Stereotypes of Teenagers Essay Example for Free

Stereotypes of Teenagers Essay Stereotype: Ster ·e ·o ·type, [ster-ee-uh-tahyp], noun, verb- a set of inaccurate, simplistic generalizations about a group that allows others to categorize them and treat them accordingly. Teenager: teen ·ag ·er, [teen-ey-jer], noun- a person between the ages of 13 and 19 inclusive. How could these two words, so opposite in meaning, make so much sense when put together? Being a teenager doesn’t just define your age, it classifies you into a pre-determined stereotype where people see you differently; you are no longer â€Å"that sweet Jenny girl who lives down the street†, you are now a reckless teenager who is clawing at a chance to rebel or throw a raging Project X worthy party. In our immature years ranging from around 12-18, teenagers are generally seen as being rowdy, irresponsible, and sneaky, and generally speaking, these assumptions are pretty accurate, based on how many times we’ve been grounded from our parents. However, not all adolescents fall into this classification of being â€Å"young, wild, and free†; I am the exact opposite of what someone my age is expected to be- I pride myself on being responsible, trustworthy, and just a better person all around. I try my hardest to stay out of the typical stereotype of a â€Å"teenager†, and I think I do a pretty good job at it. One thought that is generally associated with the facade of teenagers are parties- everything about them. Throwing parties, attending parties, getting wasted at parties, getting caught at parties, or maybe even getting arrested at parties. Whenever a boy or girl at my school says something like â€Å"my parents are going out of town for a week on vacation†, nine out of ten times the responding question will be along the lines of â€Å"are you going to have a party? † or â€Å"nice, what address can I tell people to come to? †. So, adolescents like to have fun, but usually it’s to a dangerous extent. Even dating back to middle school, I can recall old stories of Halloween parties getting busted by cops because some parents forgot to lock their liquor cabinets, and the kids wanted to get a little rowdy. But that’s just an innocent eighth grade party- today, you can take it to even more extreme levels with the high school parties, which almost always includes marijuana or other deadly drugs. So why do teenagers like to participate in these activities, when they normally only end in turmoil? Throughout my high school career, I have not attended many parties, which I do not have a problem with. I am not the kind of person who wants to publicly humiliate myself by getting drunk just so I can have a â€Å"good† time. I have witnessed numerous accounts of teenagers being sent away to private schools, or being thrown out of the house by participating in these â€Å"typical high school activities†. But why do you need narcotics and liquid courage to be a fun person to hang out with on a Friday night? You don’t, you’re just fooling yourself. Another place teenagers are stereotyped and looked down upon is in a working environment. When something goes wrong, the excuse is â€Å"oh, they’re just a teenager, they don’t know any better†. But some of us do know better. There is a popular television show on the TLC network called Restaurant Stakeout; this show is a prime example of teenagers, taking advantage and putting forth a bad effort at their work place. Willie Degel is a well-known respected restauranteur and restaurant owner. He goes in to struggling restaurants and places hidden cameras in the work place where he watches the employees as they handle their customers and shift responsibilities. Most of the time, the cameras focus on the poor performing employees, such as the ones who yell at customers, throw things at them, spill food, treat people with disrespect, or lie to their managers. More often than not, these irresponsible workers just happen to be teenagers. But is anyone really surprised at this behavior? After all, you would never see the oh-so-mature adult treating another adult with straight up disrespect, would you? Well certainly not without good reason. I work in a bakery and have witnessed my current boss, Dee, handle situations with the same kind of mindset that a teenager would have. When a customer was rude and impatient with one of my co-workers and caused too much unnecessary drama, Dee thought it would be nice to give that customer a taste of her own medicine†¦by throwing a cake right in her face. Was this the mature thing to do? Not necessarily, and certainly not from any rational adults point of view. But logically thinking, all of these â€Å"rational adults† were once â€Å"immature teenagers† at one point, right? Maybe we never do grow completely out of our child-like mindsets. The only thing worse than grown-ups acting like teenagers are when teenagers fulfill the stereotype that is thrust upon them. I used to work at Five Guys Burgers and Fries, where I saw incorrect handling of problems and situations by my fellow teenage coworkers. When someone was unhappy with their meal, the employee wouldn’t handle the situation themselves, but instead hand it off to someone else, which was usually me. I didn’t always enjoy dealing with the angry guests, but it taught me how to handle unhappy people in a positive way, which has helped me now in my current job and the other social aspects of my life as a whole. Teenagers have mastered the art of one thing: lying. Well, for the most part anyways. We think we are so good at lying that we can hide almost anything from our parents. Sometimes, this works. Other times, you get caught in your lie, and you end up getting in lots of trouble. My mother, for example, is excellent at telling when I am fibbing to her, and she will call me out on it. This has taught me to just be an honest person, and not to do things that would result in me lying about where I am or what I am doing. Other teenagers at my school however have mastered the art of lying and sneaking around, and basically can get away with anything if they wanted to. If a boy wants to sneak out to go buy alcohol and get drunk, he knows just what to tell his parents to make them believe differently. If a girl wants to go to a party and hang out with a guy her parents don’t approve of, she just has to say the usual â€Å"I’m sleeping over at Jessica’s tonight†. These lies and dishonesty are what helps create the stereotype of untrustworthy and dishonest teenagers- we think we can get away with everything and we are invincible, when in reality we’re just adolescents who don’t know any better. Why have teenagers changed so much over time that now being classified as a â€Å"teenager† automatically has a negative connotation with it? I’m sure when my parents were teenagers, they were probably looked down upon too, but not in this much of an immature and irresponsible light as adolescents today are. Why have the times changed so much that because I am a teenager, I am automatically looked at as being an irrational, disrespectful, sneaky party animal? When I am not like that at all? I wouldn’t say I am trying to completely break the stereotype for my age group, but I am definitely trying to change it so people don’t view me in that negative way. So those two little words that fit together so perfectly are going to be attached with a negative connotation for many more years to come, as the stereotyping of teenagers are just going to become deeper as the actions we do become worse and worse. As we grow older and move on to have children of our own that will grow into these crazy adolescents, where will we draw the line with them? Why kind of people will they turn out to be? What will be considered socially acceptable for their age group by the time they are in high school? If we keep heading in the direction we are now, it worries me to know what our future generations have in store.

Essay --

I was on my way to the band room to see a few of my friends. I was dressed in my red McKinley High marching band sweatshirt and a plain pair of jeans. As soon as I walked in, I noticed my Spanish teacher, Mr. Schuester talking to my band teacher, Mr. Toffelmeir. Mr. Schue wore a smile and Toff wore that grumpy face. They were polar opposites, so I was kind of curious to see why they were talking. Mr. Schue said, "I was wondering if you had anyone that would be willing to join our Glee Club as a musician. We have almost everything covered, but we do need a mallet player and someone that can play a bunch of cool auxiliary." Toff looked around and his eyes stopped on me. He pointed. Mr. Schue grinned at me. "Myranda! Perfect! We'll be meeting today at lunch. Thank you, Mark." Then, he hurried out of the room. I blinked. "What just happened?" Toff laughed flatly. "You just joined Glee Club." I frowned. "But, Toff..." I sighed. He started to walk away. He said, "I'll be able to put on your letter of recommendation that you were willing to help me at any given chance and you were so willing to try new things." I stopped myself from groaning out loud. He got me there. I'm sure he didn't want to socialize with Mr. Schue, so he bribed me with that comment. After complaining about what Toff made me join, I went to class. I had AP Literature alone. I'm glad I did, because it was easier to pay attention that way. At least when the head cheerleader didn't walk by me, it was easy. She always tends to distract me with that short red skirt of hers. But, hey it's not my fault that the color red attracts more attention because it is such an intense color. It's even said that red quickens heartbeats. So, it doesn't entirely help that she wea... ...ion to what Rachel was saying. My eyes were stuck in a trap and so was my mind. Why was she staring into my eyes? "Myranda?" Rachel repeated and almost looked behind her to see what she was missing, but I cleared my throat. "Sure, Rachel. What do you need?" I asked, saving myself. "Email address and cell phone number would be great." She smiled as she pulled a notebook and a pen out of her bag. She handed it to me and it took me a moment to remember my phone number because all I could think about were Quinn's eyes and the intense the gaze had been. My heart was thumping. I took a deep breath and then handed the information over to Rachel. She beamed, "It was great to meet you, Myranda. Thank you very much." After the confrontation with the co-captain, who I decided I liked, I drifted back towards the band. Derik smiled at me widely. "What do you think of Rachel?"

The Chinese Wedding Day

Chinese Marriage Custom 1. The Proposal. The process starts with an elaborate marriage and acceptance. This process was placed in the hand of go-between, who acted as a buffer between two parties. The important parties in proposal and betrothal negotiations were the parents of the bride and groom, rather than the bride and the groom. When the boy’s parents identified a future bride, they would send the go-between to present gifts to the girl’s parents and to express their feelings about the match. If the proposal was well-received, the go-between would obtain the date and hour of the girl’s birth recorded on a formal document.The groom’s family would place this document on the ancestral altar for three days. If no suspicious omens, e. g. quarrels between the parents or a loss of property, took place within that time, the parents would give the information to an astrological expert to confirm that the young woman and their son would make a good match. If th e boy’s family found the horoscope to be favourable, they gave the boy’s birth date and birth hour to the go-between to bring to the girl’s family, who would go through the same process. Only after both outcomes were favourable, the two families will arrange to meet.Finally after discussion, each family evaluated the other in terms of appearance, education, character, and social status. If both were satisfied they would proceed to the betrothal. 2. The Betrothal. First both parents exchanged family credentials as tokens of intention. Then, after extensive bargaining, the two families would arrive at the amount of money and goods that would make up the gift to the girl’s family. After presenting engagement tokens, the go-between would ask the bride’s family to choose among several wedding dates suggested by the boy’s family and also set a date for presenting betrothal gifts.The boy’s family presented betrothal gifts of money and signif icant items such as tea, â€Å"Dragon (male) and Phoenix (female)† bridal cakes, pairs of male and female poultry, sweetmeats and sugar, wine and tobacco, accompanied by an itemized statement of these gifts. Tea was such a primary part of these gifts in some areas that they were known collectively as cha-li, that is, â€Å"tea presents. † The girl’s family reciprocated with gifts of food and clothing. It was customary for the girl’s family to distribute the bridal cakes they received from the boy’s family to friends and relatives as a form of announcement and invitation to the wedding feast.The boy’s family’s gifts acknowledged the parents’ efforts in accepting the girl, and by accepting the gifts, the girl’s family pledged her to the boy’s family. Several days after the presentation of the betrothal gifts, the girl’s family sent porters with an inventoried dowry to the boy’s house. The dowry consist ed of practical items, including a chamber pot, filled for the occasion with fruit and strings of coins. This procession gave the girl’s family the opportunity to display both their social status and their love for their daughter, and wealthy parents often included serving girls to attend their daughter in her new home.The betrothal generally lasted for a year or two, although the betrothal would last until the children had grown to marriageable age. 3. Before The Wedding. In preparation for her departure, the future bride retreated from the ordinary routine and lived in seclusion in a separate part of the house with her closest friends. During this moment, the young women sang and mourning the bride’s separation from her family and vowing in front of the go-between and as well as the groom’s family and the girl’s parents.Since this sleep-over often took place in the cock loft, the bride’s emergence on her wedding day is sometimes referred to as â €Å"coming of the cock loft†. The preparation on the part of the groom involving the installation the bed on the day before the wedding. A man or women with many children and living mates, were selected to install a newly purchased bed. After the bed was in place, children were invited onto the bed as an omen of fertility. For the same reason, the bed was scattered with red dates, oranges, lotus seeds, peanuts, pomegranates and other fruits. 4. The Wedding Day.At dawn on her wedding day (or the night before), the bride bathed in water infused with pumelo, a variety of grapefruit, to cleanse her of evil influences. A ‘good luck woman’ attended the bridal preparations. She spoke auspicious words while dressing the bride’s hair in the style of a married woman. After the hair is styled, the bride emerged from her retreat. She was carried to the main hall on the back of the ‘good luck’ woman or her most senior sister-in-law. There she donned a jack et and skirt and stepped into a pair of red shoes, placed in the center of a sieve.The bride’s face was covered with either a red silk veil or a ‘curtain’ of tassels or beads that hung from the bridal Phoenix crown. (The photo below was taken at the mock wedding at a prior year’s Chinese Summer Festival. After completing her wedding preparations, the bride bowed to her parents and to the ancestral tablets and awaited the arrival of the bridal procession from the groom’s house. Dressed in a long gown, red shoes and a red silk sash with a silk ball on his shoulder, the groom knelt at the family altar while his father placed a cap decorated with cypress leaves on his head.The groom bowed first before the tablets of Heaven and Earth and his ancestors, then to his parents and the assembled family members. His father removed the silk ball from the sash and placed it on top of the bridal sedan chair. Next is the process to obtain the bride. The firecracker s start to play, the loud gong and also drums marked the starting process. The groom starts the procession led by the kids as a sign of his future kid. The groom would to the bride’s house to fetch her, taking with him the bridal chair, which was completely covered with red satin and fresh flowers.On arriving at the bride’s house, the groom’s party was met by the bride’s friends, who would not ‘surrender ’the bride until they were satisfied by red packets of money, ang pau from the groom’s representative. This was the occasion of much good-natured haggling before the two parties could reach an agreement. In some cases, the groom would take dinner with the bride’s family, and receive a pair of chopsticks and two wine goblets wrapped in red paper, symbolic of his receiving the joy of the family in the person of their daughter. In some regions, he would be offered sweet longan tea, two hard-boiled eggs in syrup and transparent nood les.Another variation was the groom’s partaking of soup with a soft-boiled egg, the yolk of which he was expected to break, arguably symbolic of breaking the bride’s ties with her family. The ‘good luck woman’ or a dajin, employed by the bride’s family to look after the bride, carried the bride on her back to the chair. Another bridesmaid might shield the bride with a parasol while a third tossed rice at the sedan chair. Sometimes the bride was borne out in a wooden ‘cage’ with her feet padlocked –; presumably a remnant from rougher times with extremely reluctant brides.A sieve, shai-tse, which would strain out evil, and a metallic mirror, king, which would reflect light, were suspended at the rear of the bride’s sedan to protect her from evil influence. The bride might also attach a special mirror to her garment, which she would not remove until she was safely seated upon the marriage bed. Firecrackers were set off to fri ghten away evil spirits as the bride departed in the sedan chair. The physical movement symbolized the transfer of the bride from her parent’s family to her husband’s. Great care was taken to ensure that no inauspicious influence would affect the marriage.The female attendants who escorted the bride to her new home were chosen with particular care that the horoscope animals of their birth years were compatible with that of the bridegroom. The sedan chair itself was heavily curtained to prevent the bride from inadvertently glimpsing an unlucky sight, e. g. a widow, a well, or even a cat. Attendants scattered grain or beans, symbols of fertility, before her. Once again, firecrackers were set off just before the procession arrived. A red mat was placed before the sedan chair for the bride lest her feet touch the bare earth as she dismounted.The entire household would be waiting to receive her. The bride was required to step over a saddle or a lit stove to cross the thresh old, since the words for â€Å"saddle† and â€Å"tranquillity† sounds the same and the fire would cast out of evil influences. An attendant might immediately place a heap of rice in a sieve over or near the bride. If the bride did not wear a lucky mirror, one might be used at this time to flash light upon the bride. In some regions, a grain measure and a string of of copper coins were laid out as talismans of prosperity.After these rituals took place, the groom could finally raise the red scarf and view the bride’s face. 5. The Wedding Day. In contrast to the elaborate preparations, the wedding ceremony itself was simple. The bride and groom were conducted to the family altar, where they paid homage to Heaven and Earth, the family ancestors and the Kitchen God, Tsao-Chun. Tea, generally with two lotus seeds or two red dates in the cup, was offered to the groom’s parents. Then the bride and groom bowed to each other. This completed the marriage eremony, ex cept in some regions, where both also drank wine from the same goblet, ate sugar moulded in the form of a rooster, and partook of the wedding dinner together. Immediately after the ceremony, the couple were led to the bridal chamber, where both sat on the bed. In some areas, honey and wine were poured into two goblets linked by a red thread. The bride and groom took a few sips and then exchanged cups and drank it down. On the day of the wedding (and sometimes for the next three days), the bed chamber was open to visitors, who were given to teasing the young couple with ribald remarks.Generally, separate wedding feasts were given by the parents of the bride and the groom for their respective friends and families. Even at the feast, men and women sat separately. There could be a single feast for each or a series of feasts over several days. However, the most important feast was that given the groom’s family on the day of the wedding. It was generally considered as public recogn ition of the union. On the day after the wedding,  the bride awoke early to attend honor the ancestors at dawn. It was only then that she was then formally introduced to the groom’s relatives and friends.As she knelt before each of the older relatives, she received a small gift. The bride’s parents-in-law gave her a title according to her husband’s seniority in the family hierarchy. On the day after the wedding,  the bride awoke early to attend honor the ancestors at dawn. It was only then that she was then formally introduced to the groom’s relatives and friends. As she knelt before each of the older relatives, she received a small gift. The bride’s parents-in-law gave her a title according to her husband’s seniority in the family hierarchy.

The Crime On The Block - 1440 Words

Our daily doses of the latest gossip and news of those around us never seem to have an objective. We are shown various articles from potential presidential candidates to the latest crime on the block, and very few enlightening stories. Each article may seem rather at random and just picked in order of the most intriguing to the less interesting, but it just goes to show how unknowingly we are influenced by the press today. The press has the power to manipulate the way we perceive our surroundings with the legitimate authority to do so. It is only up to our own morals and ethics to really understand who has power over us and to understand the differences between illegitimate and legitimate authority. Since 1791 when the First Amendment was†¦show more content†¦It is because of our First Amendment rights that it is lawful for media to manipulate us. We give our consent to the journalist to persuade our views in such a way by purchasing the newspaper, thus its authority to do s o is legitimate. We may not approve of the views presented in the article, but it is put upon us as more of an obligation to abide by the norm in order to stay in tune with our peers in what can be called more of a ‘practical’ authority. The other type of authority that we can identify in journalism is ‘theoretical’ authority. This is where we go to the newspapers for information on things because it is more of their ‘expertise’ to do the research or to provide the information. This can be a case of journalism where, as McChesney states, â€Å"Coverage tends to be a barrage of facts and official statements.† On the other hand it can be a very opinionated style of journalism with a clear objective. For example, as Rick Horowitz mentions in his recent Huffington Post titled â€Å"Black lives Matter (The ‘Too’ is Silent)†, â€Å"It s pretty easy to understand. Unless you re trying not to.† His style of writing exe mplifies the second type of power we see in journalism called Liberal2. Liberal2 is a type of power where citizens are deprived of something that they otherwise would pursue. In Horowitz’ post we can see that he leaves no room for