Imagine… you’re sitting in a nice and comfy cushioned chair, the smell of buttered popcorn is filling your lungs, the cool fizz of soda is gliding down your throat, you’re body and mind are at ease… This sensation may not be relatable for everyone, but for many going to the movie theatre is an escape. It’s an hour and a half escape from the endless amount of things you need to check off your to-do list, an instantaneous escape from the anxiety you constantly feel, and a brief escape into someone else’s story, during another time and in another place.
Due to this feeling people get from watching a movie, they are insanely popular among our society and a large part of our culture. The younger populations are greatly influenced by film and over the past few decades the rise in popularity of the teen film genre has boomed. Not only are adolescents desiring to see themselves represented in film, but older generations are constantly trying to gain an understanding to them as well. When diving deeper into each decade of teen film since the 80’s, we can see how the portrayal of teen girls has affected society’s outlook and treatment of young females. Additionally, we can see how far the prominence of feminism in movies has come, and gain an insight to the culture of the past, which will allow us to see how much society's viewpoints on the female youth have evolved. Unraveling the evolving portrayal of teen girls in film over the past few decades; ranging from the depiction of male dominance over young women, to the tenacious outlook on women and their valuable relationships with one another, to the most recent theme of the strong and empowering female lead.
The History Behind Teen Cinema
The history behind the adolescent film genre dates back to the 1950’s. Before the 50’s, teens were hardly represented in film and took on small roles, but the 50’s cinema sparked a new era of teen film. Hollywood began to mold their performers into troubled youth, the most popular being James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause, which demonstrated the pure teen angst among American cinema. Author of Teen Films: The Cinematic Image of Youth, Timothy Sherry, stated that during the 50’s “films were made that avoided or toned-down the dilemmas of youth for the sake of celebrating its carefree aspects, or films were made to further capitalize on and inflame the dangers of teen delinquency and decadence.” During this time Hollywood was in the process of introducing the post-World War II teenager, and along with this came the exaggerated ephebiphobia, fear or loathing of teens, that was a large part of pop culture and politics at the time. Because of this movies revolving around teens depicted juvenile delinquency and the troubled adolescent storyline. Moving into the later 50’s teen movies, Hollywood was catering to both ends of the genre spectrum: dangers of teens versus celebration of teens.
The 60’s began the wave of joyful beach movies, including Beach Party. However, in the early 70’s teen film shifted back towards the more dark and rebellious aspects of the adolescent identity. Whereas, the late 70’s had a more lighthearted approach to adolescent life with Saturday Night Fever and Grease. The 80’s began the largest movement of teen films because Hollywood wanted to cater the young audiences who often visited the newly introduced shopping malls. Jessie Bernard stated that, “teens primarily participate in the economy as a consumer,” which is why Hollywood marked teens as their next target to get to the theatres. This time period marked the emergence of teen film sub genres ranging from horror, to dance musicals, to sex comedies. This created an avenue for a variety of character types to emerge. Sherry explains how “this gave teenage movie audiences at the end of the 20th century a greater sense of presence in popular media, a deeper potential to be influenced by the films they saw, and a wider range of options from which they could construct and compare their senses of themselves.” Therefore, by the early ‘80s, there were six major approaches to youth cinema offered by Hollywood: the horror film, the science fiction film, the sex comedy, the romantic melodrama, the juvenile delinquent drama, and the school picture. With a wide range of movies for the youth to watch, the teen films of the 80’s became very popular among society.