2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

As a group of teenagers, we are well aware of the way that young people are depicted within the world we live in. Therefore we decided to deal with both the stereotypes of teenagers and gender stereotypes within our media product.

Overall, our opening sequence conforms to the conventions of youth culture whereas it challenges many gender stereotypes present in modern day life.

Age
Misfits and Kidulthood present young people as trouble makers. We used these film/TV references to create the plot of our opening sequence which consists of the male protagonist being involved in a crime which leaves the female protagonist's brother fatally injured. Misfits and Kidulthood also portray young people as very independent and, in Misfits in particular, we are never introduced to any of the characters' parents, in the same way that 'Lucy' and 'Dan' appear to be very independent.

A scene from Misfits

A scene from Kidulthood

Gender

We wanted for our female protagonist to challenge many of these stereotypes to create a new take on a female character. Whereas, we wanted our male protagonist to conform to several of the male gender stereotypes. This would mean that both of our protagonists were strong-willed and dominant, creating a relationship of equality.

Female protagonist: 

We wanted to incorporate a teenage female character in our opening sequence. Rather than conforming to all of the stereotypes of British teenage girls, we wanted to challenge some of these stereotypes. "Lucy's" strong-willed and almost aggressive character challenges the stereotype of females being weak and vulnerable.

Examples of the type of character who inspired our choices regarding the character of "Lucy":

Mini McGuinness (Skins)

Bossy, independent, determined but still girly

Alisha Daniels (Misfits)

Has a lot of attitude, doesn't listen to orders but has a feminine appearance

Lucy (Consequences)

Dresses casually, has a feminine appearance, 

independed, strong-willed

Male protagonist:

We wanted our key focus of the opening sequence to be a teenage boy who conforms to almost all of the stereotypes of this kind of character. Our protagonist is a troublemaker, athletic, masculine and lacks much emotion.

Examples of the type of character who inspired our choices regarding the character of "Dan":

Nick (Skins)

  Has a good sense of humour, likes to go out partying,

  gets into trouble, likes girls, likes to impress his friends

Bolton (Waterloo Road)

Ladies man, gets into trouble, sociable, into stereotypically

masculine activities e.g. football

Dan (Consequences)

Athletic, has a girlfriend, dresses casually, 

good sense of humour, likes to go out with 

friends.