Raeann: Hine...states that [i]nstitutionally teenagers are treated as something less than real people- sometimes resembling adults, sometimes children (pg17)...what does that mean? are they not real people? Before that Hine mentions how teenagers are an interest to police. Do police believe that all teenagers are trouble? It goes on to mention that adults feel that teens have no desire to learn about honesty and responsibility. Two thirds agreed the next generation would be worse (in 97 survey). I feel like this is another way of Hine saying that adults do look down [at] teens and that they are some type or "aliens"...I believe teens are judged harshly because they are in that [phase] of life where they are learning to become more mature and grown up. It is hard to do so if they do not have someone to look up to or motivation from others (family, friends etc). If that is the case, maybe that is where adults begin to look at teens as exotic and/or aliens
Raby: Raeann, when you say "I believe teens...are in that [phase] of life where they are learning to become more mature and grown up", you are engaging in the discourse of becoming! I am inclined to agree with you, many teenagers are indeed judged in a certain way because they are seen as troublesome, or even a social problem, while they are on the journey to find themselves. Because adolescence is so often viewed as such a major aspect of life, almost to the point where to call it a phase does not seem adequate at signifying all that is perceived to go into adolescence. It is often considered so separated from childhood and adulthood, almost as if instead of a phase of life it is a completely separate one. In this way, it may indeed seem alien, or foreign, to people. But, it's not. Teenagehood is simply the time in our lives that comes before adulthood. The meaning and actions that we ascribe to teenagers are just that. They're ascribed. They aren't inherent. We have created such a conversation surrounding adolescence that the line between what we (as teenagers) truly want for ourselves and believe of our selves and what we've been told and taught to believe becomes muddled. I believe this speaks to your other course assumption, that youth is a socially constructed category.
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Croteau: Raby brings up an excellent point. Often we see teenagers as aliens, and in a way they too see themselves as alien (in that they may see themselves as being so different and separate from their parents and adults in their lives. The feeling of isolation from others and only feeling connected to one's peers certainly can create a feeling of alienness, of being "other"), because we have been taught this. Raby mentions dominant discourses, and I believe it is my place to pop in here and highlight just how these discourses continue to permeate. Everyone say it with me...MEDIA! The media serves to continue to perpetuate these discourses by normalizing them. By putting forth mediated images representing these behaviors (endless journeys to find one's "self", rebellion, etc), the media works to make it seem like they are specific to teenagers and, in a way, essential characteristics of adolescence.
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