popular views of young women. In The Breakfast Club (1985), one of the leading characters, Claire Standish, is a spoiled, prim, popular princess at first glance. As the film progresses, the 1980’s cultural construction of young women begins to appear and as Claire comes forward with her sensitivity, stresses, and struggles she begins to rebel against the rules of detention by smoking marijuana in the school library and by kissing the “bad boy” that is serving detention with her. Claire’s rebellion reflects the adolescent angst present in the 1980s possibly caused by teenagers’ subjection to new music, more drug use and being further informed about diseases such as HIV and

To describe the gender stereotype example, I have selected advertisement from the website of coloribus. It is the advertisement of the Johnson & Johnson Company to promote the Johnson baby care products. It released on June 2009. It is picturized with the woman with her baby and saying that this company’s baby products are more suitable for the small babies’ skin. I found this ad online Johnson’s baby product advertisements. I have the photo of the advertisement at the end of the writing part. And this is the link for the advertisement: http://www.coloribus.com/adsarchive/promo-casestudy/johnsons-baby-products-johnsons-baby-diaries-15560755/

Clueless had both gender and sexuality stereotypes. For example, the new guy, Christian, is stereotyped as a “cake boy” because he’s homosexual. That being said, there was gender stereotyping with female characters being portrayed as the “damsel in distress” and male characters being the “bring home the bacon” guys. It’s really just

As explained in Judith Lorber’s excerpt from “‘Night To His Day’: The Social Construction of Gender”, gender is a socially constructed concept that everyone unconsciously adheres to (Lorber). As a socially constructed concept, representations of gender roles can reinforce or challenge the stereotypical images. In Killing Us Softly 4, Jean Kilbourne analyzed the advertisement industry’s representation of women and argued that the media plays a huge role in shaping gender formations (Kilbourne). Although objectification of women is still a prevalent issue, Kilbourne acknowledged that there are efforts nowadays that challenges the unrealistic representations of women and femininity (Kilbourne). Inspired partly by Killing Us Softly 4, the project is my way to reflect on how the Disney movies I had watched as I grow up represented gender.

The iconic release of Amy Heckerling’s production of Clueless (1995), dramatized the struggles of a typical, rich American princess Cher Horowitz. Her story is set in Beverly Hills, California where she comes from an affluent home headed by her father who is a lawyer. Being in high school, Cher is popular amongst her peers and that in addition to her wealthy background are big parts in upkeeping her lavish lifestyle. Cher is obviously intelligent, yet still so naive; most of her focus and energy is spent in hopes to achieve meaningless goals such as getting the boy she likes in the moment or having designer clothes. Though she does maintain the egocentric, sort-of superficial mindset throughout most of the

This film paints multiple stereotypes and over exaggerates them to emphasize their relevance in society in hopes of changing the audiences' viewpoint of these stereotypes set before women.

A concept of a stereotypical teenager in the 20th century was to grow up through childhood but not surpass the values, beliefs and attitudes of a typical adult. In the 1998 film, the audience is shown a great selection of characters, symbolism and setting which reinforces the idea of a teenage role that shows a new perspective that affects society.

Another guilty party in the effort to maintain women to lower status is American pop culture, which predominantly portrays women as being nothing more than sex objects. This is only relevant in that it illustrates how "backlash" does not only apply on a government level, but also in entertainment. The younger generations (children through 18 years old, mostly) are far more influenced by pop culture than they are by the government. The messages conveyed by the industry hit at a rather impressionable age. Faludi only touched on this aspect, noting that the television and films generally portray career women as being high-strung and unwed. Furthermore, popular novels show these women as being bitter spinsters whom practically beg for marriage. In this all-too subtle way, the media mocks the independent woman. Rarely are happily married, working women featured. The film industry fails to equally represent females at all. In 2002, 77% of protagonists were males in their 30s and 40s. The mere 16% of characters whom are female are portrayed primarily in their 20s and 30s. Women over 40 accounted for 9% of all

This generation has exaggerated stereotypes over the year using movies to negatively represent people in today's society. Within these movies they have corrupted young teenage minds to judge any one on the way they look and see people.

Women are deemed as a “minority” yet make up 51% of the world population and in 2014 made up only 12% of protagonists in films. And that is just on-screen, the percentage decreases as you go farther and farther into behind-the-scenes positions such as directors, cinematographers, and writers. Add race and ethnicity and those characters' percentages decline even more (Lauzen, 2015.) Women in film and television are often portrayed with emphasis based on their body type and in advertisement are largely objectified. The large objectification and misrepresentation of women in the media has led to an offset psychological view of women from growing up to adulthood.

For thousands of years, established gender roles have been a part of our society. Women are commonly known as sensitive, emotional, or passive. On the contrary, men are described as rational, competitive, independent, or aggressive. Believing women are more emotional than men is stereotyping. However, the stereotype is not entirely untrue. Development of gender roles is often conditioned more by environmental or cultural factors than by hereditary or biological factors. The development of gender roles between men and women involves the inference of peer community of each gender, the communication style of male and female and the intimacy or connection level of men and women.

Filmmakers use traditional gender stereotypes to produce characters audiences can easily identify with by portraying conventional images of a person with identifiable characteristics. In previous years, the dominant representation of a women in film has been the passive, subjugated protagonist. However, through the development of female empowerment and added feminist representations of film, the female heroine transformed to become strong and independent women in her own right, as an individual character.

As I walked out of my nine-story apartment complex, I saw an interesting array of faces. Mixed genders, some male, some female, all very different deep down inside. I study their faces, wondering what it'd be like to walk a day in their shoes. Some people are like open books, you can look at their facial expression and instantly guess what their emotions are, yet others are like locked diaries. You can't tell what they're thinking and you'll probably never know. I shake the thought out of my head as I rummage through my pathetic excuse of a handbag, pulling out my most recent bank statement. Thirty-two cents to my name. How do I live like this? My train of thought is lost as my mind ponders elsewhere. Do you think people can tell I'm a broke