The Representation of British Youth

How has the representation of youth changed over time?

 

In British Television drama the representation of youth has changed vastly and dramatically over many years. I conducted some research to show and find examples of these changes, and to see exactly how the view of teenagers has transformed into what it is today.

 

I watched a range of television dramas including “Blooming youth, Derby Youth, Eastenders, Good manners, Portrait of a school, Three minute heroes, we are the Lambeth Boys”. As the watched these television series I made notes on the following:

·      How teenagers are represented

·      How they talk to each other

·      Their costume & how they dress

·      What storylines/situations they are involved in

·      I noted whether it was a positive or negative representation

And I also made a note of how they were similar or contrasting to the television series Skins.

 

“Three Minute Heroes”, which was very popular in the 1980’s, is one of the shows that had a many similarities to Skins. In the show there was a frequent use of slang and colloquial language by the teenagers in the school. They dressed very youthfully in colourful outfits and the girls tended to have vibrant and flamboyant make up. The boys dressed rather casually whilst the girls wore quite dressy fashionable clothing.

 

In the show the teenagers are represented as fun loving and superficial as it is very evident that they care a whole lot about their looks and their outer appearance. They are also represented as quite immature. This is shown through the constant playing of video/ arcade games and play fighting, mainly from the male characters. Naïve could also be used to describe the characters. In one of the scenes a girl is complaining about her breasts growing and reveals her disgust at breastfeeding, which shows her naivety. The issues that arose in the episode were to do with sex/virginity, music such as the punk bad the “specials”.

 

All of these characteristics of the show are very similar to the storylines in skins, which also revolve around sex/virginity and music. Also another similarity found is the stereotypical characters. The stereotypical  “Popular Guy” who comes in the form of Tony in Skins is also found in this show. Two young males from the school try to fool a locksmith into cutting them a key. Which is reminiscent of the way on which Tony fools his dad on a daily basis, which is outwitting and cocky behaviour. This show is one of one that had the most similarities with skins in terms of the representation of teenagers.

 

“Blooming Youth” also had many similarities with Skins. The students appeared to be very arrogant; they constantly spoke over one another and argued. They also smoked, talked about sex, cursed and used foul language openly. Also one of the students had an adult magazine in his room. And although they are a bit older than the characters in Skins the principles are still the same even though this programme is from the early 1970’s.

 

Another show that I studied was “Good Manners”. This show along with “Portrait of a school” and “Derby Youth” I found to be very different to the representation of teenagers in Skins.

 

In “ Good Manners” which was popular in the late 1930’s the teenagers are very well spoken, well mannered, very polite when addressing each other and their tone is overall very calm and placid. In “Derby Youth”(1947) there is no audio but the teens also look very well mannered and the school seems as if it has very strict regimes.

 

In all three of the programmes the young peoples clothing are neatly put together and if they are wearing a uniform it is spotless. They appear to be almost like robots. Especially with the females al sitting round in their spotless cotton dresses, knitting and sewing.

 

From my research I have gathered that the representation of teens has changed and evolved a great deal over the years. In the early nineties teenagers were represented as obedient, conforming young people who were un-sexualised and unsusceptible to the negatives of the world. However, as time progressed the representation of teenagers be came more realistic. They became more loud, expressive, individual, outgoing and sexually aware. Of course teenagers have always been this way but it was only as time progressed that these television shows started to show what real, everyday teenagers were like.