Teen Movies: Then and Now Summary In David Denby’s piece, “High-School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies” he argues that teen movies are nothing more than an unrealistic exaggeration of the social hierarchy in high school. Denby suggests that these films can be classifies as revenge fanaticism, created by the “nerds” that were bullied throughout high school. He also draws a connection to the Littleton shooters, proposing the idea that Klebold and Harris must have forgotten the plot twist in real life. Instead of going to extreme measures for revenge, if they had just waited it out, they would have owned software companies living the high life, whereas the jocks and the bullies would be selling used cars or insurance. According to Denby, for the most part, these films follow a classic criteria. There is the popular blonde girl, with two or three friends that follow her every move she makes. Then there is her boyfriend, the classic jock, who may be the captain of the football team but has the intelligence of a fifth grade boy. There is also the outcast, which he explains that this type of character is usually a girl or a boy, who is despite being socially awkward and unattractive, is extremely intelligent. This character is ostracized from the social hierarchy, but by the end of the movie is looked upon as a hero. In other words, as seen in …show more content…
This also remains true. For instance, in The Duff, Bianca tries changing when she realizes she's the “least hottest” out of her friend group. The moment she transforms into the hero is when she realizes that there will always be someone with better looks than her, but that should not affect the way she sees herself. That is when the hero emerges due to society telling her that she cannot be ‘the beautiful
Gender relationships are a very explored issue within these texts. In a majority, anyone no matter if they are male or female who do not fit in or do not conform to stereotypes to an extent, can be cast out by that group. Whether it is, their looks, their behaviour, the way they dress, or the way they think and feel, they are judged as different. This ‘outcast’ idea is portrayed in both the films. In the two feature films, the most obvious ‘outcasts’ would be the two ‘hero figures’ the intruders into the created microcosm.
In Schooltalk: Rethinking What We Say About - and to - Students Every Day, Mica Pollock provides readers with fact-based information to “flip the script” of the misrepresentation of students in the education setting. Pollock demonstrates how race, gender, and ethnic labels can be detrimental to student achievement. She, then, dives in to 600 years of myths regarding social race labels and how they continue to affect humans today. By correcting race, gender, and ethnicity label myths in our minds, we can effectively advocate for these students. To conclude the book, Pollock focuses on how to devise a plan to correct our own misconceptions and foster a supportive environment for diverse students. Throughout
...lms these students get away with murder and still go on to college. This simply does not happen in real life; therefore, looking to Hollywood films for the true colors of schools is not in the best of interests. We have to realize that directors produce these films in their vision of American culture. We as Americans always look to the American Dream of sometime “making it.” The films neglect to see the loser’s point of view, meaning Hollywood films only look to a positive ending because it is in our nature to believe in the American Dream. This book allows our society to actually look past the films fantasies and observe the true inequalities in school. Although Hollywood films do correctly show how urban, suburban, and private students behave in schools, they do not show the true outcomes of real life.
In the cases of school shootings that took place at Columbine High School, Sandy Hook Elementary, Virginia Tech University and Northern Illinois University, the media highly publicized the fact that the perpetrators were avid video gamers, but why is this important? The media want’s your attention and they are more than willing to say almost anything to get it. They reported that the perpetrators were avid gamers with the implication that there is a well establish connection between the two when there is not. They exploit the fear of parents and concerned citizens by not including relevant corresponding information in order to leave you more interested lea...
Harris was “the callously brutal mastermind” while Klebold was the “quivering depressive who journaled obsessively about love and attended the Columbine prom three days before opening fire” (Columbine High School, History). On an article published by Cullen on Slate.com, it reveals the true motivation and meaning behind the actions of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.
In recent years our society has experienced many tragedies in which teens have committed heinous crimes for no apparent reason. What inspired these attacks by teens on innocent victims? We live in a violent world and young people are exposed to this violence whether it's by television, music or the Internet. Video games have come under increased scrutiny as to whether or not the simulated violence in video games numbs children and teens to the consequences of real-life violence.
This is seen as a subculture. Subcultures form by a transition from childhood to adult hood (coming of age), self-discovery, social rejection, and social change; all of these are present during the movie. A subculture is pretty much any group of people that do not precisely conform with the larger culture in which they live but instead conform to their own group. The outcome of these subcultures are stereotyping, social pressure, altered definitions of social norms, and transition. Subcultures in people are seen mainly as stereotypes. The use of stereotypes is used frequently because it enables people who watch them to form an opinion of the characters and their beliefs just from seeing them before they may have even spoken and sometimes just from the way they walk and are spoken to by other people. In this movie there was a jock, the brain, the rebel, the princess, and the basket case. This was how the director conveyed sub cultures across the
Family environment and the press are two major influences resulting in the recent tragic school shootings. As much as society continues to focus the killing rampages on factors such as television and music, what children are exposed to in reality contributes to the violence. The most recent school shooting in Michigan involved a six-year-old first grader who killed a classmate with a .22 caliber pistol. The news coverage had vanished after two or three days, and I was left wondering what had happened. Considering the fact that the media wore the Columbine incident out, I wanted to know why they did not pay more attention to this school shooting. As evidence did arrive, it was discovered that the child lived in a household where cocaine, heroin, and many other illegal drugs were commonplace. Also in this “home” guns were easily accessible to the child. Children growing up in this type of environment certainly are likely to be held accountable for future violence. Even though I am against the news media presenting too much school violence, Americans should have been deeply disturbed by this shooting because of the child’s young age. The Michigan shooting should have enlightened Americans to the dilemma we face in this country. Two weeks after the Columbine High School shooting, information on the mass murder was still being broadcast on television. The press was feeding young viewers ideas on how to kill their classmates. News was reported how the teenage murderers acquired information regarding building bombs, obtaining guns, smuggling guns into the school, and proceeding to kill their classmates. A mentally unstable teenager could simply watch these news reports and write a book entitled, “How to Slay Your Classmates”. This onslaught was ridiculous and the news coverage should not have been permitted to continue for countless weeks. Society has determined three reasons on which to blame the shootings. First, the nation blamed it on television’s violent programs. Following that, Americans gave the music recording companies the evil eye as well as attacking the gun manufacturers. All of these reasons involve material objects that are unable to think for themselves. Televisions and CD players do not control themselves, people control them. Finally, boundaries controlling the television programs children view should be set by the parents. The same explanation applies to firearms. How can it be a gun’s fault that a person killed another human being?
One of the recent violent acts committed by minors was the massacre at Columbine High School. Later it was revealed that the murderers had listened to Marilyn Manson, played violent computer games (such as Doom), and watched The Basketball Diaries in which the lead character slaughtered his classmates and teacher in a very similar manner to the way the Columbine boys later did (Torr 14). Though the Columbine murders were horrific acts and were likely inspired by violent forms of media, they are atypical of mo...
Ask yourself, how was your 8th grade year… Was it good, bad, fun, or stressful? Well most of my 8th grade year was bad but the ending actually turned out good. The start of my year was exciting, but that was just the beginning. As time went on and the work started to come in, that's when things turned south for me. I started stressing about everything I had to do, I was getting to overwhelmed. I would catch myself slipping constantly and it was worrying me because I didn't want to get held back a year. I slowly started to lose all interest in all of my work.
On April 20, 1999, within the tiny, suburban city of Littleton, Colorado, two high-school seniors, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, enacted a full-scale assault on columbine high school throughout the middle of the school day. The boys' idea was to kill many of their colleagues. With guns, knives, and a large number of bombs, the two boys walked the hallways and killed. Once the day was done, twelve students, one teacher, as well as the two murderers were dead; and 21 of them were wounded. The haunting question remains: why did they decide to do this?
The media has come to dominate the lives of many of today’s youths. In The Great Imagination Heist, Reynolds Price expresses extreme dismay at the media’s ever-tightening grasp over the impressionable minds of adolescents. He sincerely feels that the effects of prolonged exposure to television, film, video games, and the Internet are detrimental to the development of a youth’s imagination and ability to think freely, without outside influence. The word “heist” indicates the intention to rob or steal. Price laments what he perceives to be the robbing of original, personal thought.
In 1998, the US software industry sold $6.3 billion worth of video games (see Unknown). Not bad for an industry that didn't exist 25 years ago! Yet despite its continued growth, all is not well in the video game industry. School shootings in Littleton, Colorado; Pearl, Mississippi; Paducah, Kentucky; Conyers, Georgia and many other towns have shocked the nation (see Malcolm). Understandably, grieving parents and sympathetic citizens are searching for a cause for this "outbreak" of youth violence. It is natural to assume, "when children, the symbol of innocence, commit the severest of crimes, then something must be going wrong with society." (see Maker)
In his research Jay Macleod, compares two groups of teenage boys, the Hallway Hangers and the Brothers. Both groups of teenagers live in a low income neighborhood in Clarendon Heights, but they are complete opposites of each other. The Hallway Hangers, composed of eight teenagers spend most of their time in the late afternoon or early evening hanging out in doorway number 13 until very late at night. The Brothers are a group of seven teenagers that have no aspirations to just hang out and cause problems, the Brothers enjoy active pastimes such as playing basketball. The Hallway Hangers all smoke, drink, and use drugs. Stereotyped as “hoodlums,” “punks,” or “burnouts” by outsiders, the Hallway Hangers are actually a varied group, and much can be learned from considering each member (Macleod p. 162). The Brothers attend high school on a regular basis and none of them participate in high-risk behaviors, such as smoke, drink, or do drugs.
Children start to act rebellious at home such as screaming, breaking objects, and even causing physical harm. However, when the minor encounters an argument with an individual they can physically harm or kill the individual. Such as, the massacre in high schools, the students that are bullied, plan to get back at the people by using violent actions. In other words the massacre shooting in West Paducah, Kentucky, and Littleton, Colorado, the high school students gained the knowledge of how to use a weapon to kill students. Since they have been harm by classmates, these students were furious which lead them to act violently towards their classmates by killing them. Like the article of “Did Video Games Train the School Shooters To Kill?: Determining Whether Wisconsin Courts Should Impose Negligence or Strict Liability in a Lawsuit Against the Video Game Manufactures” by Tara C. Campbell mentioned that a Marksman expert said the high school 's students have never fired a gun in their lives. He included, "pulled the trigger, instantly moved