Representtion 5: Cliques and beauty

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"Fifteen" - Song lyrics by Taylor Swift




'Cause when you're fifteen,
Somebody tells you they love you
You're gonna believe them
And when you're fifteen'





Narrative

The lyrics in the song “Fifteen” written and sung by Taylor Swift tells the story of a young girl who is starting out in freshman year of high school and is based loosely off Taylor's own experience as a fifteen-year-old.  The lyrics touch on many stereotypical images that are portrayed in popular culture of young females in high school such as finding a first love only to have them “use” her and don’t love her back.  The lyrics touch on the importance of developing strong peer friendships in a time of life where one is trying to discover who they are and that there will be distinct groups of people in high school like the “cool” kids who seem to be the ideal version of what the media is portraying as beautiful.  The song insinuates that no matter what your experiences are in high school that soon enough it will be over, and your life will be greater than the first boy you thought you loved.  Whilst the content is stereotypical these scenarios are real world to the youth of today and as a result many young females could resonate with the song. (193 Words)

Scholarly Article

During adolescence young girls will experience emotional changes in intrapersonal and interpersonal development as well as physical changes into a woman’s body (Chua & Chang, 2015, p. 190).  Social media presents new platforms where young girls can interact to co-construct standards of beauty by using phenomes such as the “selfie”, whilst at the same time the media portrays the ideal images of beauty which permeate social media through information sharing and project an idealized beauty image to these young girls (Chua & Chang, 2015, p. 190).  Taylor Swifts song touches on the “cliques” that form within school settings which is a common popular culture theme and more often than not the “popular” girls idealise the beauty standards that the media have constructed as ideal.  The song “fifteen”  challenges this stereotype to an extent by suggesting that cliques are not the “end of the world” and that there is more to life. (151 Words)

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References

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References Bruce, D. L. (2015).   Re-constructing and Re-presenting Teenagers:   Using Media Literacy to Examine Cultural Constructions of Adolescents.   The English Journal, 104(3), 68-74.   Retrieved from https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/stable/pdf/24484461.pdf Chua, T. H. & Chang, L.   (2015).   Follow me and like my beautiful selfies:   Singapore teenage girls’ engagement in self-presentation and peer comparison on social media.   Computers in Human Behaviour, 55, 190-197.   Retrieved from: https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/search/advanced?docId=10.1016/j.chb.2015.09.011 Farokhmanesh, M. (31/5/2018).   YouTube is the preferred platform of today’s teens.   The Verge.   Retrieved from https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/31/17382058/youtube-teens-preferred-platform Hellevik, P. M. (2019).   Teenagers’ personal accounts of experiences with digital intimate partner violence and abuse. ...
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