Pretty Little Liars is a mystery teen drama that follows the lives of four High School students that are being harassed by 'A'. The show premiered in 2010 and has just been renewed for its 5th season. It has had mixed reviews and has been labelled as predictable by some and a breath of fresh air by others.
The four main girls Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily are supposed to be stereotypical 16 year old's who just happen to be going through an out of the ordinary stalker experience. They are represented as emotionally unstable and untrustworthy teenage girl's who are expected to be able to handle near death experiences and being stalked by a psychopathic anonymous person who controls their lives on their own without any help from an adult or the police. They give the impression that a girl's worth is solely based on appearance, social worth and the boy she choses to have on her arm. Pretty Little Liars may make young girls feel adventurous and crazy obsessed with the mystery that is "who is A??" but what they probably do not realise is how poorly teenage girls are being represented.
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Hanna Marin is the blonde and outgoing one of the four. She's your typical dumb blonde if you look at her simply- she may be outgoing but she is definitely the most outspoken member of the group. She often takes up the role of the snarky member of the group as she isn't afraid to speak her mind and put people straight. However, stereotypical to how a dumb blonde gets treated she will get slack from those around her if she says something that isn't correct or doesn't confide with the idea's of the group. In Hanna's past she was bulimic after being overweight, and being bullied about it. She was an outcast and felt excluded from the clique, so she lost weight, bought and stole nice clothes, started wearing make up and changed everything about her in order to be popular. Hanna's character is having a bad influence on Pretty Little Liars' audience as she is teaching them that in order to be happy and popular you must confide to society's idea of beautiful by being skinny, rich and flawless. Hanna's bestfriend towards to the start of series was Mona. Mona ended up betraying all four of the girls especially Hanna by being apart of the 'A Team' and making their lives miserable. This friendship was portrayed as genuine but turned out to be fake, this friendship and most other's in the show are full of drama and lying which is an unfair representation of girls' friendships. It makes girls seem unable to be apart of a friendship that is truthful and normal as in loving and fun.
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Aria Montgomery is the alternative, arty girl in the group. She often wears black, punk rock style clothes and at the start of the series had a pink streak in her hair. Just going by looks you would assume that she would be your stereotypical goth, but Aria is a bright, outgoing teenager who has top social status and isn't an outsider- this breaks the stereotype that girls who like to wear black are a bit alternative and dorky and weird and an outsider socially. Aria just like the other three is a poor representation of the typical teenage girl which they are supposed to be. She fits into one of the most commonly used stereotypes of teenage girls today which is boy crazy, a compulsive liar who will say anything to get past her parents and friends and a reckless and irresponsible girl whose delusional about what she wants. This type of teenage representation is seen all over the media, an example of a movie that uses this same template is Mean Girls as their main character Cady is boy crazy over Aaron Samuels, lies to her parents and friends and is reckless and irresponsible about her relationships and actions.
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Spencer Hastings is your typical over-acheiver. She's bright and sophisticated making her the brains of the group. Spencer is the girl everyone goes to when they're looking for advice and is trusted to be the one who will solve the mysteries that seem to follow the four girls everywhere they go. She's a perfectionist who's edging on obsessive compulsive, a stereotype of a smart girl that we see everywhere on television. An example of another stereotypical over achiever on television is Mouse off The Carrie Diaries. She's obsessive and competitive about everything she does, just like Spencer, and is the brains of the group, often being the girl everyone goes to if they need advice or help. Just like the other four girls, Spencer is portrayed as a lying, crazy teenager that can't resist any boys no matter how committed they are to other people. She fits into the smart, over achieving teenage stereotype as she comes across as only caring about being the best at everything and boys. This makes young teenage girls believe that the only things important in life are boys and being an over achiever, instead of being happy and living the life that you want. You could also look at Spencer as a role model for young girls as she does have a healthy social life and achieves extremely highly in academics and other activities. One major flaw in Spencer's character and storyline is in season 3 when she gets admitted into Radley, Rosewood's mental institution for severe emotional trauma after discovering her long-term boyfriend Toby was apart of the 'A Team' and finding what she thought was his body in the woods. However, once Spencer found out that Toby wasn't dead and was in fact working as a double agent in order to keep her safe she quickly recovered and was back to a fit and healthy state in no time. This quick recovery makes it seem like mental illness is something temporary and can be fixed with a snap of the fingers or in Spencer's case a piece of information. In order for the show to accurately display mental illness in a respectful way they should have extended her recovery to a more believable time period instead of around one episode like they did, and show her continuous struggles throughout the series instead of completely discarding the storyline. If people struggling with mental illness were watching Pretty Little Liars at the time of Spencer's crisis they probably would have felt misunderstood and worse about how they feel and what it means to be mentally ill.
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Emily Fields is easily the least stereotypical character in the show. She's a girly yet sporty asian who is out and confident about her lesbian sexuality. Immediately that breaks multiple stereotypes that we see all over the media these days. Asians are often portrayed as academic and outsiders- Emily is sporty and popular, Lesbians are more often then not represented as boyish and secretive or embarrassed about their sexuality- Emily is girly and out and proud. She is a positive role model for anyone whose struggling with their sexuality by letting them know that you can be a known lesbian and still be accepted and loved by those around you. The way the character's around Emily react and deal to her sexuality has to be celebrated as they are written to be supportive, loving and protective of Emily as she comes to terms with herself. The appearance of Emily as a lesbian character on this mainstream television show that is Pretty Little Liars is amazing in itself. It just proves how far we have come as a society that accepts and celebrates peoples differences openly and with pride. Shay Mitchell, the actress who plays Emily Fields said, “I have a lot of friends who are gay; my aunt had a girlfriend. It's just normal,” said Shay. “And the way that fans have reacted [to my portrayal of Emily] has been amazing: I'm not playing the gothic chick dressed in all black who eats lunch in the corner and is a lesbian. If you look at the poster, you wouldn't necessarily be able to pinpoint which one of us is the lesbian, and that was really important to me.”
Pretty Little Liars is one of those shows that gets some things right and other things completely wrong. They label teenage girls as compulsive liars who obsess over boys/girls and as a show fixate on popular and beautiful girls, portraying everyone else who doesn't fit this mould as weird and frowned upon. After analysing this show I have come to the realisation that if basically anyone I know was made a character in rosewood they would be the ones being frowned upon solely based on the fact that they have quirky personalities and don't base their lives around romantic relationships and pleasing others. I strongly disagree with the main stereotype of all us teenage girls being liars. Yes, some girls do lie a lot but the message Pretty Little Liars is putting across is that we are willing to spin the most outrageous of lies without fluttering an eye lid in order to get what we want when we want it. I think the writers decided to write the show this way because they know that the audience will think of this as 'cool' and something to be celebrated. Being a good liar is something that is represented as cool and rebellious for a teenager to be able to do so it's really quite smart of the writers to tap into those feelings that they know the audience will have. No teenage girl wants to watch a TV show that's exactly like their own life so setting up a story with characters that are the envy of all girls ensures the producers of a successful and influential TV show. Even if there are a bunch of unfair representations and stereotypes used you can't talk about Pretty Little Liars without applauding it for some parts of their show. Their portrayal of Emily in particular is brilliant and sets an excellent example for young girls who are struggling to come to terms with their sexuality. They also break the stereotype for the alternative girls by making Aria a popular, up beat member of the show- this shows a completely different side to girls like Aria who have for years been clumped into a stereotype of being emo, depressed and an outsider.
No matter how in depth you look into Pretty Little Liars you can't deny the brilliance and success of this hit TV show. The question is what will you do with the information you learn from the story lines and characters- will you confide to society's beliefs on perfection or will you chose to live a life that is fulfilling for you and makes you happy.
Pretty Little Liars is one of those shows that gets some things right and other things completely wrong. They label teenage girls as compulsive liars who obsess over boys/girls and as a show fixate on popular and beautiful girls, portraying everyone else who doesn't fit this mould as weird and frowned upon. After analysing this show I have come to the realisation that if basically anyone I know was made a character in rosewood they would be the ones being frowned upon solely based on the fact that they have quirky personalities and don't base their lives around romantic relationships and pleasing others. I strongly disagree with the main stereotype of all us teenage girls being liars. Yes, some girls do lie a lot but the message Pretty Little Liars is putting across is that we are willing to spin the most outrageous of lies without fluttering an eye lid in order to get what we want when we want it. I think the writers decided to write the show this way because they know that the audience will think of this as 'cool' and something to be celebrated. Being a good liar is something that is represented as cool and rebellious for a teenager to be able to do so it's really quite smart of the writers to tap into those feelings that they know the audience will have. No teenage girl wants to watch a TV show that's exactly like their own life so setting up a story with characters that are the envy of all girls ensures the producers of a successful and influential TV show. Even if there are a bunch of unfair representations and stereotypes used you can't talk about Pretty Little Liars without applauding it for some parts of their show. Their portrayal of Emily in particular is brilliant and sets an excellent example for young girls who are struggling to come to terms with their sexuality. They also break the stereotype for the alternative girls by making Aria a popular, up beat member of the show- this shows a completely different side to girls like Aria who have for years been clumped into a stereotype of being emo, depressed and an outsider.
No matter how in depth you look into Pretty Little Liars you can't deny the brilliance and success of this hit TV show. The question is what will you do with the information you learn from the story lines and characters- will you confide to society's beliefs on perfection or will you chose to live a life that is fulfilling for you and makes you happy.
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