Pitch Perfect

Representation on Pitch Perfect

Pitch perfect is a comedy movie about a female acapella group called The Bardon Bella's. I found it very funny but realised  that stereotypes are relied on to make it funny. All kinds of girls and all in different ways are stereotyped constantly. These stereotypes show us how teenage girls are represented in the media. 

In one of the very first scenes on Pitch Perfect the acapella group "The Bella's" are shown performing at a national competition portrayed as a group of skinny, beautiful, model like girls.

There are close-up camera shots used to show The Bella's wearing tight short skirts, figure hugging blazers looking sophisticated. Wearing their white blouses open revealing their chest giving their outfits mrs of a sexual look. Their outfits portray to teenage girls that the way to get guys and that is accepted in society is with what they wear and having flawless skin, nice looking figures and hair that isn't a touch out of place. This can have a big effect on society as teenage girls are led to believe that they have to look like The Bardon Bellas to be accepted. This can lead to self harm and because elf the stereotypes we now see regularly a lot of teenage girls are changing to try and fit in. A People magazine survey showed that 80% of females felt that women in movies and television programs made them feel insecure about their bodies.
Becca is recruited into the Bellas hoping to make the Bardon Bellas achieve better at the national competition. Throughout the movie she is shown frustrated with how Aubrey is making them do a repeat of the year before. Teenage girls are represented through the use of costume on pitch perfect. Becca is new to the school and is shown wearing gothic kind of clothing not really fitting in with the crowd. She wears black nail polish, heavy eye make up and casual clothes. This show teenage girls that when you stet a new school it is okay to bee different so it is a positive and or negative affect on teenage girls.  

Another example is with Cynthia Rose one of the new members of the Bardon Bella's. The first time the new Bellas perform the first thing one of the commentators says is "Wow Gail these aren't your average Bellas!". We know that she is an African-American female but Pitch Perfect stereotypes her race by having her be the rapper in their acapella group. The way she dresses isn't your average girly way, he is seen in this photo wearing a farmer checkered kind of shirt over a plain red singlet. She has short hair shaven on one side and coloured on the other. She is a lesbian and this is stereotyped by her dress sense being to look like a boy. Another member Lily is also stereotyped to be your typical Asian that no one can understand when she speaks.

This can affect teenage girls as they are lead to believe that to be seen as "cool" in society they have to fit this look, causing them to get depressed all because they are unhappy with their appearance.

The representation of how teenage girls are supposed to look affects societies perception of teenage girls as what their expectations increase but become unachievable or fake. Boys may start to put girls into categories for example, thin, fat, pretty, ugly etc.. 

Most girls in real life don't look like movie stars that we are shown in the media, girls get themselves down about this leading to disorders, depression and even more extreme acts. Girls loose confidence in themselves which restricts them in their day to day life maybe not succeeding to the standard they may wish to. I think the media use flawless people with perfect bodies because that is what society would prefer to see rather than a less fortunate actor.

The Bardon Bellas can be compared to The Plasics from the movie Mean girls. Both groups change throughout the movies. Both the plastics and bellas resolve all of their issues towards the end but unlike the plastics that separated and became individual, the bellas stayed together.



We learn from both groups that you don't need cliques to get along, they are not needed and often are not like later on in life. Both movies have a new school member joining a group; Kaydi got 'accepted into the plastics quite quickly because of her looks and Becca got accept into the Bellas because of her singing ability. They are both easy for teenage girls to relate to because they are what we expect normal girls to be like.

In this photo of the plastics teenagers are represented as wearing lots and lots of make up and barely any clothes. They have a certain way they have to dress and their hair is always perfectly placed. They have a seductive look to them portraying that teenagers are seductive. The look on their faces almost suggests that you wouldn't want to mess with them representing teenage girls as mean if you look like them.

Both the plastics and bellas have "rules" that have to be met in order to be a member. For example, the plastics wear pink on wednesdays and wear jeans or track pants on fridays and the bellas aren't allowed to have a relationship with one of the treble makers.
One of the main differences between mean girls and pitch perfect is that in mean girls most of the characters are quoted on comments they make, where as on pitch perfect the only girl that is really quoted is Fat Amy.

Pitch perfect portrays the idea that different is good and always having a new perspective on things helps with difficult situations. So it does give some good morals for life to teenage girls.
Pitch Perfect Homework

BECA

Beca is a independent girl that comes across as slightly alternative or emo or seen as a rebel with a voice. She is a student at Bardon University and is forced to go there after her father, who is a professor at the university, doesn't agree to let Beca go to Los Angeles to become a music producer. She is into tehno music, producing her own remix's and even singing in some of them. She is seen wearing black nail polish, heavy eye liner/make up, accessories and casual attire which is how i get the impression of her being an emo. Beca has split parents and quotes that she has a "sarcastic stepmother". We see he independence when she takes her own bags out of the taxi when she arrives at University. I think this is a stereotypical representation because we automatically categorise Beca just from her style of clothing and independence. We use assumptions to with Beca assuming she is lonely when she is seen to have no friends or group of friends when she arrives at Bardon.

FAT AMY
Fat amy is an outgoing girl who is different but very confident in her own skin. She is overweight and a lot bigger than the other characters int he film. She tells the girls they can call her Fat Amy.

She is a stereotypical confident fat funny girl that doesn't let other peoples opinions affect her. She can be a little bit cocky, for example when she lists all the things she is good at to the Bella girls. This representation is not so stereotypical because she calls herself fat. usually we would expect fat people to avoid talking about their weight. Where as Fat Amy knows she is fat but doesn't let it bother her.