American culture has a variety of stereotypes that “define” our culture. From stubborn high school cheerleaders to middle class white collar males working in an office environment. America perceives different races, ethnicities, and even class groups through heavy stereotypes. In the movie Not Another Teen Movie, these different stereotypes about high school and teenagers are shown through their groups/classes and their race. Many teen films depict the standard high school environment and typically the white or suburban high school. These films tend to go against stereotypes and show the positive side of high school. For example, High School Musical featured a typical high school romance between Troy and Gabriella. They weren't in the same "group" in high school. Troy was a jock and hung out with the popular group of students, while Gabriella was smart and hung out with the smarter, nerdier group of students. In the end, true love prevails and unites the two young spouses despite coming from different social groups. In Not Another Teen Movie, all the normal school stereotypes are shown, such as the jock who has a cheerleader as a girlfriend, horny freshmen, different high school cliques, and the race to be prom queen. . This film is helpful in showing different stereotypes in American high schools, but it also shows how the male body and gaze are always displayed in this film as well. Not Another Teen Movie is a satire and intentionally depicts several stereotypes throughout the film. The film chooses several different films to imitate and show the stereotypes of these films or what people usually think of a certain group, class or race. A large star... in the center of a sheet of paper... Jake took Janie to a popular party but first had to fix her look. Another stereotype portrayed in the film is that popular girls are skinny and have a very perfect shape and in order for Janie to be perceived as popular she needed to change her clothes and hair to fit that stereotype. Once dressed for the party and for many other scenes after her transformation Janie is no longer looked at the same way by the camera. The stare comes into effect when he gets his new look. As she walks along the start, the camera reduces Janie to just her legs and hips before finally showing her face. According to Robert Burriss "Eye-tracking has been profitably applied to the investigation of sexual preferences and attention in multiple studies, facilitating the measurement of attention on different parts of the body, such as the waist, hips, breasts, the pubic area and the face" (Burris 21).
tags