Post 4: Hine The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager

• QUOTES:  Choose three quotes from the text and explain what they mean and their relevance to the text

“So this is the last you’ll hear about that sixteen-year-old would-be writer. Yet he’ll be sitting with me as I write, making a nuisance of himself. His role is to keep reminding me that while this is largely a history of roles and expectations, the teenagers I;m discussing aren't some exotic species-they’re real people. And that’s what makes them so difficult to deal with” (Hine 3).

This quote sat with me for a while and made my brain go into overload with all of the memories of my what society has constructed as what would be my “teenage years”. This is a commonality between all “teenagers in this country”. Who they are or could be is barricaded by the conceptions and ideas of what society has constructed and consistently promotes via media outlets. If you throw me in the woods as a child and I grow up the rest of my life with wolves sure enough I will take on that role. All of the ups and downs the emotions the lack of maturity and dependence on my parents. My expectance to get a job gain some responsibility but not be considered valid or taken serious is a confusing and uncomfortable place to be. My high school experience and  rebelliousness that was expected of me and the roles I was expected to play I sure did play. I always knew however deep down someplace that I was someone that I wanted a voice but I clearly had difficulty doing that because in my head I was not capable of these things yet maybe one day I would be but that day had not yet come. I will never forget the day siting in the advisors office with my father who had not a clue about the systems of education and the levels of classes there were to take what I had the ability cognitively to achieve. This lady asked me what I planned on doing after high school and I said college but I was unsure at that time she assumed that because I was not sure that I should not be put in higher college prep courses. So because I was unsure she made that decision for me and of course knowing now why I let her take the reigns on my high school future I in some ways greatly effected my future that very day because I did not know myself or my capabilities like I do now and its all because of this paradoxical social invention.

“Defining a person strictly in terms of age feels natural to contemporary Americans. Our society’s commitment to equality seems to demand objective classifications...The trouble with creating a distinct group defined by age is that we conjure up phenomena that don't really exist” ( Hine 16).

The problem with this idea that the teenage years is a “natural” phenomena is what scares me the most and leads me to believe not only is this the fall of the teenager but humanity itself. The classifications of groups be it age groups, race groups, gendered groups, leaves “the machine” to define and give certain groups labels and stereotyping. This need for equality and diversity is just a mechanism for other powerful workings ot take place. What I mean by that is these “needs to define people” the need to “categorize people” leaves us blind to the truths of what is really occurring. I guess to distract us from the insidious workings at play in the country. As earlier in the article she describes how the “teenage archetype” never existed and these people had the term “youth” and lived as what we now would term “adulthood”. These societal conceptualizations of groups, races, genders shape how these people live, who these people are, and end up creating a bigger problem for humanity in the end. All for marketing and social reforming purposes. The blame well its the patriarchal capitalistic ideological system that this country is encompassed in and continues to maintain these ways of doing only benefit the 1% of the nation. The relevance of this quote to the whole text is that if we keep assuming that this “teenage” concept is natural only more negative, violent, and devastating things will arise from this. It creates a violent division between adults and their children. It creates a contradictory and psychological issues for the growing youth. A loss of valid identity in the world which also causes a sense of loss and not belonging and as human being we want to feel like we belong to something or someone. All of these negative conceptions of “the teenage group” only allows more damage to be done to them be it physical, mental, or emotional.

“No part of the teenage mystique is more alluring and perplexing then sexuality. Being a teenager is, in some respects, an unnatural act. An imposition of culture on biology. It means continuity of being a child but your body telling you otherwise. Young people nearing the peak of their physical and sexual powers are told to delay using them, and focus these energies on acquiring skills and moral values” ( Hine 22). 

It is so prohibited so disappointing to your parents when you engage in sexual activity at an age where it is considered disgusting but at the same time normal occurrences during teenage growth. Normal in a sense where it is ok to feel like you want to use certain parts of your body to gain pleasure but also looked upon this age group to suppress biological and psychological desires for sexual pleasure. We have to be moral and abide by these unwritten “rules” our parents had to abide by so on an so forth. Another thing teens must face is the everlasting exposure to SEX ADS, SEX THIS, SEX THAT for teens...but the lack of sex education and access to sexual healthy living. So you arose the youth by throwing sex in their faces but you prohibit them from engaging in sex? Which, do not forget is a natural biological occurrence to please the body from stress, tension, etc... but yet lack the resources to protect our youth from diseases, pregnancies, and psychological damage? The article and this quotes relevance is just that this country creates sex and teens to be a “taboo” but throws sexual stimuli into these sexually developing teens faces and expect them to understand whats going on within them but also having to suppress and sneak biological and psychological yearnings that is just a mental stress of a whole other level and yet we do not see it as a mechanism to blind us from the truths of our country.