Binary Oppositions in Teen Films

How are binary oppositions established at the beginning of Teen Movies

Binary oppositions are a couple of concepts that are related but have opposite meanings. It is the system where two things are defined and set off against each other and they are two terms that contrast each other like, on/of and up/down. Binary oppositions help structure a film.

In teen movies, there are some common binary opposites that are usually shown in high schools, such as, popular vs unpopular, rich vs poor and beautiful vs ugly and this is also shown in the cliques in high schools, for example, the hotties, jocks, clever kids and the Goth. Clothes, music and dialogue assists the viewers in noticing the opposites. Binary oppositions are made to keep a storyline moving forward as it creates a sense of drama in the film because we see the oppositions going against each other.

The Teen Movie my group assessed: Twilight

In the beginning of Twilight, there are a few binary oppositions that are established such as boy vs girl trough showing Bella and Jacob. Able and disabled is also shown through Jacobs dad and Bella and it is exaggerated through Bella looking down upon Jacobs dad. Other oppositions that are shown is popular vs unpopular and hot, sunny environment vs dull, brown environment.



Another Teen movie: You got served

The binary oppositions that I noticed in the opening of this film is, girls vs boys, good vs bad, old vs young, winners vs losers and performers vs audience. The boys and girls is shown when they are going head to head while dancing and good vs bad is shown when the two boys go to a man to do something to get money. These are things that we notice will run throughout the whole film.