Why Do Teenage Stereotypes

I wanted my project to be about change. Change in ideals, values, fashion, freedom and inclusion. Transitioning from the sterile-sexless-family values-working man-suburban 40’s into the cr- well, into the 60’s; 1950 was the perfect year for me to examine. In the early fifties, ‘independent woman’ made about as much sense as ‘military intelligence’ or ‘jumbo shrimp’. Women cooked, cleaned, had kids and smiled doing it. They wore dresses and were pressured against sexual exploration (Stanford). But this couldn't last, and Lucky Strike picked up on it. They marketed strength, independence and sexual freedom to the new generation of young women with their ad campaign “Be Happy, go Lucky”, which showed teenage girls doing some pretty rebellious
stuff like wearing pants, running barefoot, going fishing and camping, letting the guy cook and clean, and showing their knees (Lucky Strike). We might think it's trivial now, but back then, it was pretty damn crazy. The same year, the first anti-smoking campaign in America launched (Kaleta). Backfiring completely, this anti-smoking movement only gave proof to young people that smoking was a rebellious thing to do. With hindsight, we can see just how well this worked if we briefly glance at what these people did once they got free of their old fashioned parents. That’s right, they gave us the 60’s. The stereotype is that men smoke and women don’t (Kaleta).
This leaves women in a weaker position to ward off tobacco. There have also been many new anti-smoking campaigns specifically targeting teens, but these stay true to the stereotype, only focusing on young women to say “smoking makes you ugly” (Stanford) Also, Marlboro’s new campaign ‘Be Marlboro’ targeting teens by showing- you guessed it- rebellious teens (Tobacco Free Kids). These are all developments that make the re-imagination of this icon necessary. Other, though less urgent, recent changes that make a reimagining of this project relevant (though not necessary) include more and more women's rights movements as well as dramatic changes in the image of the punk/rebellious teenage girl
(Thompson).
I am sure that teenagers in the fifties would be hesitant to show the Lucky Strike adds to their parents and would be completely opposed to sharing them with their grandparents (Stanford).
I wanted to create the same kind of images, but people have gotten less sensitive (Thompson). What was crazy then, is utterly mundane now. This is because of the ever changing rebel. The “edge” is always being pushed, and not by people on our side of it. These people, who seemed weird then and make us uncomfortable now will likely be boring in one or two generations. The edge is a concept I have toyed with a lot during this project. And I realized that what I was actually doing was asking myself the EQ: “What do we mean when we say American?” Sixty seven years ago, the American women was not thought of as independent Stanford), and a couple hundred years ago those of African descent were not legally, much less socially accepted as members. But today we pride ourselves on our civil rights and equalities and are known around the world for it… As far as assumptions go, I want to challenge the idea that only guys smoke. This stereotype is not only wrong, but is harmful to the women who are left more vulnerable to nicotine addiction
(Kaleta). My research has been interesting. There is a lot of data out there about teens smoking, but most of it is about health, whereas I simply wanted marketing strategies. The thing is that this stuff is all opinion because the tobacco companies have never really been good at revealing how evil they are (Tobacco Free Kids). My piece will be a photograph because I am reimagining a poster. Posters of the day may have been illustrated, but today they are almost exclusively photographs. Artistic components to my piece other than photography included costume design: simple, badass, no bra, large sunglasses for masculinity and mystery, unshaved underarms. Makeup: pale but still natural. Model selection: small, short hair, sliced/burned forearm, very thin, slightly masculine. Background: plane white and flower garden. Lighting: no use of shadows on the face makes the actress seem more aggressive, brighter light between the legs makes her seem more sexual, occasional flares in the sunglasses for a bit of light texture. There are many very deliberate decisions that went into each of these photographs, I prefer to use them subtly in order to actually create something interesting than to show off that I can make choices.