Feminism In The Media Today

In the media, women are presented as sexualised and portrayed as an item in which they should try to 'attract' the males.  The feminist theory aims to understand the nature of gender inequality, it examines women's social roles, interests and experience.  

Feminism in the media today is show in a range of different ways,from teenage 'chick flicks', album covers and film posters to commericals and advertising strategies, we have now entered the Third wave of feminism is now the stage of the feminists in which we have entered - the third wave of feminism in the media today is highly sexualised, the idea of the third wave is that it is no longer about politics, it has become that women are more engaged and are willing to use the power of the media for a good outcome.
The prefect vision of a third wave feminists are that you have to be independent, self-reliant, very fashionable and a perfect image all the time, giving the impression of being highly sexualised and out to attract the males.

The third wave was made possible by the greater economic and professional power and status achieved by women of the second wave, the massive expansion in opportunities for the dissemination of ideas created by the information revolution of the late 20th century.

Feminists argue that the conflict between the quest for gender equality and the desire for sexual pleasure has long been a challenge for feminism. In fact, the second-wave of the American feminist movement split over issues related to sexuality. Feminists found themselves on opposite sides of a series of contentious debates about issues such as pornography, sex work, and heterosexuality, with one side seeing evidence of gender oppression and the other opportunities for sexual pleasure and empowerment. Since the mid-1990s, however, a third wave of feminism has developed that seeks to reunite the ideals of gender equality and sexual freedom. Inclusive, pluralistic, and non-judgmental, third-wave feminism respects the right of women to decide for themselves how to negotiate the often contradictory desires for both gender equality and sexual pleasure. While this approach is sometimes caricatured as uncritically endorsing whatever a woman chooses to do as feminist, this essay argues that third-wave feminism actually exhibits not a thoughtless endorsement of “choice,” but rather a deep respect for pluralism and self-determination.

My Chosen Question And Why

Does the representation of young females in 'Mean Girls' and 'Angus Thongs And Perfect Snogging' reinforce or challenge stereotypical viewpoints?"

In this investigation i will be examining the representation of teenage girls in Mean Girls and ATAPS, i will be applying Mulvey's theory to key scenes within the films, i will investigate if the stereotype within the films challenge or reinforce the representation that comes with the film and the typical layout of a teenage film. 

Femininity is defined as a set of attributes, behaviours, and roles generally associated with girls and women. I chose to explore this to show how teenagers are shown and represented in different films depending on the audience or age. when researching this I will chose to focus on the way in which they are dressed, speak and act.

The films I have decided to view and study in the research of this part of my media course work are, Mean Girls and Angus Things And Perfect Snogging I have chosen to look at these three films when researching how is Femininity represented in teenage films. 

I have chosen to use this as my research question because i have a strong interest in the way women are presented in different type of teenage films, creating representations and comparisons to real life, I have also decided to study this as it allows me to see how in the different type of teenage films are presented by the message that they are trying to portray.
As well as this, it will allow me to compare how teenagers act differently in different parts of the world, Mean Girls id set in an american high school and ATAPS is set in a british high school, it then gives me a chance to also compare how femininity contrasts between America and the UK.