The Secret Life of The American Teenager

           The representations of teenagers are supposed to reflect, reinterpret, and recreate norms (Mayne).  The Secret Life of the American Teenager is a show that comes on ABC Family that is supposed to depict the life of the American teenager. I do not believe for one second that this depicts the life of a teenager. I believe that it is a very hypersexual view of adolescents. I will be discussing the first three or four episodes of Season three where Adrienne finds out that she is pregnant by Ben, which is Amy’s boyfriend.  This statement alone shows how this show depicts all of the teenagers to be hypersexual. In the show all the teenagers seem to be sleeping around and even though they are all friends they all eventually end up sleeping with each other. These students are supposedly in high school. Adrienne is not the first teenager to become pregnant in this community. Amy already has a child by Ricky and Ben is Amy’s ex-boyfriend. This just shows the “homie-smashing” mentality that is present within the television show.

When Adrienne found out that she was pregnant by Ben (Amy’s Boyfriend) she was interested in trying out all of her options. She looked into adoption as well as abortion. This reminds me of the “can-do girl” because she had several resources and was able to explore all of them. Adrienne, of course, did not choose the abortion due to the average “television break down” in the abortion clinic.  All of the teenagers in the series are presented as upper class. There are a couple black teenagers in the show but they are just as high class as the white teenagers. You don’t really see too many financial situations in the show. After Adrienne tells Ben that she is deciding to keep the baby, Ben then decided to try to do the “right” thing by proposing to Adrienne without even really genuinely liking her. This is so cliché because there are very few teenagers that are getting married however it is very typical for a young guy to propose because he thinks it will fix the situation.

                In the Secret Life of the American Teenager most of the teenagers are in relationships, which present the idea of sex as ok. Most of the couples in the show are having sex and when there is a couple that is trying to abstain from sex they are always looked at as innocent. Even though there are a few couples that are not sexually active. They are always trying to figure out when is a “perfect” time to change their sexual status. This, even though it isn’t sex, seems to be hyper sexual.

                The discourses of teenagers are minoritized and universalized in The Secret Life of the American Teenager. The discourses are minoritizing because the teenagers who are not very hyper sexual are treated different and are labeled as the “good girls” when this is not at all true. The girls that are not sexually active should be labeled as the norm instead of the outsider. The series universalizes sexuality among teenagers. I’m not sure if this is ok, but ABC Family covers for the hyper-sexuality by having a “teen pregnancy is 100% preventable” commercial on every commercial break.

(Sorry Guys I could not find Links)

The Game

The Game

The Game is a show about men who play for a fictional San Diego football team called the Saber’s and the wives and mothers that support these athletes. The Wives of the players, and in the case of Saber’s star quarter back Malik Wright, his mother are all a part of a wives organization called the Sunbeam’s. In Episode 12 the Saber’s Center, Clay, came out mistakenly to quarter back Malik, thinking that he was gay as well. In episode 13 it gets out to the rest of the team that Clay is gay (ha that rhymes) and the Saber’s franchise tries to out Clay by publically recognizing him as the first openly gay player in the league to bring publicity to the franchise. In Season 3, Episode 13 of The Game there are representations of minoritizing and universalizing discourses of sexuality.

This episode shows minoritizing discourses in several ways. When Clay comes out to Malik, certain teammates were at Malik’s house for dinner and strippers. All the players but Clay left before dinner was done. When Malik was cooking, Clay and Malik were having a very ambiguous conversation. Malik was thinking that they were conversing about women while Clay was referring to him and Malik. Clay then grabs Malik from behind and professes that he wants to put Malik “to bed”. Malik having his male friends over to watch female strippers is a minoritizing discourse in the case that Malik assumes all of his male friends are straight because they are his teammates. The fact that they are all men on a football team watching strippers sits well with the viewing audience because of the hetero-normative thinking that the audience posses that norm is the center. (Transgeneration ppt) The way that Malik singles Clay out because of his sexuality shows that Malik’s hetero-normative ways of thinking makes Clay not normal in his mind because of Clay’s sexuality which also shows a minoritizing discourse. In an attempt to make Clay feel accepted in his “gayness” the Sunbeam’s invite Clay’s partner to a meeting. When his partner arrives he is being talked about this is minoritizing homosexuals even though there was an attempt to universalizing them with inviting him to the Sunbeam’s meetings.

Even though, Malik acts as the minoritizing factor in the situation. The Saber’s as a franchise try very hard to universalize the fact that they have a gay football player on their team. The coach does not discriminate against Clay for his sexuality. He just encourages Clay and Malik to get along. The Saber’s as a franchise try to shine light on the situation of Clay being gay to bring money and publicity to the franchise. After the Sunbeam’s were caught making fun of Clay’s partner they apologize and proceed to take Clay’s partner in as a Sunbeam ignoring the fact that he is the only male and that he is gay. This shows universalism.

James Lull defines hegemony as the power or dominance that one social group holds over others (Lull, Hegemony).  This episode of The Game shows the hegemony between the homosexuals and the heterosexuals. The heterosexual football players on the team try to dominate Clay as a homosexual. There are several jokes made by the team even though there was an effort to universalize homosexuality by outing Clay.            

Even though there were both universalizing and minoritizing factors in this episode of The Game. I am not sure if I can appreciate the way that homosexuals were represented in the episodes. Clay is a big burley man who you wouldn’t expect to be gay however his partner was a very feminine man who even declared that he wore Seven Jeans. This shows how the media presents a homosexual couple through heterosexual tendencies.

Lull, J. (1995). Hegemony. Media, Communication, Culture: A Global Approach.
Links: Stay Fierce Malik 1/2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVMU2i_854M
          Stay FierceMalik2/2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GE29yDJtwE&feature=related