The notion of “youth” has become highly valued in our socity. The meaning of youth is no longer the period of time in our lives, but has imbedded notions of freedom, rebellion and beauty. This is because youth has been commodified, and I argue that it has been achieve via the semilogies presented in teen films.
Teen programmes create a collective assemblage of what it means to be a teenager. However, the word ‘teenager’ was only coined in the 1950’s, and is only a constructed term to label and market to certain groups of people. It is not a tangible thing, as the semiologies presented in teen text suggest. The reality of adolescence and the filmic portrayal are in fact divorced, which only proves that youth is another well-packaged machine.
Firstly, it is important to examine the semiotic language in teen films and programmes. Films and TV programmes in this genre, such as Skins, Dawson’s Creek, Beverly Hills 90210 \and the OCThe OC bear witness to binge drinking, partying, rebelling, sexual experimentation, drug use, crime and disrespect for authority (Shary, 2005). Such modalities of behaviour mould the notion that youth is a liberal and rebellious time, devoid of responsibilities or concerns.
Teenagers also seem to be in tight knit friendship groups, their friends being more important than their families. Their ‘group’ is often compared and contrasted against the genres of other ‘groups’. Take the teen flicks Mean Girls for example, or Ten Things I hate about you, where the new students first induction is being introduced to all the different groups: the jocks, the nerds, the Asians, etc.
Most importantly though, teenagers are portrayed in these texts as being irrational and have an attitude problem, also known as “teenage angst”. in the Sunday Age’s ‘Life’ magazine, Sam de Brito writes “the job description for being a teenage boy has always read “loud and obnoxious” and it will forever require that they dress, act and talk in ways that irritates their elders” (2008, p. 17).
On the other hand, there have been characters who have demonstrated the capabilities of teenagers with intelligent and perceptive protagonists. In Beverly Hills 90210 Brandon Walsh sets a benchmark for the idyll teenage code of behaviour. Well, in the first season anyway. He is popular, intelligent, writes for the school newspaper, is on the track team, has a full time job, and a moral high ground above his peers.
Even Kelly, known for her promiscuities, looks after her alcoholic mother, admitting her into rehab and getting her on the right path. The 1998 movie Anywhere but Here with Natalie Portman and Susan Saradon plays on a difficult mother/daughter relationship, showing that sometimes the daughter is more in control than her older and supposedly wiser mother.
In contrasting capable young people against their elders, these texts highlight the strength of teenagers. These exceptions though, don’t take away from the image of adolescence, they only create this rift between teenagers and adults, an “us versus them” type attitude, which in turn only reinforces the grumpy teenage angst stereotype.
Naturally, it is proposed that teenagers behaviour and attitude is do to puberty and the loss of childhood stability. However true, there is also an impeded notion in these texts that youth is a rite of passage, a finding of ones identity, a phase of which they have no control. They also imply that “adolescence” is a phase that one must endure before they reach an adult status. However, adolescence doesn’t have a fixed time frame.
It is impossible to pinpoint when you “become” an adult. A persons “becoming” or time when they piece together their subjectivity, is constant. Guattari (1996) talks about the adolescent revolution as a constructed time in adults minds, a “segregative social practice” (p. 63). Guattari understands that adolescence is comprised of several “becomings”, or producing ones subjectivity. Becoming is not based on ones genetics or hormones, but via multiple components and modes of mechanic communication, and because of this, becommings can happen at anytime.
In fact, he believes you can become anything, “One can become woman. One can become a potted plant” (p. 63)
Becoming adolescence is just like this. A metaphorical becoming.
The interesting point to note is that “adolescents are not aware of their becomings” (p. 72). Instead they use their clothes, music, discourse and behaviour to define who they are, and in turn, teen films use such modalities to create the cultural paradigm of the teenager (Shary, 2005).
While most teenagers can relate to the notions of adolescence in these texts, the fact of the matter is many of these texts don’t portray reality. Teen programmes romanticise what it means to be young, providing us with a false notion of youth. Certainly teenagers struggle during puberty and have new experiences, but many teenagers cringe at the modes of behaviour in these shows It seems to contrived, a hyperboled adults depiction of an idyllic youth. For example, there is a scene in Skins where the group are all conveniently passed out on a bed, covered with food. It is also portrayed in the OC that they have a house party and get intoxicated every weekend. It’s so stylised that it actually turns away their target audience, as teenagers know such a scene would never take place.
There are characters however like Seth Cohan in The OC and Dawson Dawson’s Creek’s who are the “nerdy” types who don’t engage in such behaviour, but these characters are often counteracted by their radical counterparts. In The OC there’s Marissa who overdoses on drugs and alcohol and Brian who bashes someone new in every episode. In Dawson’s Creek, Jen’s promiscuities and Pacey’s school teacher fling are a strong contrast to the articulate virgins, Joey and Dawson.
The cultural paradigm of the teenager set up in teen text have implications on people of all age. For teenagers, it pressures and pigeonholes them into what they inevitably should be. They should be promiscuous, they should be wild and rebellious. They should have a good group of friends, and their groups should have a fixed title such as “jocks” or “skaties”. Moreover, it creates a time frame for young people, forcing them to “embrace their youth” or it will “slip away”.
On the other hand, these notions of liberation and beauty make adults nostalgic and envious. Even the younger age brackets of tweens adore these shows. They yearn to grow up and become wild teenagers, rid the title of “child” and no longer under their parents watchful eye.
For both parties, it’s simply because they desire ‘youth’. This is the main point I wish to raise: The meaning of youth is no longer ones coming of age, but implies a free spirit and fun nature (White, 1997). Youth is considered the “best time of our lives”, punctuating a time of friendship, love, parties, sexuality and of course beauty. Youth is not only celebrated in our society but we are obsessed with gaining and/or maintaining it. Theorist Kern reiterates that “Ours is an age obsessed with youth, health and physical beauty. Television and motion pictures, the dominant visual media, churn our persistent reminders that the lithe and graceful body, the dimpled smile set in an attractive face, are the keys to happiness, perhaps even in essence” (1975).
This idylic notion of youth though is faulse, as one cannot “reclaim” their youth. Instead, the commodification of youth feeds other industires, creating fetishes for commodities that will reinforce our yourthfulness, and return our “free spirit”. such items include cosmetic surgery, sports cars, or even wearing “young” clothes.
heorists White and Wyn also propose that “The idea that youth constitutes a significant and distinct category is inevitably reinforced by popular media” (1997, p. 18). From this, it is obvious that the teenage paradigm fosters notions of youth, and in turn renders youth as another commodity.
To finish off, here is a poem by Joan A. Bell
Teenagers
So many
Headlong, heedless, hurdlers
Giggling, bluffing, blustering
Blissfully blind
As each new, now moment
Is busily becoming yesterday
But the others-the ones
With fawn eyes soft-sad
Sighing, clutching, once-only minutes
Inexorably slipping by—
They are the more deserving
Of our tears
References:
Guattari, Felix (1996), ‘Adolescent Revolution’, Soft Subversions S. Lotringer (ed.) New York: Semiotext (e), 63-72
White, R., Wyn, J., “Rethinking youth” (1997). Sage publications, London.
Shary, T. “Teen Movies: American youth on screen” (2005). Wallflower, London.
