by Lois McNay
We Are Not a Sub-species

The worst thing about being a teenager is the word 'teenager'. Being a teenager doesn't feel any different to being a normal person. I don't seem to be undergoing under any emotional traumas, or identity crises- I must be letting somebody down. The word teenager prevents some people from treating dolescents as young adults; in their eyes we become a kind of sub-species.

My sixth form used to be regualrly visited by various speakers. One week the local insurance man came. In an unfortunate effort to obtain group participation and yet remain in control of the talk, he treated 200 intelligent 18-year-olds like a load of morons. Smiling benignly, he said: 'Now what do we find under roads?' The answers he received- worms, moles and dead insurance men- were not what he was looking for. Actually it was pipelines. Ask a stupid question! The point is, that man would not have spoken to adults in the same way, so why to teenagers? If you treat people like idiots, they act like idiots.

There might not be that much difference between a 34-year-old and a 38-year-old, but there's a hell of a lot of difference between a 14-year-old and a 18-year-old. When I was 13, I thought being in the fifth year was the ultimate in maturity: I could wear a nacy jumper instead of the putrid regulation royal blue. Now at the wordly age of 18, 16 seems a mere nothing.

The word teenager is misleading because it leads to generalizations and it is so derogatory. For many adults there is no such thing as a teenager who doesn't like discos- if you happen not to, as many teenagers don't- they label you as an awkward, antisocial adolescent.

For a short time I was a waitress in a restaurant. The average age of the staff was 19, that of the clientele about 40. We, the stagg, used to watched amused and slightly disgusted as overweight middle-aged swingers, who in the light of the day would claim that discos were a load of teenage nonsense, jerked violently around to the latest hits- as they say. (They were either dancing or having heart attacks- I couldn't quite tell). If, in the eyes of adults, 'teenage culture' is such a contemptible thing, why, given the oppurtunity do they throw themselves into it with so much enthusiasm and a lot less style?

I may be cynical, but I think it is partly due to jealousy. Some adults patronize teenagers because they are envious of their youth and because the respect they don't get from their peers they demand from their juniors. Even on the lofty level of our local tennis club, this type of jealousy rears its head, or rather, swings its racket. If we were to put forward our strongest women's team, it would consist entirely of teengae girls. Of course, this never happens. The elder woman play by virtue of their age, not skill. After all, teenage girls don't count as women.

It always seem like sour grapes to me, when i say something predicatable like 'I won't get married', adults smile knowingly and say equally as predictably 'you'll soon change'. Whether they believe I'll change of not, doesn't matter, what they don't like is that I'm indirectly criticizing their way of life. Also I'm enjoying a freedom of opinion and expression which they never had. What their 'you'll soon change' actually means is: 'shut up you stupid girl, you don't know what you're talking about. We know best'. I don't think you would find such narrow mindedness in an adolescent.

If there is such a thing as a teengaer, it refers to a state of mind and not a particular age range. At 20, you don't automatically become an adult beacuse you've dropped the 'teen' in your age. Unfortunately 'teengaer' has come to connote things like selfishness, irresponsibility, and arrogance. This means there are a lot of adults around who are still teenage. Equally, if maturity is measure by attributes, such as compaasion and tolerance, and not merely the number of years you've totted up, then there are a lot of adult teenagers around.

I would like the word 'teenager' to be banned, but i suppose that will never happen, as a lot of people would stop making a lot of money.

(i personally think this article is quite interesting, and anyway it took me 10 mins to type so if there are any typos, sorry eh! hahas [: if you don't like it, too bad lorrrr. :D)

my goodness i should stop coming online:O)
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i'm dying of illness
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the worst thing on earth is to fall sick
and not being able to eat your favourite chocolates
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» Xboyz on 2007-04-27 12:30:51

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