Representation of Young Men in Hot Rod and American Pie

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Representation of Young Men in Hot Rod and American Pie

The media have the power through selection to give us an influential portrayal of different groups, situations and ideas. We see these representations in different ways according to our own assumptions. Representations can change over time and give us a kind of social barometer of changing representations of social groups and trends. 

Many media sources portray the youth in the same way, with a limited view of them as being sex obsessed. However, some material is more sensitive and sympathetic. An example would be the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off, this offers quite sensitive portrayals of youth coping with relationships, authority and identity.

If we look at this representation in one particular area such as the representation of young men, we can see that many media texts portray young males in a variety of ways. This is because there are many types of young males to look at and there is always a change in fashion and ideology through the years. The two texts I have chosen are both different in their representations and I shall explore these representations in detail.

In the USA, since the ending of the  and its replacement with the  in the late 1960s, some filmmakers began to experiment with vulgar humor. The movie which pioneered the gross out comedy genre was 1972's  with its infamous dog excrement eating scene, followed by 1974's sketch comedy sleeper . The first movie to which the label "gross-out movie" was actually given to was 's , which was a great  success and thus started a new trend. Since the 1980s, gross-out films increased in number, and became almost the norm for US comedy films. With these films being aimed at more of a younger audience from 16-25 years of age, such films include , ,  and more recently .

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The first text I will look at is ‘American Pie’. In this film there are a range of young males who are all represented in different ways. The film is a typical American teen movie with huge parties and gross out comedy, and was heavily influenced by such films like Porky’s Revenge of The Nerds. From looking at the DVD cover to the film, you can see that the main picture is a group of youths who all look relatively the same with only one standing out as different to the rest. This is showing us who the main character ...

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