Modern technology has allowed us to do things people from the past could only dream of. These activities include viewing color television, listening to songs on Spotify, or even reading books online. Despite the world seeming to evolve so rapidly, speed comes with many consequences. The importance of mental health has gained popularity in the past few years because of these issues, but its emphasis isn’t enough to combat other negatives the media influences.
Personality Stereotypes
Coming-of-age movies often express that girls form cliques and friend groups that are difficult to join. Similarly, boys are either characterized as smart nerds with no friends, or bullies who act cool and are athletic. However, in real life, the line between different types of people isn’t this clear. There is a lot of gray area between personalities, and not fitting under one of these umbrellas shouldn’t invalidate who you are.
Although the intention of such shows isn’t to enforce these stereotypes, creating characters who fit perfectly in the cutout of “drama queen” or “star football player” only dichotomizes the audience’s views of these roles. Despite directors and story writers trying to come up with unconventional protagonists or antagonists, they leave the supporting cast the same, ruining their chances of fighting against these harmful stereotypes.
Substance Abuse and Alcohol
Another standard portrayal of teens, especially in movies and TV shows, is of the lead character smoking or succumbing to drugs. While the end result is generally that they accomplish a goal, the message sent to viewers is that doing drugs isn’t necessarily bad as long as you don’t get addicted. Popular protagonists are either ex-substance abusers or begin using them in the middle of the story, and when the ending of the book doesn’t show the effects drugs had on the character, people can assume there were no difficulties they faced from the narcotics.
Additionally, just a few decades ago, smoking on-screen was considered cool and made actors more attractive. Thankfully, this isn’t a common practice today (at least not with teens). Some industries and countries have regulations where warnings of substance-related issues must be shown before the media is consumed. For example, in India, many movies display a message or clip depicting the possible difficulties faced by regular smokers or drinkers. However, the message that appears during a scene is often hidden in a corner and not seen by viewers, rendering it useless. Unless these practices are adapted better to the media or removed, poor representation of substance use will continue to have adverse effects on teens.
Body Positivity
In the past few years, advertisers have learned that using size zero models doesn’t appeal to their entire audience, not allowing them to maximize profits. The use of other models, then, is simply to make the company seem accepting even if they’re not. Normalizing the use of diverse body types decreases the emphasis on actors’ body types and shifts society further than just trying to look open-minded and accepting.
Multiple studies show that people don’t pay attention to you as much as you think they are. One experiment had people wear a shirt they felt self-conscious wearing and later ask the people around them what was on it. Surprisingly, very few people noticed that it was out of the ordinary. Bringing attention to body shape, positively or negatively, makes people more anxious about themselves. Rather than completely ignoring it, different body types should be showcased in ads and posters without the company exclusively pointing out that their clothes are inclusive.
This doesn’t mean completely ignoring it but rather changing depictions positively without bragging about being woke.
These are only a few of the issues stereotyped in different forms of media, but they showcase a wide variety of modern representation problems. There’s a lot of progress to content creators need to make, but until that happens, viewers should be aware of these effects. Staying vigilant and spreading awareness of such issues can lessen their detrimental outcomes.
tl;dr
The media enforces many stereotypes of issues, including substance abuse and personality. Characters in TV shows and movies, especially friends or relatives of the protagonists, exemplify stereotypical roles like the “social outcast,” pressuring real-life teens to quickly figure out which label they fit under. Glorifying the use of drugs and alcohol makes some people feel left out and may influence them to follow in the actors’ footsteps. Also, body acceptance is exaggerated and used as a tool for firms to gain attention, but standardizing body diversity instead of pointing it out will bring a greater shift in people’s implicit biases. Whether it comes from the viewer or producer of a medium, change is inevitable and necessary for such societal preconceptions to be rewritten.