Final Project: Three Course Themes
Jennifer Crandall, Brianna Pari,
Jenna Rebello
GEND 354: Teenager in/and the Media
April 29, 2014
Professor Bogad
Throughout
this semester, we learned and had a lot of discussions about teenagers in/and
the media. Before this class, we were
unaware of the way that teenagers are stereotyped in our society, not just in
today’s world, but in past decades as well.
There are many different perspectives and ways that our society looks at
teenagers, which were our course “guiding assumptions”. These assumptions/themes helped us to
recognize the effects that media has on young adolescents, how teenagers are
put together in one category, and how adults in our society, including
ourselves, may identify teenagers. Most
importantly, these themes made us realize that teenagers should not be
stereotyped or categorized into one group and that they are just younger
versions of ourselves. Like it says in
our guiding assumptions for this course: “The person you are now is the same
person you were then, albeit with new and different life experiences that shift
and change your understandings and actions in the world. We do not “outgrow” our teenage identities.” Therefore, we should not look at teenagers in
a negative way, nor should anyone talk badly about them.
The
first guiding assumption that we studied was “Media Matters”. This theme points out that the media, such as
television shows, music, advertising, and fashion, has a major impact on
everyone, but to teenagers in particular.
It is a big part of our culture and is there in our everyday lives,
whether we realize it or not. Since
teenagers feel the need to fit in and keep up with the latest styles and
trends, they are the media’s biggest target.
In this class, we looked at the media as an “educating force” for
teenagers and the way they choose to live their lives. “Media and Ideology” by Croteau was one of
the first articles that we read this semester.
This article applies to the theme “Media Matters” since it tells us
about the media and how it defines social and cultural issues, and how they
relate to the “real world” (pg. 160).
Youth is a Culturally
Constructed Category, meaning ideas about youth are dynamic and elastic, and
change across time and between communities. Throughout the semester as a class and
individually we went over how youth and culture will forever be resisting and
responding to the dominant culture. A Tangle of Discourses by Rebecca Raby reflects
youth as being culturally constructed. The
article discusses the dominant discourses in North American culture as being
The Storm, At-Risk, Social Problem, and Pleasurable Consumption. The text and most of the material was drawn
from young girls and their grandmothers to better explain discourses through
experience. Society puts an enormous amount of pressure and stress on dominant
culture but then stereotypes teenagers as being moody or having an attitude. This text reflects that as the culture
changes, the youth will also change. The
social problem mentioned in the text explains that teens are trying to fit in
and find their own identities but rather receive negative stereotypes when they
are really trying to resist what’s socially constructed.
Another great example of how youth is
a culturally constructed category was from the text, Cinderella Ate My Daughter. This
text by Orenstein was a great example of the class assumptions and how the text
emphasizes how we have a “cumulative cultural text” of youth historically. This text exemplifies the category of the
youth, and how Cinderella is culturally constructed to be nothing less of a
fairytale, a story where you find your prince and live happily ever after, and
an unrealistic fairytale that is based on the importance of being a wife, and
being perfect. The text is a great
example of princess culture, and how it puts so much pressure on little girls
and BOYS to strive for perfection and simply want something very unrealistic. It is also important to discuss the gender
codes, race, and class codes that lie under these fairytales. The codes shape
us and tell us how we should live, how we should act, and what we should
be. We must know what is culturally
constructed in order to respond, which brings me to our next text.
“Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us”
by Christensen is the final text that displays how Youth is Culturally Constructed. In this text, there are also a lot of
underlying codes that represent what shapes a child by ages two or three, which
may be cartoons or Cinderella. Christensen talks about the Secret Education,
also known as hidden lessons and ideas that culturally shape kids how to grow
up. The secret education teaches individuals
two myths: 1. Happiness means getting a
man, and 2. Transformation from wretched conditions can be achieved through
consumptions. I think that both of these
myths we adopt without realizing we are accepting them. Many TV shows, children’s books, cartoons,
advertisements, and magazines all display these common and hidden lessons
shaping culture about what we should be, and how we should act. This text relates perfectly to our guiding
assumptions, especially to youth as being culturally constructed. As Christensen points out throughout her text
regarding the secret lesson, it’s obvious that youth is historically and
culturally constructed through race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, and
size. Through the three texts discussed,
we were able to learn the ideas and stereotypes that are present today,
especially in the discourses of dominant culture, and “We must know this in
order to respond to it.”
The third course
assumption is “teenagers are not some alien life form.” We find this very interesting because people,
specifically adults, do view teens as some alien life form and often say things
like “oh those crazy teens” or “they’re being such a teenager.” These phrases along with many others are
generalizing that all teens are the same and that they are their own “group” of
people. As the course assumption says,
we were all teens at one point in our lives and we still have some of our teen
“tendencies.” Our personalities are
fairly the same, but have been altered due to life experiences and knowledge
that we’ve obtained throughout our years of growing up. Throughout the semester, this course
assumption has been demonstrated through the films that we have watched,
articles that we have read, and projects that we have completed.
Our media artifact
explained this course theme by showing that adults view teens as some alien
life form. We showed a clip from the
movie Passport to Paris starring
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. This movie
was released November 9, 1999 and showed what is still happening to teens now
in the year 2014. During a scene at
dinner, their mother comments on how fast they are eating. The girls explain that they are in a rush to
call their friends on the phone. When
the parents ask about homework, they tell them that they completed it during
class time and referred to one class as being “so S and C.” The parents show a puzzled look on their faces
and one of the daughters’ tells them that it means “Snooze and Cruise.” The girls get up and call their friends while
the parents stay at the table and discuss the teens. “They’re turning thirteen and their world is
the size of a pin head,” the mother of the girls says to the father. The dad laughs and replies, “I think a pin
head is bigger.” They are making fun of
the teens by rolling their eyes and making comments about their intelligence
and also the language they use. They
really do look at them as though they are an alien when they talk.
The article “They’re
Getting Older Younger,” by Grace Palladino really explained this course
assumption by showing how important teens really are, especially in the
business world. This article talks all about teens in the media and spotlight
of commerce and says that they “value them most as consumers.” Teen years are a time of experimenting and
expressing oneself and Palladino says that this is why the products are aimed
mostly at teens because they know they can influence them. One could consider this a bad thing because
they could view it as an attack on teen self-image to buy products and “trap”
them into thinking this is what they need, but at least the teens are able to
express themselves freely by the products they choose and do so without getting
negative feedback from them. This
article also talks about an important issue when it discusses teens in terms of
music, focusing mainly on rock ‘n’ roll. “The change enraged adult critics, who mourned
the passing of “vanishing adolescents” and decried the rise of “teenage
tyrants.” This goes back to the course
assumption of viewing teens as an alien life form just because they were
expressing themselves in a way that adults did not agree with.
Lastly, the article “A
Cycle of Outrage” by James Gilbert also made great connections to this course
assumption. The article was filled with
many appealing facts and information about the life of teenagers. “For several years, debate raged over whether
or not mass culture, particularly in the guide of advertising, comic books,
films, and other consumer entertainment aimed at youth, has misshaped a
generation of American boys and girls.” This
statement by the author has given reason to why adults view teens as some alien
life form. Teens live in a very
different world now-a-days and they are surrounded with social media and
technology. For many, their source of
“fun” is sitting on the computer and going on multiple media websites at a
time. When we were growing up, we did
not have as much technology that kids do today. We all agreed that we spent our days outside
playing with friends and had to make our own fun. Many adults can’t relate to teens as they
grow up because they don’t understand their generation. They view them as “alien-like”
because they stay inside all day playing on their phones and computers, but
they are just doing what their generation and society has given to them. When adults were teenagers, they all did the
same things that their friends did and they would never view themselves as some
alien form.
In conclusion, our
three course assumptions have been learned and explained throughout the
semester through our articles, blogs, video clippings, media artifacts, and
projects. We explained just a few
examples of each throughout our paper. The
media teaches us many things about teenagers and shows both the positive and
negative sides of them. However, we feel
that the negative side is displayed a lot more frequently than the positive. Teens in the media are often under attack for
the way they dress, act, and behave. Actors
and actresses that play teen roles on shows are just following the script, but
may not realize what image is being portrayed.
They are often looked at in a comical way and our three course
assumptions are often shown. Young teen
pop stars display an image as well and as soon as they do something wrong,
headlines and comments such as “those crazy teens” or “trouble teens strike
again” often come up. Teens will always
be represented and talked about no matter what they do, but hopefully as time
goes on they will be seen in more of a positive light and people will remember
that they were once just like them.
References
Christensen,
L. Unlearning
the Myths that Bind Us.
Croteau. Media
and Ideology.
Gilbert,
J. A
Cycle of Outrage.
Orenstein,
P. Cinderella
Ate My Daughter.
Palladino,
G. They’re
Getting Older Younger.
Raby,
R. A
Tangle of Discourses: Girls Negotiating Adolescence.
Passport to Paris. November 9, 1999.
