Evaluation. Question 2.

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

My main female character is stereotyped as being the ‘popular’ girl at school. She is portrayed as being classy, indulged, rich, materialistic, spoilt, attractive, vein, and superficial. She wakes up in her large bedroom filled with mirrors, make-up, shoes and clothes. This signifies her wealth and social class. She wears designer clothing and accessories which also connote her wealth and her status within society. My female characters stereotype is similar to that of Poppy from Wild Child. Poppy wakes up from her large posh and pink bedroom. She wears a fluffy pink nightdress and has long, styled hair. She is indulged in designer brands and labels at no expense, similarly to my female character. This girl is another stereotypical ‘popular’ girl who is wealthy, snobby and spoilt.

Stereotypical ‘popular’ girl.

My stereotypical ‘popular’ girl flicking her hair

My main male character is very laid back and mainly cares about what his friends think about him, and not his genuine personality. In our original idea we were planning for the male character to run around his room swearing badly as he rushed to get dressed. We decided that this could be too inappropriate for a 12 rating and so did not include the cursing. Similarly the character Charles from Four Weddings and a Funeral is parallel to my main character. In the first scene from Four Weddings and a Funeral Charles wakes up realising he is late for the first funeral. He frantically runs around the room shouting “Fuck” as he does. This is where I originally though of the idea to use my male character swearing after realising he is late. Charles is similar to my main character as he is seen as being very cool and outgoing to his friends. He is quite rebellious and flirtatious, which reflects my main male character.

Charles from four weddings and a funeral.

Stereotypical layed back male character

Towards the end of my two minute opening my female character is revealed to having a girlfriend therefore signifying to the audience that she is a lesbian. This completely differentiates from the normal stereotypical ‘popular’ character, and throws the audience into believing the romantic comedy would be about the two main male and female characters falling in love with each other, even though from different social backgrounds. This point in the storyline however completely throws the audience into thinking about the difference in the story and how it will unfold. The comedic aspect of the film involves a heterosexual man trying to win over a lesbian, who is in a relationship with her girlfriend. The conventional aspect of the lesbian couple is that they are both quite feminine and similar looking, both having long dark hair and are wearing make-up and heels. If lesbians do have a role in romcom’s conventionally they are both very attractive and girly, and both take on a feminine role in the relationship. Realistically lesbian couples are different in concepts that there is usually the feminine female, with long hair, make-up etc, and the other female who is quite masculine with short hair and male clothing. I have not adopted this stereotype of a typical lesbian couple as I wanted to keep my film opening conventional to other romcom’s.

Trailer for the romcom Wild Child