preview

Coming Of Age Films Essay

Good Essays
For this paper, I am going to be discussing gender in the institution of films. Specifically, I am going to be discussing femininity in coming of age films. Coming of age movies set an expectation for teens and young adults because it lays out what they should fear and what they should thrive achieve in order to transition into adulthood successfully. The media defines cultural and gender norms that are often very stereotypical. The cultivation theory suggests that exposure to stereotypes in the media can lead to adopting these beliefs in their real lives (Giaccardi et al., 2016). In the media, masculinity is often portrayed as aggression, power, dominance, status seeking, emotional restraint, heterosexuality, and risk taking. (Giaccardi et al., 2016) In most films and media it is hegemonic masculinity that is displayed rather than other types of masculinity (Giaccardi et al., 2016.) In regards to femininity, it is often constructed as white suburban and focused on consumerism (Bickford, 2015). When portraying women and young girls in films and TV shows a common narrative is often the woman deciding between her career and personal happiness, because women can not have it all (Bickford, 2015). In coming of age movies young people in some way often tell the narratives of trying to achieve some form of femininity or masculinity. I will be analyzing the characters in two movies, The Duff and Dope. I would like to discuss and analyze the differences in how gender is portrayed in
Get Access