The Single Story of the Teenage Guy

Two words: teenage guys. 

What adjectives and images immediately pop into your head?

Loud, obnoxious, up to no good, lazy, obsessed with sports, messy, disrespectful towards women, video gamers, out of control…Am I painting a correct picture?

Due to media influence, I believe American, teenage males have become single-storied. Although this group may not be the first “outside of the main” social group that comes to mind, the media has successfully damaged the reputation of this group which is frequently associated with only negative images. 

Let’s first examine how American, male teens are portrayed in movies. The retro shows as well as the modern movies frequently portray teenagers as “no good” or troublemakers. Ironically, the hero of the story is often immoral, disrespectful, and reckless.  Danny Zuko—the cool, attractive, popular teen at school—carries this exact description in the movie Grease (1978).  In Malcolm in the Middle (2003), Reese accepts and embraces himself being a delinquent. The teenagers in High School Musical (2006) are just…(wait…should I even go there??) Then there is Edward and Jacob’s violent natures in Twilight (2008). A different kind of drama is depicted as the homosexual characters Kurt and Blain play out in Glee (2014). I could go on and on. 

Hollywood loves portraying the dramatic life of high school. “It seems that the most prevalent themes of teenage life in films are sex, losing one’s virginity, consumption of alcohol and illegal substances, and rebelling in every way imaginable” (Adolescence and the Portrayal of Teens in Film and Television).  Maybe in the eyes of Hollywood, this seems to be what all teenagers experience, but it is not correct! It is extremely exaggerated. Being in high school myself, I can attest to the fact that while these situations do makeup a frequent amount of teenager male’s lives, there are plenty of good, moral, hardworking, and intelligent teenage boys. Movies are such a powerful tool in our generation. Without realizing it, the themes we see in movies give us false perceptions. 

Published news articles and posters also support the teenage boy reputation. The intense and eye catching headlines include lines such as these:

 

If we were to believe only what we read in the news or on the posters, I fear we would all think that American teenage boys were reckless and violent; that they enjoy starting fights and clashing with police; that they live their lives on the edge without a worry in the world. Stories about teenage boys causing trouble attract many eyeballs because it is a group that almost every individual can relate to. Whether a brother, son, cousin, student, employee patient…etc., usually someone has associated with a teenage boy one time or another in their life. Our culture however, has begun to believe what is portrayed in the media over what is experienced first-hand. 

After seeing vivid headlines or images sending consistent messages repeated again and again, our mind begins to believe and accept. Why is this bad? Visualize this situation: A group of mothers are talking about their children together and one mother starts complaining about how their teenage son does this and that and never does this and always does that and blah, blah, blah and then another mother pipes in and says, “sounds like a typical teenage son. They are all the same.”

When I hear a generalization like that, I feel so ashamed of society! This is an example of how an individual uses a negative stereotype of a certain group to describe someone. The negative reputation teenage boys carry is a completely false perception.

The single story of American teenage boys hardly ever portrays boys that are responsible, respectful, bright, religious, kind, or sensitive. If they do possess those qualities, they are considered “sissies” or “nerds.” This is extremely harmful because we resemble what we see. It's always a problem when the "hero" has bad morals and the "loser" has good morals. 

I believe that teenager boys in America have been single storied. Thanks to the media over the years, the image of teenage boys has become associated with being rude, lazy, violent, and out of control. These themes are so prevalent that our society accepts the generalizations and uses the single story to prejudge all male teenagers.