Adulthood is not automatically acquired. In spite
of the fact teenagers are not fully mature, society seems to neglect the
fact many of them possess intellectual abilities and interests.
Our society presumes that teenagers do not want to learn, are stupid,
incapable and inherently immature individuals. Sure, in every group there
are always the few idiots, but in my experience the majority of
adolescents are open-minded and interested in the world in one way or
another. Unfortunately they are often afraid to develop their minds.
Society not only ignores adolescent intellectual concerns, but often
suppresses the expression of this intellectuality.
Television often reflects and reinforces adolescent stereotypes. Ask
yourself: how many really intelligent teenagers do you see on T.V.? Not
too many. Frequently they are portrayed as nerds, like Steve Urkel, and
nobody likes Steve Urkel. Sometimes the characters' intelligence is
watered down in some manner to make them normal, as if intelligence
*weren't* normal. Two cases come to mind: Blossom and Rebecca Connor on
Roseanne. I found Blossom to be very interesting as a character, except
I always had the nagging feeling that the writers never really portrayed
her as intelligent as she really was. She dated a football player who
wasn't particularly studious to make her appear as though she weren't so
superior, so that the teenaged audience wouldn't feel alienated (as if
teenagers can't relate to anyone unlike themselves).
Becky Connor also
dated someone who was her intellectual inferior, (a mismatched couple if I
ever saw one). Her actual abilities were never demonstrated on the show.
We hear that she was an "A" student, and that she was quite intelligent,
but we never hear her say anything remotely intellectual, we never see her
accomplish anything substantial, and she is always portrayed as being
concerned about popularity and her looks (in the re-runs). Of course the
vast majority of teenagers are preoccupied with popularity and appearance
at some point or another in their adolescence; but it seems that all Becky
Connor is concerned about are those sorts of things.
As far as I have seen, the vast majority of teenaged T.V. characters are
portrayed as much less intelligent than these two, and it's really sad.
To me it says that society does not recognize that many teenagers can have
sincere interests that go beyond the typical partying/music/popularity
thing. Children and teenagers grow up believing that intellectuality is a
one-way ticket to unpopularity rather than a means to self-fulfillment. In
this way society stunts potential growth and self-realization. Adolescents
become so ingrained in conformism that they are afraid of looking inside
themselves and honestly ask: What am I interested in? They just go along
with what everyone else likes. They never venture into the library to seek
out books on history, philosophy, religion, science, etc. because they are
terrified they will be ridiculed.
I cannot say what can be done about the situation. I know it is very
negative and keeps teenagers down. I have an intuition that this phenomenon
is more widespread than I make it out to be: that it's not just on T.V.
I always felt as a teenager that my interests were not being
respected by society. I saw that my classmates and friends were being
dragged down into a stupid adolescent belief system which says
intellectuality is bad, so I ended up as a reject because they couldn't--
and wouldn't-- connect. Yet their inability to reason and to find interests
outside of sex and partying made them miserable.
People wonder why kids
drink so much: kids drink because they are bored and because we don't
expect anything better of them and don't give them the opportunity to
help them with personal projects (eg. zines or social activism). Opening
their minds will allow them to develop talents and expertise which they
can put to use doing something valuable and meaningful for themselves;
their lives will not be confined to looking forward to the next party.
This month's Snarl is by Suzanne Fortin: