- US psych GS Hall is generally credited with the ‘discovery’ of adolescence
- Pre-industrial European societies made no distinction between childhood and other pre-adult phases of life.
- Coincided with a new form of muscular Christianity which shaped dominant constructions of femininity as well as masculinity.
- The early model of the Latin School was akin to a monastery: women and the feminine were potential sources of temptation.
- The new public school system associated women with weakness and fragility and men with masculinity and strength. (Gillis 1974)
- According to Kett the mid-nineteenth century concept of adolescence was in its crudest form an embodiment of Victorian prejudices about females and sexuality.
- Most of the changes which laid the foundations for the discovery of ‘adolescence’ occurred in the second half of the nineteenth century with the growth of factory production, working class families were fragmented by migration to cities of the 15-25 yr olds who stayed there. The factory conditions also improved the conditions of young working class women’s lives.
- Sentimental ideas about children did not arise until the late 19th century.
- Changes in the education system played a major role in shaping the emerging ideology of adolescence.
- In US cities social reformers used religion to ‘protect’ and ‘civilise’ urban working class youth groups.
- Hall borrowed from the Great Chain of Being adapting it to a ‘life-stage’ model of the move from birth through childhood and adolescence to the fixed point of maturity at adulthood and down again to old age.
- The roaring twenties saw a widespread moral panic over youthful female sexuality during a time of increasing independence for some groups of women. (Kett 1977)
- The 1950s saw both the development of the ‘first distinctive post-war youth sub-cultures’ (Springhall 1986) e.g. in the Teddy Boy and a reassertion of women’s ideal role in the home and at the centre of nuclear family life and the ideology of domesticated femininity. (Summerfield 1984)
- For Anna Freud, adolescence was constructed as a period of inevitable psychic turmoil and vulnerability.
- Lee Ellis in US journal Delinquent Behavior: criminal behaviour stemmed ‘fundamentally from genetic factors, although social factors could also play a part.’ He concluded that individuals from large families, whose parents were no longer cohabiting, aged between twelve and thirty, black and male, are assumed to be most likely to commit ‘serious victimful crimes.’
- The key argument in deprivation theory is that young people turn to delinquency as a consequence of a variety of social, cultural, economic and psychological influences, all of which are constructed as negative.
- Deprivation theory received a major boost in Britain during 1970s when Sir Keith Joseph as Minister for Health brought the idea of a cycle of ‘transmitted deprivation’ out of academia into the popular domain.
- Bowlby did work on maternal deprivation
- Early childhood experiences and anti-social values transmitted through the ‘broken home’ thesis.
- ‘Delinquent youth’ can occupy the position of both victim and perpetrator.
- So-called ‘conflict theories’ were forged by the political changes of the 50s – 70s in Western societies.
- Focus was on how and why certain young people…came to be seen and treated as ‘deviant’ and / or ‘delinquent.’
- Deviance is represented in terms of individual failure to attain normal positions in the spheres of sexuality, family life and the job market. Denise Kandel.
- Young men were assumed to be actively and often aggressively ‘deviant’ and young women were usually treated as passively ‘at risk’ and in need of protection or as actively ‘deviant’ usually in sexual terms.
- The absences are equally significant here. We seldom read of the need to ‘protect’ working class young people or young people of colour from the periodic or sustained use of harsh policing strategies directed at certain groups.
Cover deconstruction of new magazine Nuts inaugural issue Jan 16-22 2004
Top left corner PUFF new
Then across top edge world’s first men’s weekly
Name of magazine –NUTS graphic connotations, in large red 3D effect letters
Large round orange flash FREE grab yours although shouting this loudly it does explain that the usual price will be £1:20
Celebrity glamour model NELL MCANDREW in tame pose, body angled slightly, right shoulder back a little face tilted so that her nose is off centre and she looks at the readers out of the corners of her eyes, eyes quite wide mouth slightly parted, teeth just visible, wearing a sport low front top, some cleavage, right thumb just hooked into waistband of shorts or jogging pants
Inset square photo of David Beckham bottom left corner
Inset bottom right a yellow open top sports car
Three oneword flash headline captions:
WOMEN! SPORT! MOTORS
Each accompanied by an exclamation mark suggesting that these three are the mag’s essential topics. Each in white capitals on red background.
Innuendo within phrases: GRAB YOURS / WARM YOUR COCKLES
Back cover quite important in that the advert is full page for Hugo Boss fragrance, showing a young man maybe 20 years of age with designer stubble in close up but with blurred focus hand framing face with ‘YOUR RULES‘ written on his hand somewhat below the slogan YOUR FRAGRANCE.. Showing quite clearly that his magazine is aimed at young men who are not ashamed to be interested in the things in this mag. Perhaps indicating that this magazine is going to rewrite the rules for men’s magazines, as they are doing by being weekly at least.
Over all quite a busy front cover but clearly indicating the three continuous themes of the magazine.just inside the front cover more glossy colour photos of a few more subjects: weird photos, real life, true stories, hard ware and a TV guide. The character of the photos shows that there is going to be an emphasis on unusual angles or action shots.
The mission statement: the target audience will be interested in sexy women, gritty real life stories, sport news and TV listings BLOKES apparently want to be amused not depressed, controversy not boredom and no more Llewellyn Bowen! In a matey goodhumoured way men are going to be entertained.
Inside the contents divides into 5 sections:
|
News |
Features |
TV |
Sport |
Regulars |
|
Including offers and gadgets |
It’s here that the women will go |
An easy to follow and man-friendly guide |
Football Motor racing Tennis More footie |
Jokes and top ten lists |
Samples of language
Blokes / chaps / blimey/ ‘ Result’ / tells cracking stories / (the snake) shrinks and expands according to how cold he is(sound familiar?) / Aussie / bog / go home with nowt / telly
Articles
Less than 12.5% is text the rest is pictures
Captions are funny and sarcastic
Quality of photographs is very high
Quite a bit on war, whether it be machines, soldiers or warlike leaders
Attention to detail: facts and statistics on cars and guns
Centre fold but not in the centre of front cover model
Interview does have the questions printed above the answers
TV choices include: motorcycle smashes;girls; south Park; guns and girls; war films, documentaries and programmes about war! The Fast Show’s spin off;football; the SAS; Real sex etc
Unique conventions
One word flash captions all over the place text and articles. Either yellow with black block caps font or red with yellow font. Very funny irrelevant comments or captions on photosTaking a leaf out of Playboy’s Readers’ Wives sections here we have girls being encouraged to send in pictures to get a photo shoot opportunity
Conclusions:
Amusingly written and entertaining, inoffensive, witty and sarcastic. Reads a bit like Jeremy Clarkson! Despite assumptions the variety of programmes recommended for viewing is quite eclectic!
Target audience:
Although one might at first assume this was for the working class male, the sort of Sun reader, it is actually a reasonably intelligent offering and although its reliance on pictures is quite heavy, the style and vocabulary of the text is friendly, informative and engaging, it is not laddish – no emphasis on bad behaviour or drinking just good clean fun; it also does not generally degrade women within its pages and quite honestly women can read it without feeling offended or embarrassed.