Here is my cultural analysis paper for English class on why I believe Jennifer Lawrence is the perfect role model for girls and teenagers in our American culture:
In Hollywood, there are countless super-thin stars that are incredibly beautiful, talented, gracious, and sometimes even a little conceited due to all of their fame and success. It has become incredibly hard to find a celebrity that young girls and teenagers can not only look up to and aspire to be like, but also someone who they can relate to. With the emergence of the wildly famous Hunger Games and Silver Linings Playbook star, Jennifer Lawrence, the search is now over. The purpose of a role model is to have someone that a person can look towards in order to try and become a better person. Things that used to be considered bad such underage drinking, drugs, and eating disorders have become so prevalent in our culture that I believe that it is necessary for young girls to have a role model to teach them that even though these things may be popular, they are not right and you can be pretty cool without doing them. Jennifer is someone who would be a great influence for these impressionable girls and teens. Lawrence is very well known for teaching girls to be confident with their bodies, being an overall caring and compassionate person, never being on a tabloid for parting or doing drugs or any other illegal activities, and also for never taking herself too seriously. I believe that for all of those reasons Jennifer Lawrence is the perfect person to use as a role model.
There are constantly stories on magazines of celebrities with some sort of eating disorder trying to make themselves go from being thin, to unhealthily skinny. Jennifer Lawrence is never one of those celebrities. One of her most well known quotes concerns her want to be fit and not stick-thin: “I’m never going to starve myself for a part. I don’t want little girls to be like, ‘Oh, I want to look like Katniss, so I’m going to skip dinner.’ That’s something I was really conscious of during training, when you’re trying to get your body to look exactly right. I was trying to get my body to look fit and strong—not thin and underfed.” One of her main concerns is to not try and be something that is unhealthy. She wants girls to not look at her as the typical Hollywood starlet that they need to develop some sort of eating disorder in order to attain that same standard of beauty. She wants girls instead to see her as a fit and healthy woman and encourage them to exercise and eat healthy instead of starving themselves. She also believes every woman should appreciate their own body instead of trying to live up to someone else’s idea of beautiful in saying, “You look how you look. Be comfortable. What are you going to do? Be hungry every single day to make other people happy? That’s just dumb.” She supports all different bodies and believes that every woman should be happy with what they have.
Jennifer is known as being a very sweet and generous person who takes the time out to acknowledge her fans by giving them autographs or taking pictures with them when she sees them. Not all stars do this anymore with the exception of when they are at large promotional events. She also keeps a very level head and does not ever want to become one of those celebrities who think that they are some sort of God send because they are rich, famous, and successful in their career. Jennifer has said, “I like the financial security because I know how hard it is for so many people who struggle to earn a living. I’m grateful I don’t have to worry about money and I can live very freely and do something I love and get paid very well to do it. I tell my friends to slap me if they ever think I’m getting full of myself.” She realizes all that she has and does not take any of it for granted like many people, especially celebrities, do.
When you look on the cover of a tabloid and see headlines about celebrities getting DUI’s or going to prison for possession or use of drugs, you never see Jennifer Lawrence being the subject of those headlines. In this day there are so many other celebrities such as Miley Cyrus that young girls idolize even though they are constantly connected to partying, drinking, and drugs. These girls need someone like Jennifer who goes to an Oscars after party and instead of getting herself drunk, gets her parents drunk and then leaves. She has said, “I don’t like going out that much. I’m kind of an old lady. After it’s 11, I’m like, ‘Don’t these kids ever get tired?’ When I’m out, I think about my couch. Like, ‘It would be awesome to be on it right now. I bet there’s an episode of Dance Moms on. Am I missing a new episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians?…I like people to come over to my place. It’s like a reality TV show cave. I just learned how to work TiVo. That changed my life. Reality TV is my silver lining. At the end of the day, there’s probably nothing that makes me feel better than junk food and reality TV.” Jennifer is a real person who does real things like eating junk food and watching reality TV. That has become part of American teenage culture and she fits it perfectly. Girls such as myself are able to relate to her want to just stay in and eat food that is terrible for you while watching a show that is equally terrible for you. No other celebrity admits that sort of thing.
If you tripped and fell in front of millions of Americans watching at home, and in front of hundreds of the most important people in Hollywood, chances are you would be mortified. I know that if that were me, I would probably run away backstage and start to cry. Jennifer Lawrence does the exact opposite. When she tripped at the 2013 Oscars while going up to receive the Oscar for “Best Actress” for the movie Silver Linings Playbook, Lawrence was full of poise and got a standing ovation out of it. When she got to the podium she said, “You guys are just standing up because you feel bad that I fell and that’s really embarrassing, but thank you.” Her ability to accept her embarrassment was not just a one-time thing. Lawrence also had a wardrobe malfunction at the SAG awards where the top layer of her dress rode up and showed everyone a lot more than they were expecting to see. When she got to the podium she was able to laugh it off and say, “Well, at least I had on underwear.” Most people would be completely mortified and would most likely pretend that the entire incident had never happened. Jennifer Lawrence is the last person you will ever hear about taking herself too seriously, and she sends a good message for every young girl and teenager to do the same. Learning to be able to laugh at yourself is one of the greatest things in life.
Before Jennifer Lawrence, I completely idolized Anne Hathaway. She is beautiful, talented, and full of grace. She is an incredible woman, but I was never able to relate to her like I can with Jennifer Lawrence. She is much more outgoing towards her fans and isn’t afraid to show everyone the real Jen, whereas Anne Hathaway and many other celebrities would never dare say something as silly as what comes out of Jennifer’s mouth. Even if you don’t like her, it is obvious that she is a great person at heart and logistically is a great influence for girls and teenagers everywhere. Lawrence is the perfect role model due to her being relatable to young girls and teens, her encouragement to love your own body, her compassion as a person, her lack of activity in the party scene, and her ability to never take her self too seriously as a person regardless of her fame and success.
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