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Thursday, June 22, 2017

Raby "A Tangle of Discourses: Girls Negotiating Adolesence"




In her piece, "A Tangle of Discourses: Girls Negotiating Adolescence" Rebecca C. Raby argues that there are a group of dominant discourses in our society in relation to the discussion of teens. These discourses include, The storm, becoming or the promise,being at-risk, being a social problem, and the idea of pleasurable consumption.

She describes the discourse of the storm as the idea that teens are at a point of emotional and hormonal imbalance, therefore acting out as a storm and tormenting those around them, specifically they're parents.
Image result for teen emotional storm
"by characterizing adolescence as a turbulent and emotional stage, adulthood is framed as rational, calm, 'evolved' (Lesko 1996a) and knowing" (Raby 433).

Through this quote, Raby is emphasizing the gap that is seen to be created between teens and adults, and how this discourse continues to further that gap. This also furthers the idea that often teens are seen as separate or an alien life form. But as Raby also discusses, teens very commonly are the ones who are described as the storm and it very often is the adults in their lives who are facing emotional distress as they are facing their own midlife crisis, and projecting it onto their teen's adolescence.

Raby describes the discourse of becoming as a point in which teens are seen in between childhood and adulthood, and therefore everything is focused on them getting ready to become an adult.

"Discourses of becoming negate diversity. lesko observes that adolescents...are subject to psychological 'typing' in which they are assumed to ast alike, to have identity crises, and to be outside social and material relations" (Raby 434).

Here Raby discusses some of the negative impacts of the discourse of becoming and specifically how it boxes teens up into one category. The idea of becoming therefore furthers and helps form the cumulative cultural text that is shaped around teens in the media and shows how through doing so, it limits teens access to diversity in the media and that is then reflected in their lives.

The discourse of at-risk describes how teens are seen and portrayed as being at a state of risk, emotionally and physically, due to their wild behaviors and hormone, and therefore must be protected.

"A discourse of teens at-risk...justifies mechanisms of social control, in the name of instilling discipline..., and protection..., and and legislation and proposed legislation that allow for the incarceration of girls who are on the streets at night without due process (Government of Alberta, 1997; Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General, 2001)" (Raby 435).
Image result for at-risk teens

Through this quote, Raby discusses how the discourse of at-risk teens creates and justifies adults in creating social control. This instills further a sense of uniformity, as well ass placing teens further under others control and limiting their options in regards to expressing themselves. So while teens are seen as being in a stage of becoming, through the at-risk discourse, that sense of becoming is further limited and teens are again seen as alien and separate.

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