I mean, that’s the narrative Hollywood and American companies like Hot Topic are trying to sell. Teens, rebel! By buying our mass-produced products sold nationwide!
It isn’t even anything new. Commodification of teenage rebellion has existed since someone realized that they could make millions of dollars off the youth by putting Elvis on live TV and letting him scandalize the older generation with his swinging hips.
You only have to watch Miley Cyrus at the 2013 VMAs to know that they haven’t bothered updating their strategy in 60 years, either.
This phenomenon has gone so far as to form an expected place in our culture. Teens are delinquents and hooligans, smoking on street corners and united against “the man.” The “kids these days” narrative is changing and adapting to account for the rise of social media and portable devices, but the basic idea of the American adolescent as rebellious, surly and disrespectful has become pervasive.
Personally, I think it’s a deeply unfair characterization and only encourages a self-perpetuating cycle. Not to mention the inherent absurdity of selling rebellion. Have you seen how much Goth eyeliner costs? Or already-ripped clothing? It’s ridiculous! Why do jeans with holes already in them cost more than ones made of whole cloth? But more than just the outright fiscal cost, the ubiquitous marketing of teenage rebellion establishes disturbing patterns. Teens rebel, yes. That’s to be expected, isn’t it? We’re getting older, we’re gaining more freedom, we want to know and understand more than we’ve been allowed to learn.
Even in school, we’re told that we’re expected to display college-level maturity and responsibility when in most classes you still have to raise your hand and ask permission to go to the bathroom. We’re taught to discuss and debate complex ideas but are still expected to listen to our elders in silence when they approach us with condescending or patronizing tones.
It is fundamentally unfair to expect us to act like adults even while you continue to treat us like children. So yes. We rebel. Didn’t you?
That is, we rebel, and then as far as I can tell, we’re expect- ed to settle down and become productive members of society. People talk about teen “phases” in outright dismissive tones, stacking the game against anyone under college age from the start, making it seem as though you can’t expect to be treated as a person with reasonable and worthwhile ideas and beliefs until you’re old enough to buy alcohol. Should you engage in a discussion on a topic that happens to have personal relevance to you and then, shockingly, become emotional about it – well, then of course your point must have no relevance at all.
And well, if people treat you as childish and thoughtless anyways, might as well get some mileage out of it and get a nose piercing while you can.
— Nina Collay is a junior at Thornton Academy who can frequently be found listening to music, reading, wrestling with a heavy cello case, or poking at the keyboard of an uncooperative laptop.
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