Youth Theory

Youth Culture/representation

Stanley Hall 

Stanley Hall wrote Adolescence in 2 volumes in 1904.

He came up with the ‘Storm & Stress Model’, which pretty much meant that

 “ Adolescence is inherently a time of storm & stress when ‘all’ young people go through some degree of emotional and behavioural upheaval, before establishing a more stable equilibrium at adulthood.

He thought that

1.           Common mood in teenagers was depressed

2.           Criminal activity would increase at the ages of 12 & 24

3.           Heightened sensation seeking “Youth must have excitement and if this is not at hand in the form of moral intellectual enthusiasms it is more prone to be sought in sex or drink”.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/aug/30/this-is-england-best-british

Bill Osgerby argues that the portrayal of ‘youth’ in the media has not really altered much in the last 100 years (interestingly repeat patterns occur e.g. 1980s hooliganism and the recent riots) and is by-en-large pessimistic; “We do not have to search too hard to find negative representations of youth in postwar Britain. Crime, violence and sexual licence have been recurring themes in the media’s treatment of youth culture, the degeneracy of the youth depiction as indicative of a steady disintegration of the UK’s social fabric” (Osgerby, 1998).

However, Osgerby goes onto argue that; “the portrayal of youth is not entirely pessimistic” he argues that “Mixed metaphors” appear when analysing the representation of youth. He claims; “dual stereotyping of youth” creates these mixed metaphors that Dick Hebdige (1988) termed; “youth as fun” and “youth as trouble maker.”

Osgerby also argues that the portrayal of youth also speaks of society in a metaphoric sense: “On the one level concerns have related specifically to the demeanour and behaviour of young people but more generally (and perhaps more significantly) they have also condensed a much wider set of apprehensions. An important ‘metaphorical’ dimension exists to media representations of young people. A crucial facet to the ‘youth’ debate is its capacity to function as a kind of ‘ideological vehicle’ that encapsulates more general hopes and fears about shifts in relations and the condition of cultural life” (Osgerby, 1998).

In other words, “representations of youth tell us little about the realities of life experiences by young people, yet are revealing about dominant social and political preoccupation…young people serve as a canvas on which debates about more general patterns of social change are elaborated” (Osgerby, 1998). 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/04/the-inbetweeners-third-series&usg

It is important to remember young people are not the dominant social group creating TV drama, so Medhurst’s; “They are awful because they are not like us,” statement can be applied.

Positive representation of youth, that appears in TV drama (especially those pitched at a youth audience), adverts etc, is; “images of youth are deployed as a shorthand signifier for unbridled pleasure in the new age of hedonistic consumption” (Osgerby, 1998).

Laurie (1965) argued something similar; “Teenagers are presented as a class in themselves”

“whose vibrant, leisure-orientated lifestyle seems to offer a foretaste of the kind of prosperity that could be in everyone’s grasp” (Osgerby, 1998).

WHEN discussing youth it is also important to consider the class, race etc of the youths portrayed as this can impact representation e.g. working class youths generally have a harder deal then upper class youths.

Bentley: new media

As Bentley (1997) stated; “New media has changed the relationship between producers and audiences…it is no longer useful to refer to these terms as anyone can be a producer and reach a mass audience.”

Cohen:

Cohen (1972) suggested subcultures are a “compromise between two contradictory needs: the need to create and express autonomy and difference and the need to maintain identifications to the culture within whose boundaries the subculture develops.” This quote demonstrates the contradiction between individuality from mainstream society, but conformity to the subculture.

Jordaan and Jordaan 1993.

Jordaan & Jordaan (1993) gathered information from lots of other studies of youth subcultures and found, among other things, the following special characteristics which the collection of people share, including:

•An awareness of membership/a sense of belonging, i.e. shared interests etc.

•A reason for being in the group/an internal motive, i.e. hippies spreading the message of peace and love and punks spreading anarchy.

•Pressure to conform, i.e. Jimmy not wanting to talk to his old friend who is now a rocker.

Newspaper articles 1950s

1950’s youth representation

Rising prosperity meant teenagers in work had more money to spend. The 50s saw the first youth cult, the Teddy Boys. Their outlandish style of dress combined with acts of violence shocked British society. The 50s was also the decade of American Rock’n'Roll. Young people in the latest fashions danced to music despised by their parents. Subculture is typified by young men wearing clothes that were partly inspired by the styles worn by dandies in the Edwardian period, styles which Savile Row tailors their parents, wore the style the first time around. Some Teds formed gangs and gained notoriety following violent clashes with rival gangs which were often exaggerated by the popular press. The most notable were the 1958 Notting Hill race riots, in which Teddy Boys were present in large numbers and were implicated in attacks on the West Indian community. Although Teddy Boys became associated with rock and roll music, prior to the advent of that genre, Teddy Boys mainly listened and danced to jazz and skiffle music.

1910-1949 newspaper articles on youth

Western Morning news - 1939 – Positive article about how young woman volunteer themselves as nurses at St Lawrences Hospital; Praises from the matron “I should like to thank the nurses for the noble work they have done in preparing the hospital, the whole of the staff have volunteered for the work.”

 

Cornish guardian 1939 – Headline: Outstanding Heroeism Reward – “Service by rocket saving life company, for rescuing 3 lives from the SS medea on Grenaway rocks.

 

Telegraphy -1940  -  Headline: Suicide Squad – “Removing time bombs which might go off at a moments notice is just part of the days job to these cheerful members of the bomb disposal unit. Here they are ready with their tackle about to dig down to find the deadly engine below.”

 

Sunday Pictorial – August 20^th 1944 – “Because victoriy is nearer, our men do not slacken in their efforts. Because they have had successes.”

 

Daily Mail - 1939 – “There were casualties perhaps inevitable for the remarkable view..these men laid down their lives for this country.” Talks about how they were killed hereoically in action.

 

Daily Mail – 1940 - Recruits pouring in to home services – “Recruits poured in for the new volunteer defense corpses, for A.R.P and the  A.F.S and for the vitally important nursing service.”

 

Daily Mail – 1941 – “British troops taking a well earned rest from a grooling mornings training somewhere in France.”

 

Daily Mail - 1940 - Headline: Streamers greeted them -  “Streamers were thrown over the men of the cruisers Exeter and Ajax, victors in the ‘Plate’ battles as they marched through Plymouth.”

 

Sunday pictorial – August 20^TH 1944 – “If you are over 17 half and under 19, you are needed now for vital work.”