Representations and stereotypes in teen films

Not Another Teen Movie Stereotypes

Stereotype: an oversimplified and standardised conception or image invested with special meaning and held in common by members of a group.

From the opening of the film, we are provided with three stereotypes that occur. These include: the jocks, the nerds and the cheerleaders. These stereotypes are conveyed by methods like the mise en scene that is used to portray certain social groups. For example, the jocks were wearing their football teams jersey in order to highlight their status as an athlete. Not another teen movie also uses intertextuality to reference teen films before it to add to its narrative. This bolsters the aspect of comedy in the film, granted the audience has hindsight to the characters that it referenced. For instance, at the end of the film when Jake is trying to convince Janey not to go to Paris, he uses an abundance of lines from other films such as: American Pie, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink to convince her to stay. This mocks clichés that commonly feature in other teen films and implies that it is an aspect that occurs too frequently, despite the fact that the film itself had to conform to the norm in order too prove their point.   

  An example of a reference to a cliché that features in many films that were made before.

                               

           Representations and stereotypes

One of the most common stereotypes that feature in  school based teen films are the jocks. They are athletic and usually represent their school in various sports such as American football, football (often referred to as soccer due to the American culture) or basketball. Because of their sportiness, they usually wear their teams jersey at school to reflect their status. They are at the top of the school hierarchy and because of this girls tend to be attracted to them. In addition to this, they use physical force to bully people that are near the bottom of the hierarchy like nerds in order to display their supreme authority.  

Another common stereotype that is portrayed in many teem films is the nerd. They usually dress in formal, uncool attire and are only accepted by other nerds. They can be any gender and are often intelligent, however, they are also bullied by other social groups within the school system such as the jocks or cheerleaders. More often than not, they abide by the 'brains over brawn' saying and are therefore either scrawny or husky. Facial features such as acne and props like glasses and braces usually allude to someone's nerdiness in teen film.

The cheerleader is another stereotype that is bound to appear in school based teen films. They are pretty, popular and usually have relationships with jocks. Their costumes are usually vivid and eye-catching to ensure that they get as much attention as possible. Like the jocks, they are at the top of the hierarchy of the school and they feel that it is okay to treat others that aren't as popular as them as they please. They aren't particularly intelligent and often get jealous about anyone that they see as competition for attention, spreading rumours is an example of a method that they may use to dispel this opposition