Collective Identity G325

This prompt question is a relatively open one and your answers will vary depending on the texts that you have studied. We looked at Press Gang from 1989 (specifically episode 1 of the first series) and the film Billy Liar (1963) about which you can read more here and here.

When answering this question concentrate on the word 'representation'. This question isn't asking you to know about how youths have changed over the ages, this isn't a sociological study - it's about how UK youth's behaviour is shown, presented, REPRESENTED. So what sort of behaviour do the texts focus on? How are inter-generational conflicts resolved? How is bad behaviour presented - demonised or immaturity? What aspirations or roles do they fulfil?

Below are a few clips to get you going. Again - don't be thinking that back in 1989 (when Press Gang was out) UK youth were nicer and politer (there were some right ones back then) - it's the media representations that has changed.

Flirting in Press Gang vs Flirting in Misfits

 

Bad behaviour in Press Gang

Compare this to Skins/Misfits.

Attitude to adults in Press Gang vs Misfits

Have a look at this clip from Stewart Lee which answers the question from his point of view in terms of Skins compared with the television he grew up with. What's interesting is that when Lee was growing up, most TV shows aimed at teenagers fell under the Kids TV remit so were usually on around tea-time (six o'clock) rather than the post 10.00 p.m. scheduling that is used for Inbetweeners, Skins and Misfits. So it is clear that producers (such as E4) believe in order to reflect the lives of and attract teenage audiences they need something bit edgier than a kids running Youth Newspaper or the adventures of astrophysicist Adam Brake and his young son Matthew.

Other things to think about
The role of adults - suffocating in Billy Liar, understanding in Press Gang - often conspicuous by their absence in many contemporary texts.

Aspirations of young people - Billy Liar fantasises about being a general or minister, in Press Gang they want to run a serious paper - in Misfits Nathan wants to shoot himself on telly and get women.

Representation of bad behaviour - Billy 'drugs' his girlfriend in order to get her 'in the mood'. This is played for laughs - would the same be done today?

Compare the trailer for Shank with the 1970's comic Kids Rule OK. What are the similarities?

Look at this post - choose a character from a contemporary and past text and compare them against the criteria.

Billy Liar (1963)
Directed by John Schlesinger

Combined social realism ('portraying life as it is lived' using elements of documentary style)/kitchen sink drama, with fantasy (Billy's day dreams).

Made at a time when Britain 'never had it so good' - there was prosperity, social change, upward mobility (opportunity to move up through the class system). This was especially the case for youth through education (Grammar schools/university), parents that were financially secure so didn't need looking after - so the youth had more opportunities and freedom - for Billy this includes the freedom to dream.

Billy and Liz are two different representations of youth - Liz who uses this freedom and opportunity and Billy who wants to but seems reluctant to escape his life.

Billy's fantasies are not subversive - rather than desiring the freedom that Liz has, he aspires to be the war hero, the government minister or from a wealthy background. He wants the success that exists within the existing social structures.

There is a circular nature to the film - we begin with Billy dreaming in bed and we end with Billy dreaming on the way home. So despite all the drama - has anything really changed for Billy?

Billy's daydreams usually involve a newsreel type commentary - it could be argued that he uses media structures and templates to construct his fantasy identity.

Similarities with modern day representations:
Experimentation with different identities.
An idea of youth being a period of 'becoming, rather than being' - finding a role.
A time of 'storm and stress' with inter-generational conflict.
Risky behaviour - sex, partying, petty crime.
Dreaming, aspiring to improve life, become something better.

Differences with modern day representations
Family and the way it suffocates is significant - today the parents/adults are often seen as absent.
The explicitness of the depiction of sex/crime/violence is significantly different.
Billy wants to climb the existing social structure rather than reject it.
Class and the place in society is a more pressing issue.
Youth - mainly through Liz - is seen as something to envied and cherished.

 

Here's a interesting look at the Mods and Rockers fights from Brighton in 1964 and the role of the media in generating a moral panic.

What Stanley Cohen suggests is that the Media is key to a moral panic/outrage as it's their reaction to events that colour the public and sometimes political opinion. So if the Media (specifically in this case the news) make a drama out of event or social problem, this attracts more interest, perpetuating and amplifying the initial problem.

Have a look at this clip about the Acid House scene in the late 80s and the reasons why the journalist finds Acid House such a good 'story'.

Here's a clip from Charlie Brooker's Newswipe which has Dan Gardner explaining why the 'media' has a tendency to create (perhaps mediate??) moral panics.

Gardner suggests there often isn't necessary an agenda or a specific aim for the media when covering 'moral panics'. Instead there becomes an established 'narrative' which the press then look to continue. So if global warming is the big paper seller or the big story then global warming stories will be found and covered. This then spreads into other media - so sticking with the global warming idea with have all apocalyptic thrillers and disaster films - Day After Tomorrow, 2012, The Road. This also is partly because its works to sell people's fears back to them - so whatever the moral panic of the day is someone will tap into it.

Just to further ram this point home, here's Michael Moore on the demonisation of the black male in the US media.

Moving this back to youth, this demonisation and coverage of today's feral youth may have started in the press but it has developed its own narrative arch and grown into other media. So it's not just Eden Lake or Harry Brown that have evil hoodies, they also turn up in The Bill, East Enders and Casualty. They have developed into such a 'type', a well understood presence in the media that they've become a stereotype that can be challenged in shows such as Misfits and made fun of (see Super Hoodie, also the public school kids in Hot Fuzz).

It's even got to the point where youth organisations are fearing the social implications of this demonisation and the charity Barnado's have exaggerated them in this hard hitting advert that is definitely worth watching.

This last video is a little heavy going and concentrates on they way the Criminal Justice systems treats youths but it does raise an interesting idea of why the media does tend to focus on 'youth' in such a negative way.

It's because the state of our youth is often a symbol of how healthy a society is (try typing Broken Britain into google images and see how many pictures of youth you get). Subsequently the image of Britain's young people is a political issue which can be manipulated for a political agenda - for example Boris Johnson ran for Mayor of London with a focus of young people and crime in front of back drop of a series of high profile stabbings.

 

When discussing demonisation it is important to point out that 'youths behaving badly' isn't a new phenomenon and moral outrage about it is nothing new. Here's a few of quotes from way back in the day:

Here's one from Plato (428-348 BC)
“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”
Swap the word 'dainties' for 'Rustlers microwavable burgers' and he could be talking about today's youth.

Here's a report on the hooligan riots from 1898

'They wore peaked caps, neck scarves, bell-bottom trousers and a hairstyle cropped close to the scalp. There were pitched battles between rival gangs, armed with iron bars, knives, powerful catapults and even guns. They patrolled their neighbourhoods shouting obscenities and pushing people down.'

Compare that with the 2010 film Shank's vision of London 2015

It's quite similar just with less parkour.

Here's Alexander Dervine's (an educator and journalist) take on the reasons for the 1898 riots.
‘Lack of parental control, lack of discipline in schools, base literature (such as the sensationalist 'penny dreadful' novels about pirates and highwaymen) and the monotony of life in Manchester's slums were to blame for the urban guerilla warfare.'

And finally a quote from a 1939 report titled Needs of Youth:
‘Relaxation of parental control, decline of religious influence and the movemnt of masses of young people to housing estates where there is little scope for recreation and plenty for trouble… the problem is a serious challenge, the difficulty of which is intensified by the extension of freedom which, for better or worse, has been given to youth in the last generation.’

And here's a few up to date ones - firstly an exert from an article in the Sun focusing on 'Broken Britain' from Oct 2009:

'Outside two track-suited youths with a pit bull terrier straining at the leash are smirking as they roll what looks like a cannabis joint. Others in hoodies swill cider under signs banning public drinking. My attempts to chat with the youngsters are met with twisted snarls and revolting four-letter abuse. The scourge of feral youths was put in sharp focus earlier this month after suicide mum Fiona Pilkington was hounded to death by bad kids'

And from Gordon Brown from 2008:
'Kids are out of control... They're roaming the streets. They're out late at night.'

So this demonisation of youth is nothing particularly new. Also neither are the supposed causes of the bad behaviour - poor education, poverty, violence in the media, lack of opportunities, absence of parental guidance.

It is perhaps possible to argue, however, that the level of the demonisation is at a new high if you consider that it's remarkable to have Time magazine covering on the problems with UK youth as they did in March 2008

...and now 'hoodies' are the new bogeymen in thrillers and horror films (Eden Lake/Harry Brown).

Kids Rule OK is an interesting case of representation of youth - it's from a British comic called Action that specialised in ultra-violent stories and unsympathetic characters. Among the controversial content was Hook Jaw (a gratuitous rip off of Jaws), Look Out for Lefty (a Roy of the Rovers type strip that included scenes of football violence) and Hellman of Hammer Force (which followed the fortunes of German Panzer Major).

Action was so willfully controversial that it only lasted from October 1976 to November 1977, before publishers IPC closed it after Action was the centre of a campaign led by Mary Whitehouse and her National Viewers and Listeners Association to censor or ban the comic.

Kids Rule OK is set in the then future (1986) where all the adults have died off leaving the streets to the mercy of gangs of youths. But instead of helping to rebuild society they just knock lumps out of each other in horrific ways.This suggests that the only thing stopping youths going wild is order and adult guidance.

What's interesting though is this extremely negative representation of British youth hasn't been created to scare Daily Mail readers, it's been created to sell to and entertain British youth. This raises the question of whether representations of violent kids isn't just an adult nightmare but also a adolescent fantasy. As youth/kids have no real control over the world - politically, democratically, or financially - perhaps the only power they do have (the same as any other marginalised or alienated group) is the power of the angry mob.
What do you think of this? As a UK Youth what power do you have? Do you gain any sense of power/influence from the fact many adults are fearful of todays youth? Or do you wish for more positive representations?

More info on Kids Rule OK can be found on this excellent website sevenpennynightmare.

Kids Rule OK could be used when discussing past representations of youth but even if you don't use it, it's worth reading the final few pages of the comic just to see the hilariously contrived happy ending the writers gave it to appease the censors.

Episode 1 - Page One

Watch (Press Gang) 01x01 - Page One.avi in Entertainment  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Episode 2 - Photo Finish

Watch (Press Gang) 01x02 - Photo Finish.avi in Entertainment  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Watch the whole series here

http://www.veoh.com/search/videos/q/press+gang

Click here for a look at the main characters

Similarities with contempoary representations
Intergenerational conflicts - arguments with teachers or adults exploiting youth.
Experimentation with relationships (Spike & Lynda), petty crime (Spike, Colin).

Differences with contempoay representations
The explicitness of depictions of relationships/sex/petty crime (compare Spike and Misfit's Nathan)
The Press Gang are together creating something constructive and positive (a youth paper) - compare that with Misfits or even Inbetweeners.
Many of the characters are fulfilling adult roles with all the associated responsibility: Lynda - Editor/manager, Colin - business man, Sarah - investigative journalist

In this scene we get to see some clear inter-generational conflict between Billy and his family.

What are the various things Billy's Father thinks he should do? List them - what do they have in common?

What is Billy's mother attitude to him?

What does the composition of the shot in the kitchen tell us about Billy and his family? (see below)

Here's a clip from Rebel Without A Cause - a Hollywood film about adolescent angst that came out in 1955 - eight years before Billy Liar. Can you see any similarities between the two scenes? What representation of youth are we getting?

 

Billy and Liz

 

This is the scene where Billy confines in Liz about his fantasy world and Liz talks about how she turns her dreams into reality by just going for it.

Watcht the clip and compare and contrast Billy and Liz's attitude to life and the opportunities they have. What is holding Billy back? What roles does Billy play in his fantasy?

Compare Billy's and Liz's representation with the type of representation outlined here - which are relevant? Which are less so? Can you explain why?