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The CW Channel Two vampire brothers fight evil, fixated on the same girl. Filthy rich teenagers of and their families on the Upper East Side backstab but also stand strong by each others’ sides in moments of spite and friendship. A beautiful, lethal girl tries to destroy a good-turned-evil Black Co-Ops division of the U.S government. Young women in their early twenties try to out do each other in photo shoots and other challenges in order to win the title of “America’s Next Top Model.” College cheerleaders betray each other in the name of love and scholarship money but make lasting friendships. The commercials and top television shows on the CW network emanate the theme of female power, combining motifs such as romance, drama, intellect, and action. The network appeals to girls in their early teens to their early twenties because they themselves desire the power that the females on the network possess. The women all elude power by being unrealistically slim, athletic, independent, beautiful, and intellectual. Shows such as //Hellcats, Gossip Girl, Nikita, America’s Next Top Model// and //The Vampire Diaries// are some of the most advertised and viewed shows on the network because the protagonists of the show all happen to be women with the characteristics listed above. On //Gossip Girl,// the amount of money that these characters have seem unreal; additionally, it is unbelievable how easily they all seem to be accepted to Ivy League schools, as on the show they are never portrayed studying. Instead, they are always partying, shopping, or plotting how to get revenge on each other. The directors of the show chose their cast well: not only are the characters complex and their actions involving money, academics, and love unrealistic, but they are also extremely attractive. The women wear clothes that are so expensive and well chosen that it is uncommon to see many in the real world dressed in that way. The women all have extremely unrealistic authority and use their beauty, money, and intellect to influence others to do what they want. The fictional power that the women possess is the show’s allure to young women. //Nikita// starts actress Maggie Q (Nikita) as an assassin spy who is trying to take down Division, a Black-Ops section of the government that has “gone rogue.” She and her co-star “Alex” wear tight clothing that flatter their slender, muscular bodies, fight with guns and martial arts, and have a wide range of knowledge in almost any subject. With their looks and brains, they are able to make almost any man fall in love with them to their advantage. In the advertisements for //Nikita//, the two attractive main characters are featured in tight leather suits that revealed their thighs while the words “Girl Power” flash across the screen. This may be appealing to the few males in the audience and will entice other males to watch the show as well. Additionally, teenage girls and young women may find the combination of tight leather suits, revealing dresses, intellect, and combat “cool” and admire the main characters for having the looks as well as the muscle and intelligence. During the airing of //Nikita,// there were commercials for double extension L’Oreal mascara, the shows //Hellcats// and //The Vampire Diaries ,// tax refunding agencies such as H&R Block, and the show //Nikita// itself. While most of the commercials seemed to aimed at young women due to content (such as mascara,) it may seem that the commercials for the CW television shows are geared towards men, as they showcase very attractive young women in revealing clothes and sexual poses. However, these commercials are actually aimed towards young women, as young women admire and strongly desire to be physically “perfect” like the characters they see on television shows and commercials. “Perfect” entails having a certain type of face while the women’s bodies and clothes elude sex appeal. In the //Hellcats// commercial, the main character of the show was freak dancing with midriff showing while the narrator announced, “Her milkshake brings all the boys to the yard… even the lactose intolerant ones.” The //Vampire Diaries// commercial was even more sexual than the //Hellcats// one, as there was a scantily dressed woman making sexual motions with her arms and body as she lay with two men on a bed. Teenage girls and young women watch these sexual commercials on the CW channel wishing to be the gutsy, confident women that they see on television. Perhaps this is why the commercial for //Nikita// is so successful; when women see slender, attractive, intelligent women with the words “Girl Power” flashing against the screen, they are fascinated and want to watch the show; after all, what woman would not want to be attractive, athletic, and intelligent? The commercials and television shows on the CW network are actually unhealthy and potentially harmful in their message to their primary audience. Teenage girls and young adults are very self conscious of their self images, and the television shows and commercials featuring young women with “desirable” bodies and certain types of faces only advocate one body type and a certain “face.” While the audience may admire these characters for their physical characteristics as well as their intellect, they may also feel badly about their normal and attractive bodies, thinking that those characters that they see on the CW are the only way to be powerful. Thus, while the CW is aimed towards teenage girls and young women because they portray beautiful, intellectual, sexy, independent and thus powerful women, it is also harmful because the network only advocate one type of woman: this indicates that women can only be powerful by being precisely like the female characters on the CW network. CW Reflection