Kids these days; am I right?

It’s pretty clear that young whippersnappers are tending towards an over-sexualised culture. Unfortunately, their role models from early teenybopper-y are often leading them into this trend. Child stars who seek to transition into a more mature role often take a shockingly jarring approach to this. “These days the practice of youthful stars shedding their innocent images is so frequent it’s almost expected.” (Schutte 2013).

March of last year saw the release of ‘Spring Breakers’, a movie starring several Disney teens. “A lot of teenagers that grew up with Selena and Vanessa have seen the commercials and they think they’re ready to see the movie. Safe to say, I think they’re not.” (Schutte 2013). The director, Harmony Korine, was very deliberate in his casting of the stars, saying “Well, it wasn’t just a conceptual stunt. That’s a bonus. If you didn’t know who these girls are, that they came to my movie representing something, the film would still be the same.” (Barnes 2013).

Scandalous stories like this are implemented to gain attention. Sadly, children and teenagers are often caught up in the kerfuffle stirred up by the media. There has been an evident shift towards this glorification of sexualisation; it will be interesting to see if and how society will turn the trend around.

 

Well, it’s been fun. This process of my blogging for BCM110 is now coming to an end (there’s still more coming for BCM112). In the last 6 weeks, I’ve been able to take a deeper look into how the media functions as a whole. For me (at least), it’s been really interesting to observe how the concepts of the media have tangible, practical application in the way our society functions. By looking at specific cases, I’ve been able to see connections between small events and the way our culture works, and using wildly sweeping statements, I’ve been able to link them together. As someone who was quite hesitant to the idea of blogging, I’ve found that by working on these small snippets of information, I’ve greatly enhanced my understanding of the content, and done this in a way I was able to thoroughly enjoy. For you reading this, I hope you’ve benefited in some way too.
– Brendon.

References:
Schutte, L 2013, Disney girls gone wild! Is the ‘Spring Breakers’ act old news?, NBC News, viewed 14 April 2014, <http://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/disney-girls-gone-wild-spring-breakers-act-old-news-f1C9124340>.

Barnes, B 2013, Disney Stars Throw Off Their Past in ‘Spring Breakers’, NY Times, viewed 14 April 2014, <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/movies/disney-stars-throw-off-their-past-in-spring-breakers.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0>.