2 - British Youth Representation

PLANNING

Question 2 - Is the representation of British youth portrayed more accurately in males or females?


Kidulthood

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Skins
Characters that I will focus on will be Tony, Sid, Effy and Michelle.
Tony – typical teenage male, has resentment towards his father and looks out for his little sister, is really into girls, does drugs, wants his best friend Sid to lose his virginity, likes to party, peer pressures his friends
Sid – opposite to Tony’s character, in love with his best friends girlfriend, gets mocked by his friends for still being a virgin at 16, has no confidence around girls, is very sloppy, gives into peer pressure
Effy – acts quiet and innocent but goes out and gets drunk, her parents blame Tony for her overdose as they do not believe she would do it, “goes off the rails” after her parents split, causes fights between Freddy and Cook as they fight over her, she is afraid to fall in love due to her parents break up and therefore keeps going back to Cook to prevent commitment with Freddy
Michelle – she stays with Tony despite knowing that he doesn’t really love her which is typical of a girl, she is very confident and will stand up for herself

Harry Brown
The main male characters that I will focus on will be Noel and Marky. The males in the film are all vandals and thugs, they take drugs and drink, abuse the elderly, graffiti, victimise people in their neighbourhood, carry weapons, belittle female characters and generally display disgraceful and criminal behaviours
Female characters do appear but are not as important as the males (which alone can represent that the media are able to stereotype male characters a lot easier than females), the females that are shown are used by the male characters as sexual objects, they are “easy” and want to be accepted by the males which is stereotypically associated with teenage females

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Saturday Night And Sunday Morning

Analyse Arthur’s behaviour in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, identifying examples of positive and negative behaviour as read by a contemporary audience.

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning was a film produced in 1960. The film portrays the behaviours of youth within the city, focusing especially upon the main character Arthur, a typical portrayal of a working class young male within this era whose weekly routine is to work in a factory all hours, followed by a weekend spent with friends in the pub drinking alcohol and flirting with females. 

The behaviours which are displayed by Arthur in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning would overall be seen as negative when viewed by a contemporary audience in the 1960s. Some of these negative behaviours include Arthur having an affair with a married woman, which in 1960 would be completely disapproved of and serious punishment would come as a result, as shown later in the film when Arthur gets beaten by the soldiers. Furthermore, the affair leads to the pregnancy of the married woman Brenda and when Arthur finds out the news his immediate reaction is to persuade Brenda to have an abortion and seeks advice how to go about it. Though this may still seem like a negative response today, in the 60s it would have be viewed extremely worse by a contemporary audience as abortions were in fact illegal and would have cost phenomenal amounts for the little money that the working class received, however this did not seem to affect Arthurs decision and it appeared that he was determined for Brenda not to have the baby as he did not want to take on the role or responsibilities that come with being a parent.  

Arthurs character further displays negative attitudes of youth as he is a stereotypical young “lad” who drinks too much, is involved in violent behaviours and has a resentful attitude towards society. During the film we see Arthur shoot an elderly woman in his neighbourhood and also put a rat in a woman’s work space for entertainment, which again, viewed by a contemporary audience would be considered extremely disrespectful for a member of the youth to behave in such ways to the elderly and women. Overall the attitudes that Arthur displays represents that he is trying his best not to conform to society, but rebel against it when he can do so.

However, not all of the behaviours that Arthur’s character displays are negative. He works full time and helps his mother by giving her some of his wage every week, he goes out fishing and has a good time with his best friend Bert, he offers to pay for Brenda’s abortion, which although may have been for himself, it would still have been a lot of money for him to pay and the gesture of him offering to do so represents a more positive side of his character. Therefore, although the overall conception of Arthur’s character would be viewed as negative, he does at times portray the attitudes of a caring and friendly young male.

Towards the end of the film, we see that Arthur has settled down with a young woman his age called Doreen, who he had been seeing throughout the film. The two characters are discussing about getting their first house and living together, which would be considered the norm for a contemporary audience. This represents that despite Arthur’s efforts not to conform to society, he has in fact done so. This suggests that eventually all members of youth grow up and conform to society, behaving as they are expected to do so. 

 

 

Submarine

How far are the characters in submarine representative of British types of youth? Discuss with reference to the film, and examples from other British TV and film.

There are three main characters in the film Submarine who represent different types of British youth, some following more stereotypical conventions than others. 

Oliver Tate - the main character

Submarine_pic
Throughout the film Oliver's character does not appear to conform to the stereotypical conventions of a British teenage male that we would often expect to see portrayed in the media. Oliver's character within the film could be considered as "unique". He displays unconventional traits and behaviours. Oliver is extremely inquisitive and gets himself involved in all sorts of awkward situations - whether it be with his parents, Jordana, people from school etc. Furthermore, Oliver often appears distanced to others in the film and does not "fit in" with the charatcers that surround him, his relationship with his parents is very unusual as he confronts his mother about her and his fathers sexual relationship, he freuqently gets bullied in school and he even finds it hard to relate to his girlfriend. Oliver's character can also appear to be quite sinister at times as he often speaks about his death and has to read aloud a suicide note that he has written after Jordana has broken up with him. Though Oliver's character could overall be considered nerdy, his personality suggests that it is more complex than that.

However, although Oliver's character does not often portray a stereotypical young British male, at times his character does display the conventions that we would expect to see as an audience. Oliver wears dark, plain clothing, a stereotypical convention of a British teenage male. Oliver's bedroom is painted blue with posters hanging on the wall, a skeleton model placed in the room and is overall messy. Oliver bullies and gets bullied for the girl he loves - Jordana. He wants to lose his virginity and even arson is shown within the film. These are all expected behaviours and traits of a youth culture and therefore represents stereotypical conventions of his character well.

Jordana Bevan - Oliver's girlfriend

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Jordana's character again does not always portray steretypical conventions of a young British female. She is very blunt and sarcastic, and does not express feeling or emotions in the way that teenage girls are often expected to. Furthermore she doesn't want a cliche relationship with Oliver and he tries harder to impress her than she does him, which is an unconventional feature of teenage relationships, as typically it is usually the female that is more "head over heels" than the male. Jordana is always seen wearing a large red coat, which could signify her bold and strong character as she seems very independant and unreliant on others throughout the film. 

Chips - the school bully

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I think that Chip's character is most representative of British youth than the other two within Submarine. He is a typical school bully who thinks that he is "cool" and "hard". He gives insults and sends notes around the classroom to embarrass other students (such as Oliver), he mocks other peoples problems and would do anything for popularity and status. Although Chips is a bully, he does not come across as violent or fierce, however more the "class clown" bully who gains popularity by stupidity.

If I had to compare the characters in Submarine to other charatcers in British TV and media I would most likely choose the characters from The Inbetweeners. This is because the characters in both Submarine and Inbetweeners have very abstract personalities and also Inbetweeners is a more realistic portrayal of youth than other TV programmes such as Skins and because these characters don't follow stereotypical conventions that have been created by the media I think that Inbetweeners is therefore a more similar portrayal. I think that Oliver is most like the main character Will, who wants to prove his intellegence but in doing so always ends up in awkward situations, whereas Chips would be more like one of the other charaters, such as Neil, as he is more laid back and enjoys life.

Overall I think that to some extent the characters within Submarine are representative of British youth, however I think that their is more complexitiy and perhaps even realism to the characters in Submarine then the stereotypical portrayal of British youth that the media often exposes audiences to. 

 

Harry Brown

 

"In Harry Brown, young British people are portrayed as nothing more than enemies to be defeated. They are no different from the monsters, aliens or enemy troops in any other action film. Discuss with close reference to examples from the film."

The portrayal of British youth within Harry Brown is extremely negative and displays to the public that young individuals in society are in fact “monsters”.

The opening sequence of the film alone is very powerful in displaying the monstrous and criminal behaviours of British youth as two teenage boys aimlessly ride around shooting a gun in broad daylight and murder a mother walking her baby, with no justification other than entertainment and no guilt, other than worry of being caught. Therefore, from the very beginning, the audience feel a sense of hatred towards the young people that are shown due to the way that the media is representing them.

Another sequence within the film that portrays British youth as “enemy troops” is when the character Marky shows Harry the video of Len being killed by his friends and him. When we, the audience watch the video and see the sickening ways that the boys torture the old man by beating him to death, again gives a horrific representation of British youth.

Furthermore, towards the end of the film when the "battle" between the teenagers and police is taking place, the actions and language used by the teenagers is appaling and disrespectful. We see them smashing windows, setting fire to things, physically and verbally abusing police officers and people in authority, vandalising people's homes and so on. This influences how the media portray British youth and reason that they do in fact need to be defeated to protect society. 

Throughout the entire film, there is only one main point where justification to the behaviour of the young individuals is given to the audience. This is when it is revealed that Marky has experienced sexual abuse throughout his life and then later on in the film, it in fact shows him being sexually abused and having to perform a sexual act unwillingly. Although this makes the audience empathise with the character and almost relate to why he behaves the way he does, this is only shown for a short period of time and is not a leading part of the storyline. Therefore, despite little justification, the portrayal of British youth is still extremely negative.

Overall, representation of British youth in the media, and specifically in Harry Brown is extremely negative and they are portrayed in such a way that can only be described as monstrous.

 

Codes

Camera
A variety of shot types are used to add emphasis to the storyline. Close ups were used on the teenagers faces when they were being questioned  in prison, and at various other times to represent their fear. Close ups were also used on Harry to represent his sadness and anger at different times within the programme. Long shots were also used, particulary when showing the estate, when Harry was watching the teenagers through his window and also at the end throughout the fight. These helped to emphasise the "dirty" location and mess that the teenagers had made due to their disordely behaviours. Shots were variying and effective throughout to represent characters, feeling and location and helped emphasise the overall storyline that was being told.

Sound
Music used throughout was often very dark and sinister to help portray the story that was being told. Whenever Harry looked out of his window, it become a recognisibile feature that the music would remain the same each time and became louder, faster and more dark as something bad was about to happen. Furthermore, when the two police officers are walking through the estate, loud "dance" music could be heard, a stereotypical feature of the type of music that teenagers would be associated with listening to. 

Mise-en-scene
Mise-en-scene portrays stereotypical features of youth throughout the film.  One main feature is the costumes that are worn by the characters. All of the teenagers are seen wearing hoodies and tracksuit bottoms, portraying the characters as common. Also, by having all of the teenagers in the same clothing, helps to identify them as a "gang", which from the storyline we know is true. Lighting and colours used throughout are all very dull and most scenes happen during night in the dark, which helps add to the sinister tone that the film sets. Props are used in the form of weapons throughout - guns,knifes and so on, which again give the message that teenagers are involved in and "enjoy" physical violence.

Conventions

Characters 
The teenagers that are shown are all represented as villians and their sidekicks within the film. They all play negative roles and have negative attitudes towards society and others within it. Although Harry displays physical violence within the film, we would not necessarily associate his character as being a villan, but in fact a victim and hero as he fights to protect  his friends and what is right within his neighbourhood. 

Narrative/Plot
The narrative helps to emphasise a clear divide between youth and an older generation, and this divide is not questioned at any time throughout the film. It portrays youth in the most negative way possible to the audeince. 

Dialogue
The teenagers within the film use slang throughout such as "bruv", "init", "you get me" and so on, Their accents are also very common which would suggest that they lack intellegence that the older characters display.  

Ethnicity
All characters within the film are white and there are no racial issues represented. 

Reigonal Identity
The location and setting played an important role within the film, all of the characters were from a council estate that looked very run down and poor. Therefore suggesting that the behaviours of the youth are to some extent a result of their regional backgrounds. One of the teenagers mentions that his dad used to "own the estate", therefore representing that the youth consider their estate as their own and they are in the highest power within the estate. 

Gender
Most of the charatcers were males. This portrays the stereotypical assumption that it is more likely to be males displaying violent behaviours and getting into trouble with the police, than it is females. Also the males treat the females in a negative way throughout, referring to them as "bitches" and "slags", and one of the young males even "sells" a girl to others, representing that the males believe they are more superior and females allow them to take this role. 

Class and Status
From the setting, language, costume and several other features we know that all of the teenagers are stereotypical council estate, common people with lack of money and education and this reflects in their agressive behaviours - again, a very stereotypical feature. 

Negative/Positive portrayal
The tone of youth representation throughout is very negative, and the teenagers have been portrayed in some of the worst ways possible, displaying violent attitudes, vulgar language and generally horrific behaviours. However, the storyline also gives us some background information about their upbringing which at times makes us emphathise with the characters as they may not know any other way to behave. For example one of the teenagers gets sexaully abused, and another is trying to follow on his fathers footsteps. Therefore although most of the time the youth are portrayed in negative ways, there is some justification as to why, so therefore audience attitudes may change during these times. 

Use of recognisable stereotyping
The characters within the film are portrayed as stereoypical common teenagers. They take drugs, deal drugs, use vulgar language, display violent behaviours, carry and use weapons, smash cars and properties, vandalise their estate, thieve, are disrespectful towards the police, are dirty, watch porn, wear hoodies, have sex wiith underage girls and so on. All of these are are recognisable stereotypical features that are associated with youth today. 

 

Representation has excelled over the years

 "Good Manners" (1930s)

Tenagers;
well spoken
well mannered
very polite
tone is overall very calm and placid
obedient
conforming
un-sexualised and unsusceptible to the negatives of the world

"Derby Youth"(1947)
teens look very well mannered
school seems as if it has very strict regimes
young peoples clothing are neatly put together and if they are wearing a uniform it is spotless 
like robots
females all sitting round in their spotless cotton dresses, knitting and sewing 

"Blooming Youth" (1970s)
had many similarities with Skins
students appeared to be very arrogant; they constantly spoke over one another and argued
smoked
talked about sex
cursed
used foul language openly 
adult magazine in his room

"Three Minute Heroes"(1980s)
transformed and was even more like Skins
frequent use of slang and colloquial language by the teenagers in the school
dressed very youthfully in colourful outfits
girls tended to have vibrant and flamboyant make up
boys dressed rather casually and the girls wore quite dressy fashionable clothing
teenagers are represented as fun loving and superficial
care a whole lot about their looks and their outer appearance
immature
constant playing of video/ arcade games and play fighting, mainly from the male characters. 
naïve 
sex/virginity
music such as the punk bad the "specials"
stereotypical "Popular Guy" 
loud
expressive
individual
outgoing
sexually aware

Comparison of British Youth in recent TV Shows

Skins (E4) - Negative Representation
always problems relationships, growing up
secrets
rude
joking
individual style
casual
work uniform
relationships
lesbians
sex
parties
crushes
middle class teenagers
drugs/ alcohol
interested in relationships and sex than education or workmany social groups

Glee (E4) - Positive Representation
individualism
friendly
singing and happy
exgarated clothing
cheerleading outfit
clothes relating to their social groups
rehearsals
care about grades
drama
serious relationships
disability
in song
not reality
friendly and happy
fairytale like

Inbetweeners - Realistic Representation
All sterotypes of students are represented;
Will – smart, confident, well read, quick-witted and outspoken
Simon – smart, confident, romantic
Jay – confident, sex pest, loud
Neil – confident, slow, crazy