Defining 'Youth' - YDEV 501 - Blog Post #3

3 Assumptions of Adolescence

"A pivotal and problematic life stage" (Denaturalizing Adolescence, p.146)

1. Hormonally Driven

2. Needing of direction/control 

3. Age Dualism 

1. Over and over we see the narrative that adolescents are "out of control". Insinuating that they are driven by something other than themselves. One of the things blamed for this lack of control is hormonal changes in the physical body during this time. Personally, as a female I felt this assertion when I was younger. It felt as though everyone was "Warning" me about my "time of the month" when I was this age and speaking to me as though this was something that "happened to me" without any of my control or personal autonomy. I was told about the mood swings I would have, I was asked when being "emotional" if it was "my time", etc. The article Denaturing Adolescence states that adolescents are seen as "controlled by hormones, and therefore, dangerously out of control. Thinking about the consequences of this kind of thinking is extremely wide reaching and scary. Teaching children "coming of age" that this means they have no control over their emotions and actions is not only fundamentally wrong, but damaging in so many ways. Will we continue to tell young boys that they can't control their feelings or urges? Will we continue to tell young women that they are defined by their bodily functions? Thinking about settler colonialism and the need to control the narrative of young adults clearly shows where this way of thinking comes from. The idea that adolescents needed to be controlled, to me, is purely political conditioning. At that time, they believed if they controlled the narrative that young people are propelled by things within their body that are out of their control made them easier to manipulate. This is a theme I find throughout most of these assumption of adolescence. 

2. The second narrative I found in the readings is that adolescents are needing control and direction. That they are searching for something and are unlikely to find it without structure and curated curriculum. This seemed to be the assumption particularly for native or non-white adolescents. The article Denaturing Adolescents correlates this idea back to Race Development and comparing adolescents to "colonized natives". It states the ideology that these groups need to "strip their identity off and paste it back on" (p.149). When I was in my adolescents I remember struggling with my identity in society. Trying to fit into the mold that I thought everyone else wanted me to fit, but that I still felt I didn't. Adults in my life told me what I needed to do, feel, and say. Then we criticize adolescents for pushing away from this mold. It "erases the ability of those in the sate to describe or know themselves and places the priviledge and responsibility on adult experts to explain adolescents" (p.149). I remember feeling so misunderstood, like none of the adults "got me". To me, this speaks to a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we are told at this state in our lives that we cannot find our own direction or that we have to fit a certain mold, of course there will be resistance. 

3. The third assumption I gathered from these readings is that adolescents are both children and adults. When it is beneficial for adults and society to view them as children, they will. When it is beneficial to see them as adults, they will. This is especially true for adolescents of native or non-white decent. They are expected to carry themselves as adults, while being told that they have no idea about the world or that they will be abused/targeted if they act otherwise. To me again, this speaks to a dynamic that keeps adolescents (and especially those who are not white) in a position of manipulation. The curriculum and societal expectations of those in this stage of life are designed to make you feel as though you have no control. In this way, the adults in power are able to manipulate you into behaving how they see fit. If we actually designed programming to empower those in this state to think independently, see themselves as whole as is, and create a world better than what they grew up in, it would threaten those who are currently in power. In this way, it is clear that programming for this age was developed to create compliance, and nothing more.