Pretty Little Feminism (2.2)
“The Feminism of Pretty Little Liars,” an article by Morgan Glennon, argues through the use of pathos and ethos the connection between the popular teen show Pretty Little Liars and the concept of feminism. Morgan Glennon is a freelance writer who often contributes articles, including this particular one, to The Huffington Post and has her own blog. The Huffington Post is “an American news and blog network run by author and political activist Arianna Huffington and owned by AOL.” This article speaks to many controversial topics that surround the show, but centers on how Pretty Little Liars empowers the concept of feminism. The importance of the show is detailed throughout the article and connects readers to the positives
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The show has sparked much controversy with people because of the rather risky plots ABC Family created to change the pace from that of their typical shows. The public has not been silent in forming their own opinions about the concepts presented in the show due to the fact that the main demographic consists of teenage girls. One topic that has been ignored by many critics is the “subtle feminism that runs through the show” (Glennon 1). This article is profoundly relevant to the Pretty Little Liar fandom and goes into great detail about how people seem to miss the most important elements of the show.
The imagined audience for Glennon’s article is teenagers that are currently in high school and are avid fans of Pretty Little Liars. These teenagers are experiencing what the show’s “bigger picture” revolves around, which allows them to connect on a deeper level with the show. According to Glennon, “Adolescence is a time when teens begin figuring out their identities, and sometimes hiding the parts they find shameful” (Glennon 15). The “bigger picture” in the show exemplifies the danger of adolescence through the character “A” and how this character uses the secrets that
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However, it has been argued in a recent dissertation called “Marketing Post-Feminism Through Social Media: Fan Identification and Fashion on Pretty Little Liars” by Anna Donatelle that “many shows depict women using their bodies as a source of power” because “fashion and style highlight power by showing off the body in flattering ways” (Donatelle 41). This source helps further the argument that Glennon is making in her article that critics of the show have to be able to see past the clothes that are used in the show to be able to see the real world concepts that are hidden underneath them in the actual characters. Donatelle’s argument coincides with Glennon’s that the fashion on the show is the way it is to “[encourage girl] power” in the teenage viewers (Donatelle 41). She also expands her argument to claim that the “characters as a whole depict the ultimate can-do girl [by being] smart and athletic, yet feminine with a sexy edge” (Donatelle 42). Pretty Little Liars ultimately uses the characters fashion throughout the entire series to delineate a feminist
In "Where the girls are: Growing Up Female With the Mass Media," Susan Douglas analyses the effects of mass media on women of the nineteen fifties, and more importantly on the teenage girls of the baby boom era. Douglas explains why women have been torn in conflicting directions and are still struggling today to identify themselves and their roles. Douglas recounts and dissects the ambiguous messages imprinted on the feminine psyche via the media. Douglas maintains that feminism is a direct result of the realization that mass media is a deliberate and calculated aggression against women. While the media seemingly begins to acknowledge the power of
In the t.v. show Pretty Little Liars, the character Alison DeLaurentis is an example of a character archetype. She is the vicious queen bee. Everyone wants to be her, or at least be friends with her, even though she is ever so rude and unkind. Everyone in her group of friends becomes her puppets, and although they may not do mean things on their own, they certainly do mean things through Ali, intentionally or not. In the group, Ali makes all the decisions and is even sometimes cruel to her closest friends, like using their secrets against them, but they stand by her. Whether out of fear of what might happen if they stray away or out of love because they have shared so much with her that they are connected, they remain true to Ali no matter
In her paper, Roxane uses credible sources and references to appeal to her audience. For example, examining interviews with actress Melissa Leo, The Atlantic magazine, and female leader Marissa Mayer. In addition, she also gives examples of her personal life and opinions about feminism. Inserting these examples and sources makes her claim much stronger. It shows her credibility as a writer by analyzing articles and providing readers with personal experiences.
While the answer to this exact question is rather subjective, through the investigation of young adult three novels with the role of daughter/male figures relationships and the ideology of teen rebellion is present, an answer as to why society’s constructs about to teens is skewed is more obtainable. Through the combination of the Youth Lens and Psychoanalysis Lens reading of Bronx Masquerade by Nikkie Grimes, This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp, and Gabi, a Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero, the female authors writing these female character to appear as rebellious teenagers is not rebellion at all, but rather consequences of societal pressures that ultimately result in the Neo-Freudian’s complexes being projected on to each of these girl’s relationships with male
Pretty Little Liars is a television show based on a set of novels that focuses on the lives of four teenage girls and the struggles that they face daily. After the murder of their cliques Queen Bee, Alison, each girl begins to get harassed and an anonymous bully threatens to expose all of their secrets. They are abused mentally after what seems like a never ending search to discover who the anonymous person that is harassing them is. The strong relationship that the girls maintain through their anxiety ridden high school career shows us that friendship can help to keep you strong. We will be looking specifically at Abnormal Behavior demonstrated throughout the girls high school days; Social identity theory demonstrated by
Douglas’ humorous and well informed way of writing really inspired me. From examples of magazines, media, television shows, films, retail, and even in music she described and compared to us what is going on among these examples and how real women today are really living their lives. Douglas presents an analysis of how women are presented to the public and how we continue to be treated as inferior to men despite the strides of feminism. After reading this book, I even find myself reading or watching something and pretty much look to see if it is women friendly or not. This is something I really never done before until now. This book definitely got me to think about feminism and the role it plays in my life.
In order to properly view a story from a feminist perspective, it is important that the reader fully understands what the feminist perspective entails. “There are many feminist perspectives, and each perspective uses different approaches to analyze and interpret texts. One is that gender is “socially constructed” and another is that power is distributed unequally on the basis of sex, race, and ethnicity, religion, national origin, age, ability, sexuality, and economic class status” (South University Online, 2011, para. 1). The story “Girl” is an outline of the things young girls
The focus of today's fashion is no longer on the clothes worn, but the naked body underneath them (Seid 174). Seid continues to elaborate on this claim by following a timeline of women revealing their naked bodies in the public eye (Seid 174). Women's bodies became completely exposed by the 1980s, which then became the focus of fashion (Seid 174). Furthermore, American women suddenly noticed flaws to cause the new obsession of being thin (Seid 174-175). In Rheana Murray's article "Why covering up is cool: Inside fashion's modesty movement," she pulls different quotes from various fashion designers and bloggers to defend her claim that it is possible to be modest and to still look fashionable. The fashion bloggers who she references to in her article all seem to agree on the idea that they "want to make it accessible and fabulous to be modest" (Murray 3). Fashion blogger, Mindi Smith, believes "there is something sexy to be said about covering yourself up" (Murray 5). Logically, if this type of fashion is on the rise, then by using stereotypes that all women are using their naked bodies for fashion, Seid detracts her argument against society by placing herself in the generalization as well as being unreliable due to the fact that modesty trends are becoming more popular. However, Seid would assert that her argument is due to the overwhelming
The Famous known Netflix Series “Orange is the new Black” is a woman based show that encourages woman brilliance and exemplifies the struggle of How woman are perceived in different aspects of society while it views the daily struggles of men on a day to day basis and has them create a status of their own; although their status differ so greatly they are still dependent on each other.
In todays modern society, there is now a constant growing concern about adolescent’s exposure to the medias portrayal of sexuality and love. The publicity of love and sex that todays adolescents are saturated in is mainly unrealistic and false, theoretically affecting and distorting their, behavior, beliefs and attitude towards sex and love. These impractical pictures tend to commonly be publicized through social media, networking, television and movies. The medias views tend to contradict the biblical messages towards love and sex, confusing young society on the meaning of true commitment and love. A popular television show targeted to the demographic of female teenagers ‘Gossip Girl’ features and emphasizes the wrong messages concerning love and sex.
Orange Is the New Black debuted in early 2013 and has since been a highly favoured television title on the online streaming service, Netflix. Orange Is the New Black features a mainly female cast, creating a female centred comedy drama, within the cast there is a large amount of diversity, causing many gender stereotypes and genre conventions to be broken. Orange Is the New Black has characters that represent many different spectrums of sexual orientations and identities, creating a change in gender expectations. This essay will focus on episode thirteen of season one, where characters Sophia Burset and Big Boo have a large influence over the audience. These characters are unique as they break the gender expectations for LGBT and African American women that have controlled similar characters for many years.
During our life we construct many different identities of who we want to portray ourselves as to the rest of society; fashion plays a vital role in generating who we are. With the ideas from Storry and Childs they state that “the way that we dress can either serve to confirm or to subvert various facets of our identities, such as our gender,
Lj Smith, the author of the Vampire Diaries, wrote, “...but right now everything looks strange to me, as if I don’t belong here. It is me that is out of place, and the worst thing is that I feel there’s somewhere that I do belong, but I just can’t find it.” In 2016 65.3 million people are refugees around the world that are displaced throughout the United Nations. These people now have to adjust to a new life, in a new country, and a new “home.” Although some might believe that newcomers, immigrants, and refugees adjust and adapt to culture easily, Lahiri illustrates through Interpreter of Maladies the difficulties and issues men and women experience when adjusting to a place and culture where they do not feel at ease.
Thesis: In recent years during the 21st century more and more people in the media have been calling out fairytales for their anti-feminist attitudes with sexism, body standards as well as societal comments about women being dependent on men.
Gossip Girl is a tv show about a group of four rich, snobby Upper East side teenagers and how a nobody from Brooklyn gets involved with them. Chuck Bass, whose father, Bart, is the owner of the New York Palace hotel and a self-made millionaire, is the manipulative, “bad boy” of the group. Nate Archibald, also the son of a successful businessman, is considered the “golden boy” and best friends with Chuck. Blaire Waldorf is the “Queen Bee” of the Upper East side and is best friends with Serena van der Woodsen, who is the “it girl” that everyone wants to be. These four characters are socialites and can’t hide anything from the relentless blogger whose identity is unknown until the series finale. Dan and Jenny Humphry, from a middle-class family in Brooklyn, are forced to fight for what they want and obtain their goals through hard work and dedication, unlike the rest of the privileged characters. Whenever something scandalous happens, a mass text message is sent out to all Upper-East siders that always ends as “You know you love me, XOXO Gossip Girl.” It is found out in the last episode of the series that Gossip Girl has been Dan the whole time, and he used this blog to work his way into the Upper East side to eventually win Serena’s love.