A tangle of Discourses: Girls Negotiating Adolescence by: Rebeecca C.Raby

Quotes: A Tangle of Discourses by Rebbecca is an article about some of the stereotypes presented about teenagers. Rebbecca does thirty interviews with both teenagers and their grandmothers to get two different sides and opinions on what they thought about teenagers. One of the three quotes that I thought was relevant to the text is, "Steinberg argues that the difficulty of adolescent development is exaggerated" (pg 432). The researcher Steinberg has also done some research on teenagers and how the parents are going through a harder time than the teenagers. Steinberg also agues that only a few teens are moodier and have more identity crisis than adults, because around this time adults are also going through their midlife problems. "Parents probably project their own discomfort about adolescence onto their children...as a way of avoiding facing the unrest they themselves feel about growing old" (pg 432).

Another quote that I found interesting is something a teenager thought. “In the meantime, Elizabeth finds that adolescence offers the luxury of making mistakes” (pg 434). I agree with this in many ways, because I always hear parents making excuses for their children’s actions because they are only being teenagers. This quote also means that’s some teenagers might think that they have the lead way to get away with things because they can use the excuse that they are exploring themselves. On the other hand, if an adult makes a mistake like a teenager, they are looked at differently or immature because they should have already experienced things.

The last quote that I thought was contradicting is, "While teens are often stereotyped as 'troublemakers', 'troublemakers' are also stereotyped as teens or as kids" (pg 436). My question is if this is considered true, why is being young so envied among older adults? 

Linda Christensen Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us

Reflection: While reading this text I have made many connections to it personally. Reading this article I found it really interesting because when I was a child I was one of the little girls who were drawn into watching these Disney movies. I agree with the author when she states that we are being portrayed into these blueprints. Growing up as a child and reading these fairy tale stories and movies, I began to believe that when I grow up I am going to meet prince charming and live happily ever after. As a result, the negative thing about believing this when I began dating, is that my expectations of the men I were dating were really high and was devastated when I had to learn the hard way.

            Many of the stereotypes that were discussed in the text also made me think about how I felt as a young child and my outer image. As a child I did not realize how many stereotypes there were in these Disney princess movies, now when I look back and remember they are very clear. For an example, when the author  goes over how a student noticed how all the female cartons were portrayed as being “sexy”, also made me think about how Jessica the rabbit was portrayed in that film and wondering what little girls could have been learning from these characters.

            The part of the article that grabbed my attention the most is when character roles and the color of the characters were acknowledged. In many of the Disney movies that I have seen, people of color were not really shown in the films or did not have leading roles. As a result, at a young age I remember feeling like I was left out or even not pretty enough or good enough, because I did not have similar features to the princesses shown in these films. As a child being manipulated by these things could be a big part in a lot of other girls low self esteem.

            A question and point that came to mind when writing this is about the new Princess and the Frog movie with the first African American princess. Are there any stereotypes presented in this movie also, or has there been an improvement from the much older films? Also, would changing the color of a princess change the audiences mind or views about the previous stereotypes associated with the Disney movies?

Introduction

Hi my name is Jasmine Smith and my major here at RIC is Social Work. So far my summer is going preety good. Im am really excited that I have chose to take this wmst class this summer, it really seems like the perfect summer class to take.