Evaluation 2 - Social Groups

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Amelia/Midnight

The characters of Amelia and Midnight represent a middle class, white family archetype. Amelia is of White British decent, has blond hair, green eyes and is a child aged eight. This type of family and character archetype is most often presented in the media in American film, such as Timothy and Theodore Templeton from Boss Baby, Kevin McCallister in Home Alone, or Conrad and Sally Walden from The Cat In The Hat.

Much like in these examples, our film, to an extent, perpetuates the stereotypes of white middle class families in the sense that the characters are well-dressed, conventionally pretty and appear to have money. Their family also can afford to effectively care for more than one child (total three, but only the two primary characters/siblings are shown in the opening). However, the characters diverge from the typical expectation by exhibiting intelligent behaviours, not adhering to the 'dumb blonde girl' stereotype often imposed in the media (e.g. Mean Girls, St Trinian's and arguably Clueless, etc) or the dumb jock bully stereotype of blonde men (e.g. Paranorman, Ultimate Spiderman, Jake Long: American Dragon, Danny Phantom, etc)

The character of Amelia, and by extension Midnight, is somewhat similar to the design and personality of Super Girl, a Marvel super heroine. 

Like Amelia, Super Girl has blond hair, striking eyes and is a powerful female character. It could be argued that their costumes are similar, as both contain the colours blue and white, though due to Super Girl's age, her costume is more revealing than Midnight's, which is more age appropriate. Super Girl's costume consists of a crop top and skirt, with matching boots, gloves, red cape and headband, which depicts her as a rebellious teenager who still retains some childish wonder. Midnight's costume, on the other hand, is a simple blue cloak with three golden buttons under which she hides her everyday clothing, presenting a younger, perhaps more inexperienced hero. In the various media she appears in, Super Girl is often seen as a sidekick or add on to her more famous cousin Super Man and appears to be rash and confrontational, whereas Amelia/Midnight is the protagonist of her story, showing the audience her leadership skills throughout the film and keeping a steady head. Both characters however reject the idea of being treated like children: Amelia makes it clear that she dislikes not being trusted with responsibilities and Super Girl rejects Super Man's coddling and belief that she cannot take care of herself.

In terms of social groups, both Amelia and Super Girl represent the younger generation within their worlds and give reference to the difficulties of growing up. Both feel as if they are being held back by parental figures patronising speech or actions (Amelia being told she should act like the child she is, Super Girl being prevented from training alongside the Amazons) and as such depict the widely spread idea that children need to be allowed to grow, presenting a lesson to both children and adults.