Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl is a television series about six main teenagers that live in New York: Dan Humphrey, Serena Van Der Woodsen, Nate Archibald, Blair Waldorf, Chuck Bass and Jenny Humphrey. Their lives are revolved around parties,sex,cheating,backstabbing and drugs and alcohol. Serena and Blair are best friends that have a lot of ups and down particularly with boyfriends and attention. Dan and Jenny are outsider as they live in Brooklyn and are not rich. They come into the main circle though. Nate and Chuck are also best friends. They relationship changes when Chuck sleeps with Nate's longtime girlfriend Nate.

This is a negative representation of teenagers because it shows teenagers as being reckless and self-involved. 

This t.v series represents teenage girls as being selfish, plotting and having low morals. The series almost shows them as being a prize, an item, something to win.

A feature that establishes this is dialogue

Carter: Hello, beautiful.
Blair: Carter, what are you doing here?
Carter: Buying you a drink 

This quote shows that Blair is a prize and he can so easily win her by buying her a drink. This is not a true representation. It shows that teenage girls purposes are to be chosen by a guy and serve no purpose other than to please the guy.

Another feature that establishes this representation is angles

This angle show that Blair and Serena are the focus of wherever they are. This shows that both girls are rather self-involved. This is a true representation because some teenage girls can become quite self involved. Such as in their love lives.

Another feature that establishes this representation is Mise-En-Scene, in particular, costumes.

The image above shows that both Blair and Serena had different ideas of fashion. This shows their individuality. Both costumes are feminine but quite revealing. This represents the idea of low morals to a small extent. This is a true representation as today, young women devalue themselves by wearing revealing clothing.

There is a difference between representation and reality because, like gossip girl, most negative representations of young females in media are exaggerated. 

The selection of storyline reinforces the stereotypes because it shows the viewers that young teenage girls are partying, drug ingesting and backstabbing. This is an exaggerated version though. The girls in the series are more focused on their social lives then their academic lives which is not the case for many teenage girls. This series only shows one type of teenage girl with warped priorities.

This is a inaccurate representation as it is far to generalized. Gossip girl only shows the selfish, social butterfly of girls but in reality, there are many other individuals. I think it is unfair to say that all girls prioritize their lives around males and popularity, though it is fairly important.

The possible effect on teenage girls could be negative. They idolize celebrities such as in gossip girl. If they believe their favourite celebrity prioritizes social over academia, teenage girls could follow in their footsteps. Society's perception of teenage girls could be warped because they could see teenage girls in Gossip Girl as being reckless and insolent and could envision teenage girls in reality in the same way.