On-screen Idols: The Development of Character Through Media

• In Event: At the Intersections: Leveraging the Strengths of Girls of Color in Schools and Communities

Abstract

This paper focuses on the adapted Positive Youth Development competency of character (citation deleted for blind review), and the challenges girls of color face while developing character. Defined as “a respect for societal and cultural rules” (Lerner et al., 2005), I believe the understanding of these rules is only possible when a girl grows up with the right role models. In our age of technology, movie characters are some of the most potent role models for adolescent girls. The tendency of current media to only highlight women of color when they are extraordinary raises the standard for character. Most extremely popular series—Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, and The Avengers—all feature a lone girl on a team of men. Known as the “Smurfette Principle” (Brovarets, 2022), this phenomenon has prevailed for decades. The token woman’s character often lacks any flaws, morally or otherwise, and only exists in the context of the male characters. In these movies, among others, women are only onscreen when they do extraordinary things, or eventually become the love interest of the main male character (Selisker, 2015). The token woman is much less often a woman of color, and ordinary girls of color are thus made to believe they must simultaneously be near saintly while also sexually attractive to be recognized. This perfection is impossible to achieve and is detrimental to the development of character in a girl. When faced with the rigid expectation of virtuosity, it’s easy to push back and tend towards disrespect for societal rules in rebellion. A girl of color knows that others support her--she consumes feminist media (hooks, 2000), she watches marches on the street--but she believes she has failed her people unless she is perfect. This is a dangerous mindset, and easy to fall into thanks to the deluge of media that repeats this myth. Developing as a girl of color should mean developing a character on her terms. The expectation of virtuosity should never be placed on an adolescent’s shoulders. The education that young girls need is not just one where her idols are women, but where the women are just like her: with imperfections. To allow a girl of color to develop we must show her every woman, unfiltered, instead of a curated sample. We should push for representation until the women on TV are ordinary and extraordinary.

Author

• Yasmine VanDyke, Brearley School