Music Video: You Belong with Me - Taylor swift

Stereotypes are included in our lives every day. The music video You Belong with Me by Taylor Swift holds some stereotypes. Taylor Swift portrays both the protagonist and antagonist, which she is described as “the nerd” who is going out of her way for this guy she can’t have. And also plays the “popular” girl. In this music video, the lyrics state that Taylor describes this “popular” girl as horrible, scary and perfect. The stereotypes portrayed in this music video are that this “popular” girl wears short skirts while Taylor as the “nerd” wears tee-shirts, “She’s cheer caption and I’m in the bleachers.” This is indicating vast amounts of stereotyping due to most characters/people in the media are portrayed as perfect girls, with perfect boys, with the perfect life. The stereotype in this music video is where a nerd cannot get what she wants but the cheerleader can. The female lead is a nerd with huge glasses. She is in love with her neighbour who is portrayed as ‘gorgeous.’Unfortunately, she does not get the male because the cheerleader of her school is dating him. The three of them are from the same school which sounds like a typical love triangle.

When others have the average life (being Taylor as the “nerd” in this video) who fights for the boy who may be way out of their league. This is showing that the guys/jocks in these media/music videos only like the popular teenage girls due to them being a cheerleader when generally the nice girls get left out of having a perfect boy.

Also, the media exposes the stereotype that cheerleaders are the most popular in the school. In the video, the cheerleaders are most popular however this is not the case in every school. The typical popular cheerleader that everyone wants to date is mostly presented through the media. What goes on in real life is normally nothing like the stereotyping that goes on television series/music videos/movies and much more. The music video is just another example of representation. Most media texts are made to get more viewers due to there being drama in the media. For example Keeping up with the Kardashians is a reality television series which most of it is scripted and mixed around to make it seem like it has more drama all because of wanting to get more viewers. This technique works in some cases due to people/teenagers wanting entertainment and by watching these series it makes them hooked on these programs due to the reality of it all being mixed around to portray more comedy and drama which is exciting to watch.