After watching the presentations on Tuesday I was very impressed and intrigued by my classmates area of study. The one by Indeedraslivingroom was one of my favorites. Examining female coming of age films (heathers, clueless, mean girls) is so inspired. She made the excellent point that expectations for girls have changed so little of the past 25 years. All of the coming of age films involve girls trying to be or being part of the in crowd. Apparently girls strive to be nothing else in adolescence except be one of the popular girls . Deedra addressed the issue of the male gaze and how part of success in these films is harnessing the male gaze to gain power. The movies are all about the “girl games” nothing about emotional growth or challenging oneself mentally. There are so many more coming of age movies featuring boys in more complex ways (whats eating Gilbert grape for example). After 25 years you would think that girls could be shown in different more intriguing ways. This of course would put a damper on the really exciting world of the in crowds house parties with scantily clad jailbait. That being said I will admit to seeing all three of the movies mentioned and owning two of them (heathers and mean girls). There is something about the drama that drags you in and gets you to see it again and again. I will admit that there have been some efforts to change female coming of age stories Juno, for example. Juno is a comedy but it also deals with actual issues like teen pregnancy without having Juno strive to be one of the popular girls. While I will admit that a little progress has been made in terms of girls coming of age stories there is still much work to be done.
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