Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Quotes: Raby

In Raby’s Tangle of Discourses: Girls Negotiating Adolescence. She discusses 5 dominant discourses that make up the perceptions of teenagers. The five discourses are the storm, becoming, at-risk, social problem and pleasurable consumption. Raby discusses how everything that teenagers do every behavior they show has to fit into one of these discourses. I found a blog by a man named Evan who wrote about the five discourses on his blog. He describes them relating it to getting children to eat vegetables a little different but i found it interesting heres a link to Evan's blog Normal is Weird.
 One of the quotes I chose to look at was “The metaphor of the storm, wild wind or turbulent water as ways to understand adolescence can be found in early and current academic works on adolescence. I found this interesting that teenagers are related to a storm. Storms are usually negative. They can destroy things and are very unpredictable. You never know how bad a storm can be till it happens. Why relate a teenager to this metaphor. They are human beings and anyone at any age can be unpredictable. Or not know what they are doing in life. The second quote I looked at was “the social milieu was fundamentally different in the past so there teenagehoods cannot be compared…( Raby pg. 435) Raby looked at young girls and their grandmothers. This quote shows how adults today cannot look at what teenagers do and think it’s so crazy because times have changed. What these parents and grandparents did when they were teenagers is not what their children and grandchildren are going to do. As the years go on times change and so do the social skills and thinking’s of teenagers and adults. The third quote I looked at was “ Today youth not only advise their families on how to spend money, but are identified as a group with both free time and disposable income” (Raby pg.437) I found this quote to be ironic. On the one hand Raby is talking about how adults view teenagers as irresponsible and not really knowing much but then she shows how teenagers are giving advice on finances in the household. If they are so irresponsible why would anyone listen to them about important matters such as money?

Point to share: Why do we think adults feel it is okay to label teenagers within these five discourses? Shouldn’t it be the same for everyone no matter what their age?

Reflection: Christensen

Linda Christensen’s Unpacking the Myths that Bind us was a story I could relate too. As soon as I started reading it and she was describing herself as having big hips and not being a perfect size two I felt like I was reading a description about myself. I have always been a curvy woman and when I was younger it made me feel a little bad about myself. Especially when I looked at the women on the television and in the cartoons. Christensen talks about cartoons and Disney movies and how every woman portrayed is basically light skin, long hair, and very petite. I always wondered why I never saw a woman who looked like me in the television shows and especially as a Disney princess.
                Christensen talks about “the messages or secret education, linked with the security of their homes, underscore the power of these texts deliver”. When I read this quote I could understand what Christensen was talking about because cartoons and movies send subliminal messages to children about how they are supposed to be when they grow up. Disney movies and many cartoons make young girls feel like they have to be petite, and can only can be somebody important if they have a man standing in front of them. And it teaches young boys that they have to be strong, have muscles, great hair, and be a hero. The way cartoons get into young children’s minds and make them believe they have to grow up to be this “perfect adult” that does not exist is just harming children’s self-esteem. It creates self-hatred at a very young age. I fortunately grew up to appreciate my curves and darker skin tone but not every child can be that strong and may succumb to the vicious circle of self-hatred.