The Mythical Teenager

Although I learned some interesting things from "Nymphet Fantasies: Child Beauty Pageants and the Politics of Innocence" by Henry A. Giroux and it gave me new insights into to world of those beauty pageants and advertising and the affect it holds over little girls and adult women, I wasn't quite sure why it belonged in our book The Critical Middle School Reader. In a book that taught us about puberty and adolescence, I wasn't sure why there was such a focus on children, well, actually, little girls. Childhood occurs before adolescence, and while I see how what happens in our childhood can transfer into our adolescence and then adulthood, I felt that this article completely skipped over the adolescent. I also like to note that there is a difference between the childhood stage and the children of parents, which includes teenagers and adults. But because of the focus in this article, I will be commenting on what I read in "'Bashing Youth' and 'Wild in Deceit'" by Mike Males.

As an adult in her early twenties, I related to, and also reflected on my experiences as a teen, in how it felt then and feels now, to be treated as someone who lacks reason and knowledge and understanding of the world, but more importantly is to blame for why our society is crumbling. What is so upsetting is that those who are pointing their fingers at us were at one point teens, and certainly must identify with the notion that when they were teens, they too received little respect from the older generation, but probably not as much as what is occurring and generating in our society today.

What I found so interesting was that there was such propaganda from the media and politicians. And yet, I can't help but wonder how many of those that are falsely reporting and blaming teenagers is if they themselves have children who are either teenagers, or children that are close enough in age to the teenagers. Because the portrayal of the teenager is so misguided, it has changed the way adults, and possibly parents, treat the teenagers that aren't too far off from becoming adults who will then be contributing to our world. But what really shocked me was that finding out that the reason why there are issues in regards to "teen pregnancy" and "teen violence", etc. is due to the influence the adults in their lives have on these teenagers. Also shocking was the information regarding teen pregnancy, that "the large majority are impoverished girls with histories of physical, sexual, and other abuses by parents and other adults, and most are impregnated by adult men." (123). For some reason that is hard for me to truly grasp, only because whenever I hear about pregnant teens is that the one impregnating is also a teen. I guess it just goes to show that if the truth were really out there, it would be hard to swallow.

While reading that "The favorite conservative and pop-psychology villain...is media violence, and the cure-all is more restrictions on TV, movies, books and music available to youth." (128) I was struck by the restrictions on books. As someone who is going to be an English teacher, I have taken some classes where the discussion and focus has often been on banned books. Adults are giving too much credit to what is available to youth by assuming that those "villains" are encouraging teenagers to have sex, to think about the same sex, to embrace their violent tendencies, and so on. I have observed that literature can act as an outlet for teenagers to relate to and feel better about themselves when they read about the issues that they encounter in their lives through young adult literature.

Which leads me to question, if adults are putting the blame on these "villains" and are taking action to ban books and such to protect their children and society, if they aren't in touch with the reality of the situation, how can our society truly be "saved" from the impact the adults really have on teenagers and society?