(Jan 2006) Hit programs cheat the intelligent
Popular television shows offer no place for the smart girl
By: Megan Yodzis
Issue date: 1/26/06 Section: Campus
www.bgnews.com
Popularity.
This is an interchangeable term that means something different for everyone. For one person it can mean being the best at everything - being the skinniest, having the best clothes, hair and makeup. For others it can mean just simply having the most friends.
With all these aspects that make up popularity for our generation of females, where does intelligence fit in? Obviously not on television, according to a presentation yesterday by Cindy Conaway about "Smart Girls on Television."
Ever since the days of Beverly Hills 90210 the smart girls haven't gotten much screen time, Conaway said. Now television shows focus on sex appeal, and who can get the hottest guy or girl.
In the presentation, part of the Brown Bag Luncheon series, Conaway focused on five popular shows from the past decade. These included Beverly Hills 90210, Gilmore Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Freaks and Geeks and My So Called Life.
For each of the five shows she cited specific scenarios where the "smart girl" was left waiting in the cold while the male characters always favored the more "beautiful" girls.
In the popular television hit, Gilmore Girls, the main character Rory is seen as the smart, cute, girl-next door type in the beginning. Peer pressure and the influence of seeing other more popular girls began to change her.
In the show Rory drops out of Yale, her dream college, and no longer talks to her mother. Seeing an example such as this never showed the consequences of what happened because Rory decided to be a rebel. So girls who watch it will think it is okay to act like that.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, another teen drama that was also a big hit, also had a character who progressively changed. A quiet, reserved girl on the show named Willow changed completely when she was introduced to Buffy.
Willow was picked on in high school and had a crush on a guy who saw her as merely a tutor. When she met Buffy, her life, along with her clothes, makeup and hair all began to change.
"When a character in any show meets a cool new friend, they stop acting like they did and begin to take on a different role." Conaway said.
Freshman Laura Robinson disagreed with Conaway on the subject of peer pressure and the part it plays in television.
"Not every girl who watches these shows wants to be exactly like the popular or beautiful girls shown," Robinson said.
The networks who run these programs choose to focus on sex appeal, and no longer academic work according to Conaway. They even pick the actress that will be best consumed, meaning girls will want to be them, and guys will have fantasies about them.
"Sex sells much better, and society understands this," Conaway said.
The smart girls have disappeared from the television shows all together, Conway continued. Sex appeal and popularity is all you need to succeed in life, she said, and that is the message we are currently receiving from these television shows.
There are no shows that have role models for the disabled, heavy and "smart" girls to follow, Conaway said. This seems harsh and unfair to some people, but that is how America thinks.
"In real life these girls are not just ignored, they have low self esteem and are not as driven," Conaway said.
Jason Kirby, a graduate assistant in the American Culture Studies Department, disagrees with Conaway.
"Television just does not seem to enter into the equation for me when I am making fun of someone," he said.
Teenage girls in our society are learning lessons from the shows they watch. Along with the ideas about body image versus grades, the lessons currently being learned include not hanging out in school and go out with the bad guy.
"Put away the books, and pull out the credit card," Conaway said.
There is a big difference in the girls on television and the girls in real life. Conaway believes it is wrong to alter images and ideas in television and hopes for an activist streak in television to come along with a more moral and ethical basis.
http://www.bgnews.com/media/paper883/news/2006/01/26/Campus/Hit-Programs.Cheat.The.Intelligent-1505074.shtml
By: Megan Yodzis
Issue date: 1/26/06 Section: Campus
www.bgnews.com
Popularity.
This is an interchangeable term that means something different for everyone. For one person it can mean being the best at everything - being the skinniest, having the best clothes, hair and makeup. For others it can mean just simply having the most friends.
With all these aspects that make up popularity for our generation of females, where does intelligence fit in? Obviously not on television, according to a presentation yesterday by Cindy Conaway about "Smart Girls on Television."
Ever since the days of Beverly Hills 90210 the smart girls haven't gotten much screen time, Conaway said. Now television shows focus on sex appeal, and who can get the hottest guy or girl.
In the presentation, part of the Brown Bag Luncheon series, Conaway focused on five popular shows from the past decade. These included Beverly Hills 90210, Gilmore Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Freaks and Geeks and My So Called Life.
For each of the five shows she cited specific scenarios where the "smart girl" was left waiting in the cold while the male characters always favored the more "beautiful" girls.
In the popular television hit, Gilmore Girls, the main character Rory is seen as the smart, cute, girl-next door type in the beginning. Peer pressure and the influence of seeing other more popular girls began to change her.
In the show Rory drops out of Yale, her dream college, and no longer talks to her mother. Seeing an example such as this never showed the consequences of what happened because Rory decided to be a rebel. So girls who watch it will think it is okay to act like that.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, another teen drama that was also a big hit, also had a character who progressively changed. A quiet, reserved girl on the show named Willow changed completely when she was introduced to Buffy.
Willow was picked on in high school and had a crush on a guy who saw her as merely a tutor. When she met Buffy, her life, along with her clothes, makeup and hair all began to change.
"When a character in any show meets a cool new friend, they stop acting like they did and begin to take on a different role." Conaway said.
Freshman Laura Robinson disagreed with Conaway on the subject of peer pressure and the part it plays in television.
"Not every girl who watches these shows wants to be exactly like the popular or beautiful girls shown," Robinson said.
The networks who run these programs choose to focus on sex appeal, and no longer academic work according to Conaway. They even pick the actress that will be best consumed, meaning girls will want to be them, and guys will have fantasies about them.
"Sex sells much better, and society understands this," Conaway said.
The smart girls have disappeared from the television shows all together, Conway continued. Sex appeal and popularity is all you need to succeed in life, she said, and that is the message we are currently receiving from these television shows.
There are no shows that have role models for the disabled, heavy and "smart" girls to follow, Conaway said. This seems harsh and unfair to some people, but that is how America thinks.
"In real life these girls are not just ignored, they have low self esteem and are not as driven," Conaway said.
Jason Kirby, a graduate assistant in the American Culture Studies Department, disagrees with Conaway.
"Television just does not seem to enter into the equation for me when I am making fun of someone," he said.
Teenage girls in our society are learning lessons from the shows they watch. Along with the ideas about body image versus grades, the lessons currently being learned include not hanging out in school and go out with the bad guy.
"Put away the books, and pull out the credit card," Conaway said.
There is a big difference in the girls on television and the girls in real life. Conaway believes it is wrong to alter images and ideas in television and hopes for an activist streak in television to come along with a more moral and ethical basis.
http://www.bgnews.com/media/paper883/news/2006/01/26/Campus/Hit-Programs.Cheat.The.Intelligent-1505074.shtml
posted by MissCoffee @ 4:55 p.m.
