Kick-Ass

Part 1 – American influence on British culture.

Throughout Kick-ass, there are a variety of different things that are present in British culture which
have either been influenced by American culture or the British have influenced on America.
American influence is very noticeable in British society especially with the media being shown in
Britain making teenagers want to be a part of it (Sarfraz Manzoo).

Comic Book Stores: Comic book stores are generally seen within American texts that are shown over
in Britain e.g. The Big Bang Theory as well as in Kick-ass. They are generally seen as somewhere in
which the protagonists spend some time. These protagonists are normally seen as being either really
young (e.g. The Simpsons) or “nerds (e.g. The Big Bang theory). Comic book stores are found in
Britain e.g. forbidden planet and are shown in British texts e.g. Spaced which stars Simon Pegg.

Sneakers: This is an Americanised shoe that is now commonly seen around Britain. Shoes like
converse are being shown more within British culture and media with almost all the characters
within the programmes wearing them. They are advertised to us by the American culture and are
constantly shown on American text which makes British culture used to them. E.g. Shameless

MySpace: Social networks have mostly been created in America and have been given great hype
when introduced in Britain. MySpace is a prime example of a bog social networking site that it used
all over the world. It is also mentioned a lot in texts because of the ability to find everyone due to
not having to include personal details. It is often referred to by teenagers as a means of talking to
each other e.g. The Worlds Strictest Parents.

Slang: Words like Junkie are used throughout the film, these words are Americanisms for words such
as addict and in Britain we are starting to incorporate these Americanisms into our daily speech e.g.
Jack Osborne: Adrenaline Junkie.

There are 3 main teenagers that are represented as stereotypes (perkins) within this film. These are:

Kick-Ass:
Appearance: Kick-ass is represented as being a “nerd” because of his love for comic books and
super-heroes. This is re-enforced with his glasses which are stereotypical of “nerds” as well as his
unfashionable plain clothing.

Behaviour: Kick-ass behaves like the stereotypical teenage boy. He is normally seen with friends or
on his own involved in his individual project and never doing anything related with studying even
when at school.

Medium: Kick-ass is represented as a typical nerd within the film. He is very similar to the main
protagonists in Superbad. Kick-ass and his friends all wear glasses and have scruffy hair as well as
casual shirts over t-shirts which is typical of “nerds” within films.

Comparison: Kick-ass isn’t that extreme from the normal person, in fact, kick-ass could be
represented as being the “normal” person in the beginning of the text. This is because he is more of
an onlooker to crime and has similar opinions to society.

Katie:

Appearance: Katie is represented as being the stereotypical girl in America. She is wearing quite
casual but also fashionable clothes and has her hair in a feminine way with lots of curls. She has
feminine belongings which emphasizes the feminine stereotype.

Behaviour: Katie behaves like a typical teenage girl representation. She doesn’t talk to “nerds” but
only her other friends and “hot” boys, she also cares about herself before she cares about others
unless they have something that she needs.

Medium: Katie is represented as a typical popular teenage girl within the film, she is like a toned-
down Regina George from Mean Girls but still has a lot of similarities e.g. likes to wear pink a lot. She
is different from the usual stereotype as well because typically, the pretty girl doesn’t fall for the
“nerd”.

Comparison: Katie is mostly represented as the normal person because she reacts to her
surroundings and has the same opinions as the normal person. She is different towards the end of
the film because

Red Mist:

Appearance: Red Mist is firstly seen wearing smart and expensive clothing which connotes his
fathers’ wealth. He has a neat and modern haircut and is always shown as being smart. The clothes
he wears are stereotypically middle class where-as he in himself, is not purely because of his age.

Behaviour: Red Mist’s behaviour is very similar to Napoleon Dynamite, he is quite Naive and self-
obsessed when he doesn’t get his own way. He thinks he is cool and is old enough to run a business
following in his father’s footsteps, when in reality, he is far from it.

Medium: Red Mist isn’t the typical teenager represented in films. He doesn’t really have any friends
and isn’t really very mature although he is quite like Napoleon Dynamite with the way he talks when
he’s alone and speaks to his father.
Comparison: Red Mist is nothing like the normal person. He has different opportunities and is
exposed to different things compared to the “normal” person.

All of these 3 characters show the alternative image of the group in society. I think this because they
are not the typical way the majority of teenagers act e.g. teenagers with a lot of money can act like
they don’t or they can tell everyone that they do. This is shown in Kick-ass when Red Mist enters the
comic book store with a bodyguard and as well as when he is in the car with his dad and the chauffer
is told to get him food at the cinema. Kick-ass is represented as being quite tame compared to some
“nerds” for he is quite “normal” compared to other representations e.g. he goes out with his friends,
albeit to the comic book store but he also spends time to talking to his friends on Skype. Katie is also
the alternative way of representing teenage girls because she is seen as being very feminine when
not all teenage girls are. She is also very sociable. This is seen when she is waving at her friends in
the corridor and Kick-ass mistakes her for waving at him as well as when she asks to go out for coffee
with Kick-ass. The audience might interpret all of these representations as negotiated because this is
quite an extreme interpretation of the stereotype but is believable

I feel that the Marxist view of representation (rosenfeld) isn’t the correct view on stereotyping and
representation. This is mainly because there are so many different stereotypes all contradicting each
other which prove that not one representation can be 100% accurate. This is also because there are
such diverse people in the world that stereotypes cannot cover all of these people at once. The
majority of representations of teenagers make them seem like trouble-makers which is a
representation which “authority” would not like to see in society. Teenagers are also not
stereotyped into being young adults but in fact, they are stereotyped into being old children for they
aren’t usually given responsibility and are normally shown as being immature towards subjects and
each other e.g. they usually stay within genders. I also think that teenagers have such binary
opposite representations that there is no way they can be socialised into adult roles when teenagers
are either being seen as nice and trying to save the world from “evil” (e.g. Kick-ass) or seen as being
the evil ones who are swearing, drinking and abusing other people (e.g. Kidulthood). There are many
representations of teenagers in which they are defying authority and the older generation which
makes the teenagers seem pathetic and not ready to mature into an adult. Kick-ass has chosen to
represent the teenagers as both mature and immature. For example, it has chosen to show
teenagers trying to help the community and stand up for their beliefs as well as contrasting to show
them reading comics and believing in superheroes.

I feel that the representation of teens in different texts has no influence over the behaviour of the
majority of teenagers. The representations are always over-dramatised and I feel that they are based
on specific teenagers the creators have witnessed or heard about which are then emphasized to
create a stereotype. Because of the extreme opposites on some of the stereotypes, there would be a
lot more teenagers getting pregnant (e.g. Juno), trying to “fight crime” as a super-hero (e.g. kick-ass)
and beating each other up and taking drugs (e.g. skins) where-as in fact, although there are some
people who act like this, the majority of teenagers don’t fit within a solid stereotype and don’t get
influenced by the way they are represented on TV.