Representation: Gender- Girl

In our opening sequence, we are going to be using representation of a stereotypical boy and girl. For the girl, I think we need to show that she fits into our genre of a typical 'girl', and so by showing her doing her make-up, hair, put on girly shoes and a dress, these are typically these we would expect when watching a coming-of-age/ romantic film. The room she is in is also very important and so by using colours (i.e.. purple, pink) that would typically be associated to a girl, this would represent the girl as stereotypically character and the audience can clearly see that she is a teenager. As this is a film aimed at a young adult audience of 14-25 years old, therefore we wanted to create issues that would be realistic to our target audience. Therefore, as the girl enters the room, she immediately becomes the 'love interest' for the boy, who sees her and finds instant attraction in her. This represents the girl as a typical coming-of-age/ romantic girl as the pretty girls in these movies nearly always appear to get the guys, making her appear as popular. Her use of products are also very girly, such as the gold glittery shoes makes her stand out and add to the aspects of presenting her as a stereotypical 'girly' girl. By the use of many close-up shots of her doing her make-up and her products, this gives more close detail of the main girl character and so the audience begin to connect with her as they follow her getting ready and going to the party.
 

Representation- Stereotypes

In most romantic/ coming of age films there are particular stereotypes that make up these movies, such as the representation of the characters. For example, in the film Mean Girls 2, the girls are being presented as being these really materialistic, stereotypical girls who wear excessive amount of pink, have the 'perfect hair' and the latest designer clothes. In this film, they are referred to as the 'plastics' because they obsess about being an ideal and 'perfect' image which constitutes to their Barbie-like image. They are presented as having really shallow, personalities, adding to their 'mean' character and therefore makes the viewers watching feel less sympathy for them. However, the other girls around them, who are less popular than them, stereotypically wear less trendy clothes which appear dull; this is effective because it makes these 'plastic' girls stand out the most as they draw the most attention. Normally, as these popular girls stand out so much and differ from everyone else, this is an effective way of giving them more power and individuality than others, making them appear as these really confident girls who frequently boast about their fortunate lifestyles. 

Below are the outfits worn by the major characters of this movie: 

The three girls on the far right hand side are refered to as the 'plastics' because everything about them is made to perfection, creating this stereotypical girly role. Their fashion style mainly consists of purple and pink which again adds to the femininity of their characters and the floral detailing on their dresses could be a way of making them appear more prettier than everyone else, like a flower.  Through the use of accessories and high heeled shoes, this again creates these stereotypical female characters and so the viewers can immediately distinguish them from the other characters. However, we can see that the girls on the left hand side are 'less popular' because their outfits are less girly and much duller than the materialistic girls. As they wear boots, this shows that they are ordinary school girls which make the audience appeal to them more as they appear realistic than the others, who are far too made up.  As these type of girls are usually less powerful than girls like the plastics, we are able to sympathise with them more because they deal with issues probably many teenage girls watching are able to relate to them. Stereotypically  these characters also endure many hardships and there is usually competition between the popular and unpopular characters, because although the plastics have trendiest clothes, not many people like them because of their unkind behaviour towards others. Therefore, by the end of these type of movies there is a drastic change in character, where the unpopular girls rise in their status or become more well-known, whereas the popular plastics are despised by many of the characters, causing them to become less powerful.