Saturday, February 22, 2014

Gilbert, A Cycle of Outrage: America's Reaction to the Juvenile Delinquent inthe 1950s



Reflection

The quote I want to focus on is, "teenagers lacked a sense of the line between good fun and delinquency" (Gilbert, 12).  Gilbert discusses that society's attention was focused on adolescents as looking "aggressive".  I disagree with this comment.  Your teenage years are for you to figure out who you want to be; this means that it is okay to experiment and to express yourself, for example through how you dress.  What I believe this article fails to mention is the affect post World War II had on society in general.  After War World II, the industrial world boomed; with this said, there was a huge focus on materialistic items.  Adults included, wanted to have the best appliances, great houses, and etc.  There really wasn't as big of focus on these materialistic items prior to World War II.  This given, teenagers had a whole new world open to them.  So to automatically associated adolescents want to express themselves with delinquency is not right.  Coming from my own teenage experience, I went through many phases in high school, specifically how I dressed.  I personally was faced with pressures from girls at my school, my parents, and the media.  My freshman year I was probably the preppiest kid around, wearing bright polo shirts.  However, as time went on I figured out how I wanted to express myself by the time I was a senior in high school.  Even now, I believe my style has changed and how I express myself has changed as well.  But this ability, to express oneself however one may like, is also the beauty of being a kid.  One's adolescent years are meant for this ability to change.  These adolescents do not have the responsibilities adults do.  It is unfair to make adolescents look a specific way-almost like adults, when they are not there yet.


In addition, part of what I am confused about in this article is the topic of premarital sex.  Gilbert discusses that premarital sex was a worrisome topic of the teenage culture and more focus was put on it.  However, Gilbert mentions that "sex habits among American young people had not rapidly changed; instead public opinion had begun to catch up with practices initiated decades before" (Gilbert, 22).  My question is, why now were people focusing on premarital sex if it had been around for decades.  If this was a common practice, and there was not an increase in these practice, why now with the public opinion and worry? 

5 comments:

  1. I totally agree that it's okay for teens to figure out who they want to be.. and too experiment and try different things, such as the way they dress, like you mentioned. I also went through different phases. I regret ever buying Abercrombie, (since it was so expensive and the clothing always shrunk..) But this was just part of experimentation and trying new things..As I believe we do throughout life, not just in our teenage years.

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  2. I think to maybe help with your premarital sex question, it had been around for so long but I think mostly as like prostitutes and brothels and things like that. When sex habits hadn't rapidly changed maybe it was starting to come into the light of young people and all it takes is for one (or in this case 2) people to do it and then it takes off like wildfire. Maybe they were concerned about it because of the teenager nature to experiment and that was one more area of experimentation not touched

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  3. I agree with you, teenage years are to figure out who you really are, what you enjoy doing, what motivates you, interests you ect. My teenage years were full of exploration, from getting a few tattoos to learning what I was passionate about.

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  4. I loved reading this and completely agree with you. Seriously, i am the worst kind of criminal or delinquent there is in this world from what these articles are saying. I should be locked up. I feel like all of these articles basically say there is no hope for teens to become good adults, it is ridiculous.

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  5. i agree that it is definitely a time in teens lives to experiment and make mistakes. everyone needs this time to figure out who they are and how they want to be. if no one did this, then no one would learn anything

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