Stupid Girls Representation

Stupid Girls - PINK

The song 'Stupid Girls' by PINK is one that not only has caught the immediate attention of teenage girls around the world, but has also summed up the trap that our entire world is now falling into, which is changing absolutely everything about ourselves to become 'stereotypically beautiful' and also the consequences of only living for an image.

At the beginning of the music video a little girl is shown sitting in a chair watching a television screen, wearing pigtails, normal looking clothes like a t-shirt and jeans and she is also seen with barbie dolls in her lap. Then when she turns on the television, a portrayal of an 'angel' pops up above her left shoulder and a 'devil' on her right. We assume that these 'portrayals' are going to tell her what is right and what is wrong, as this is what we associate the 'devil' and 'angel' with through stereotypes. 

The first scene on the television is made to look old fashioned because it is in black and white, there is also a close-up shot of a women shown dressed in very old glamourous, conservative clothing, wearing lots of makeup with her hair perfectly done. She is taking a class of young ladies and it shows her trying to teach them etiquette. This scene fits in well with the music video lyrics, which at this point say "Stupid girl, stupid girls, stupid girls, Maybe if I act like that, that guy will call me back. Porno Paparazzi girl, I don't wanna be a stupid girl" We realise when pink sings "Maybe if I act like that, that guy will call me back" that the symbolism of the lyrics is shown through the women who is trying to teach a class of young women how to act, just to impress a guy and be 'ladylike'. The little girl then also imitates what the women is teaching her class. This shows us as viewers the effect that media can have on people especially young and teenage girls. This small scene of a little girl copying what she sees on television has already had a huge impact on society because we can see the influence that media is having nowadays and the idea of 'because it's on t.v it makes it okay'. The women in the scene are shown as complete robots who are obsessed with the the 'perfect image', which is not something that society wants young girls and teenagers to aspire to.       

Then the next part of the video shows the devil above the girls shoulder lip-syncing the lyrics. It also shows how PINK has used costume to portray a stereotypical young women. She is seen stumbling around in oversized sunglasses, beads and a short, revealing dress. We are given the impression that this women is quite wealthy because she is able to afford nice clothes, jewellery etc. We also assume that she is very dumb because she walks straight into the clear glass door of the pet store. She then is seen tumbling into the pet store, where another women is shown, who is dressed the same and looks the like as her, so she is obviously here for the same reason.  PINK then grabs a small dog off the pet store shelf and is going to buy it. At this point in the video the lyrics say "They travel in packs of two or three,With their itsy bitsy doggies and their teeny-weeny tees Where, oh where, have the smart people gone? Oh where, oh where could they be?" This women that PINK acts out is seen to the the typical Hollywood diva. She is wearing girly clothes and looks famous. Because of what we have seen in the media we assume that she is only buying a little dog to look cool and fit in and that she doesn't actually want it, she is treating and using it more like a fashion accessory and wants to dress the dog up in matching outfits rather than actually look after it. Also printed on the pet cage that the dog is in are the words "stays younger longer". This gives us the idea that if PINK buys this little dog it is going to keep her in fashion, up to date and youthful too. She is acting out the consequences of only living for an image, which nowadays seems to be all that anyone is ever doing to stay 'stereotypically beautiful'.

The next scene in the video shows PINK playing a character who is sitting with her boyfriend in a bowling alley. They are getting along fine and talking to each other as any normal couple would do until, another girl walks into the bowling alley wearing an incredibly short, denim skirt and a very fitting shirt. A chose-up camera shot is shown on her chest to show that she has very large breasts. The boyfriends attention immediately goes from PINK, who is playing the girlfriend to the young women who just walked in with the 'massive tits'. PINK realises that her boyfriends attention is elsewhere and an extreme chose-up shot is shown on her pulling an "in case of emergency" tag that is attached to her shirt. As soon as she pulls this tag, it immediately blows up her boobs and makes them a lot bigger than the girl before. PINK'S boyfriend then looks back at her and sees that her breasts have enlarged and immediately, his focus is back on her. This is a typical stereotype that we see in the media  lot of the time. We assume that girls are more attractive if they have larger breasts and that 'size' is all guys care about. This negatively portrays women in this situation because it is showing that we are giving into having a fake, false image. It shows that we have to constantly 'outdo' one anther to essentially win the guy over. This specific scene shows that PINK'S character has given into stereotypes and it proves that she has needed to change her image in order to suit her boyfriend and to only please him and not herself. It also makes us as viewers assume that everything is just one big competition and that young women are constantly fighting a battle to win over someone else's attention. Once again they are succumbing to the stereotype of the perfect body. 

Not only does this scene negatively portray women but also men too. The stereotype of men only liking girls with big boobs has been completely over-used. The guy in this scene is made to look like a bad boyfriend and also gives us the impression that he is a complete jerk because of the fact that he only cares about looks. Because we have seen this in the media and it is a common stereotype, it makes men in general look really bad and that all they care about is the fact that a women's looks have to appeal to him in order for him to actually like her but because we have seen this repeated in the media so frequently, it  makes it hard to realise that this isn't actually always the case and that it is just a stereotype. However, it still gives us an incredibly negatively impression of men and that we as teenage girls and young women have to change ourselves to impress them. 

The last scene in the video that truly shows how low girls have placed themselves in order to gain a 'perfect body' is where PINK is playing a character with bulimia, which is a common eating disorder that people suffer from. There is actually an interlude in the middle of the video especially for this scene to show its significance. PINK walks into a bathroom saying "OMG I totally had more than 3oo calories today, it was so not sexy", while another girl is using a tooth brush to make herself throw up. After the girl is done using the toothbrush PINK then asks "can I borrow that" and immediate shoves it down her throat to make herself throw up too. This is something that I feel the audience, particularly teenage girls can relate to because now, a lot more girls are suffering from eating disorders in order to get a 'stereotypically perfect' body. The lengths that girls go through to try and make themselves beautiful are absolutely absurd.  Through this scene in the video, women are shown being humiliated as they succumb to procedures and lifestyles in attempts to produce a 'stereotypically beautiful' body image. Girls use their toothbrushes to bring up their food in the bathroom, which is something that is not okay but is happening because of stereotypes in the media. Girls believe that in order for them to be liked, popular and beautiful they have to be skinny and they will go to any length in order to try and retain this. 
  At the end the video, a close up is shown specifically on the angel and devil above the little girls shoulders. The 'devil' is telling the little girl to go and play with make up, clothes and Barbie dolls, while that 'angel' is telling her to go and play with a football outside. She eventually opts to play with a football rather than play with dolls. This teaches society an incredibly valuable lesson because it shows how we are able to overcome stereotypes and perfectionism.

Despite seeing all of these tremendous scenes on the television the little girl overcomes all of this and the impressions that they give her and goes outside to play with a ball, which is something that you would expect a child of her age to do, rather than sitting around watching inappropriate shows on t.v or experimenting with lots of make-up. It shows us that we do not need to destroy ourselves in order to retain the 'perfect body'. I personally am incredibly relieved that someone like PINK has finally spoken out and said something about the mindless epidemic of unhealthy girls and has addressed the on -oing issue that promotes perfectionism. Her video shows how in the end, people are capable of being strong, independent young girls who don't need the 'perfect, beautiful body' to be happy. 

PINK'S interpretation of what is happening today in society can be compared to many other music videos of the same genre. There are a lot of artists that influence young teenage girls such as Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato and many others. Because of the way they present themselves and how they act in their videos, it has us as young women believe that being skinny and beautiful with perfect teeth, perfect hair and perfect skin is normal, when in actual fact it is all completely unrealistic. Because of how the media is able to re-touch and Photoshop these girls in their videos, it also makes it virtually impossible to look like them, yet we as teenage girls are still constantly trying to reach the un-attianable goal of perfectionism.  


Another music video that could be compared to PINK'S 'Stupid Girl's' is Taylor Swift's 'You Belong with Me'. Again in this music video you can see very similar concepts to what PINK has used in her video. Taylor Swift plays a 'stereotypically beautiful' cheerleader who wears short skirts, lots of makeup, her hair is always done nicely and of course she has the 'handsome' boyfriend. You could say that she basically gets everything that she wants. 

There is also another character that Taylor plays who is considered to be a stereotypical 'nerd'. She wears glasses, sneakers and plays in a band which 'stereotypically' is not considered to be cool at all. Taylor Swift shows in her video these two characters, the

cheerleader and the nerd, both fighting for the attention of the same guy. This concept is also exactly what PINK has used in her music video. This is shown in the scene, which I have mentioned earlier in the post, where PINK is fighting for the attention of her boyfriend and uses 'inflatable boobs' in order to retain it. This one again gives teenage girls that they must change their appearance in order to get the guy to like them and be accepted. 

The 'You Belong with Me' music video consists of a range of shots showing the popular cheerleader and the nerdy girl with they guy that they both like. Taylor Swift has given the audience hints throughout her video that the guy actually secretly likes the nerdy girl instead of the pretty, popular cheerleader however, he never shows it in public or takes any action to try and be with the nerdy girl until the end of the video.

At the beginning of the music video I was quite impressed that the 'stereotypically beautiful girl' doesn't actually get they guy and that someone else more realistic, and that a character that teenage girls will find easier to relate to does instead. However it wasn't until the end of the video that I realised how much of a big joke Taylor Swift's video actually was. She has tried to make the audience believe that the guy likes the 'nerdy' girl who isn't as stereotypically beautiful, in stead of the 'pretty', 'popular' cheerleader. He is portrayed to the audience as too shy to ever admit that he likes the nerdy girl, until the final scene of the video at the 'Homecoming Dance'. There is a two-shot used to show the pretty, popular cheerleader with her handsome boyfriend at the dance. The cheerleader looks very stereotypically beautiful and perfect and is wearing a bright red revealing dress. The colour red was probably used to symbolize 'evil' and in the media this often tends to be the representation of the 'pretty popular girls' who get that ever they want.  

Then the stereotypically 'nerdy' girl walks into the room and catches the attention of everyone in the room. They all stop to stare at her in awe. No longer does she look like stereotypical nerd, with glasses, who plays in a band. Instead, she has her hair out, is wearing lots of makeup and a long, silky, white dress. The colour white is also a symbol of purity and innocence, so Taylor Swift is trying to make the character look innocent to the viewers. But she has actually transformed into a representation of a young girl who looks like what we as teenagers would consider to be 'stereotypically' beautiful. A close-up shot is shown on the guys face when he sees what the so called 'nerdy girl' now looks like at the dance. His face immediately lights up with pleasure and instantly, he leaves the cheerleader who he was dancing with previously and goes over to the newly transformed nerdy girl.

I strongly believe that this ending of Taylor Swift's music video is a complete contradiction to the rest of her video and it proves to society that even celebrities can succumb to the pressure of stereotypes. Taylor Swift thinks she is making girls more confident and helping them with her videos but in actual fact she is just creating false hope for them and making them feel as if they have to be stereotypically beautiful to be liked. She has tried to portray to the audience that you don't have to be stereotypically beautiful to get the guy however, in the end the nerdy girl actually changes everything about herself to appeal to the male which is an extremely negative message to portray to society. This concept was also shown frequently used in PINK'S 'Stupid Girls' video too however, her lyrics were actually making fun of girls that do these things to themselves and that it is completely unnecessary to change yourself to suit someone else. Where as Taylor Swift is trying to make girls believe that they can get a guy if they change the way they look completely to suit the male eye. The influence that these ideas and messages have on teenage girls can be seriously harmful however, unfortunately they are still being used just to gain audience appeal because at the end of the day, it is an artists job to make their own living and they aren't going to create a video that will not appeal to their target audience. I believe that it's a shame that artists have to revert back to this representation of the skinny, completely unrealistic, stereotypically beautiful, girl in order to get views and make money. This representation has been used many times before in lots of music videos and does not in any way give any positive messages to the society and still encourages self doubt and unworthiness.