The Full House episode ¨I’m not D.J,¨ questions the culture of American schools by bringing down the idea of fitting in, popularity, and peer pressure, and instead promoting the idea of individuality. Towards the beginning of the episode, Stephanie(one of the main characters on the show) is talking to two ¨popular¨ girls, who both have their ears pierced, and they tell her in order to fit in with the ¨popular¨ kids she must get her ears pierced as well. So she decides to try and get her ears pierced to fit in. Later in the episode she asks her father to take her to the mall to get her ears pierced and when he tells she must wait until she gets older, she says, ¨but Jennifer got hers pierced¨ and ¨how am I ever supposed to be cool?¨ This is an extremely truthful and relatable scene for a lot of children because they want something in order to fit in, and their parents decline them the opportunity to do or have it, and when they hear this the usual response for young children is ¨but how am I supposed to be cool?¨
The final scene has Steph talking to her father about why she got her ears pierced even when he told her not to. She told him she did it to fit in at school, but she also did it to be different from her sister. She said she wanted to be treated like an individual. Her father then tells her as she gets older she must learn to make tough decisions that are good for her and not for others and that being an individual is extremely crucial in life. The episode then ends like every other, with a happy ending. This Full House episode explores the culture of children in school and what they face in order to fit in and stay relevant. It criticizes this idea and instead promotes the concept of originality.
Tyler Joseph, the lead singer in Twenty One Pilots, wrote the song Guns for Hands to help make the realization about how many people, especially kids, have depression and suicidal thoughts. That he is having trouble living his life while knowing what these kids are going through. It hits him even more, since he has gone through the same things that these kids are going through, and sometimes still does. He brings this issue forward, by sort of connected it to gang related problems, the usage of guns in gangs, and the guns for hands.
Tyler sings, "That you all ave guns/And you never put the safety on/And you all have plans/To take it, to take it, don't take it, take it, take it". Tyler compares the kids hands to guns and the gun's safety. in the way that they all have the power to conflict harm on themselves. The safety of a gun, is a blocking mechanism that does not allow the trigger to be pulled, not letting the gun to be fired. So when the kids aren't putting the safety on their hands, they are not taking it upon their selves to seek out help, or even just talk to someone about it. And they all have plans on pulling the trigger, to end their lives, but Tyler is telling them not to. Since they don't want to talk to someone, but obviously listen to his music, he is trying to tell them not to, to get the point across to them that there are other ways.
He later says in the chorus, "...I'm trying to sleep/But I can't, but I can't when you all/Have guns for hands". He is losing his sleep because of his thoughts about these kids. He worries about them, knowing that they can end it whenever they wanted to. Knowing that, disturbs him so much that it is keeping Tyler from sleeping.
In the third verse, He sings "We've turned our hands to guns, traded our thumbs for/ammunition". He's comparing all of these to tools. But the type of tool changes. Hands and thumbs are tools of creation that come together to work wonderfully. They are used for making things of greatness. While guns and ammunition, when put together, are tools for destruction, for ending things as people know it.
The film Mean Girls presents stereotypes of high schoolers, especially in terms of gender. The girls within the film seem to be fake and rude to each other based on what the girl’s outer beauty looks like. Males within the movie are held to the jock stereotype. The movie’s ideology is both promoting and resisting those stereotypes. Promoting with girls and women being prissy and only caring about gossip and looks. It’s resisting when Cady, the lead character, doesn’t really care when she wins the crown at the dance and actually offers the crown to the crowd. The men that are resisting are a moc (man of color) that is very bright and Damian who is the gay character.
The girlfriend group “The Plastics” reinforce superficial stereotypes, since they are the most popular and the most beautiful and the most important. It reinforces that women only care about their looks and that school and a healthy social life is irrelevant. The parents that are within the movie showed why the characters were like that. Regina, who is dominant mean girl, when we first meet her mother you see how loose her parental ways are. She offers the girls alcohol and you see that the mother lives vicariously through her daughter experiences. It shows that girls not only learn their ways from the media but also the important women that are in their lives.
“Mean Girls” also reinforces the ideals of what a real male is suppose to be like. The handsome main character Aaron Samuel; the stereotypical high school popular jock that attracts the ladies, but without being a ladies man. His character seems to only reinforce how high school works but he still resists the womanizing ways. It reinforces the stereotype that gay males only hangout with women with the character Damien. He is only seen with Janis and Cady and has banter with Janis about his sexuality. Also in the main girlfriend group,there are the stereotypes of the dumb blond(Karen), the rich one(Gretchen),and the queen bee(Regina). These stereotypes tell us there are only three ways girls can be popular in high school. These stereotypes not only reinforce but they are also damaging. Telling girls, especially girls that are in high school that they only deserve attention if they are rich, white, pretty or dumb creates a precedent for girls who do fit the label and girls who don't.
“Mean Girls” has inspired new generations since it’s release in the early 2000s. This generation has watched Mean Girls since they were little, thinking that high school would be like it is in the movie. As we grew up; the behavior within the movie seem to be over childish and something that people would more likely do in middle school. High School nowadays seems to be just stressful and anxiety filled, not filled with people going out there way to embarrasses you or make you small. Are there people like this in high school? Yes, but people normally shut them down or don't listen to them. Mean Girls has also taught this generation to be themselves and not to pretend so you can fit in a group of people who you don't even like.
Lastly, in most teenagers eyes the movie is seen as a satire, while some of the plots do have truths the way that high school works now has change drastically. The film has taught me that high school stories are only important when they are told in a suburban atmosphere and have barely any people of color and doesn’t include real issues and the importance of speaking about them. Mean Girls has both good qualities and bad qualities. The good qualities is the importance of having a strong female lead character, a gay character, and speaking on the issues of the younger generation that pretending to be something that you're not can ultimately change the person you are, good or bad. The bad qualities of the movie seem to be the lack of diversity, only showing the high school experience from a suburban point of view, and not having more great well rounded characters to balance out the characters that were mostly flat.
