Blog Post #3

For this blog post, we had to read 3 different types of materials and then reflect on the different stereotypes that we found in them, what beliefs about children/youth shape these stereotypes and how these stereotypes are impacted by race, gender, class etc. In the 3 types of reading, I found a theme in each one of them. The authors all made some great points as to why young people are stereotyped so much, and who young people really are.


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In Lesley Bogad's piece, she made a great point "Youth as a category is perhaps one of the most taken-for-granted Western social constructions" and she is absolutely right. Society thinks that because young people (whether they are children, teens or young adults), simply do not understand how life works. We undermind their honest opinions, their freedom of speech, the way they express themselves and much more.

In this piece I noticed that Lesley had set the theme of a very common stereotype, ALL teens are mysterious and are always hiding something. Do we ever stop to think that maybe, as adults, we just punish teens when they do something "wrong" or believe in something that we don't?

I believe that youth (especially teens) shape this stereotype because they are afraid to come to grown-ups, with their troubles and worries. Some parents tend to shun their child and don't listen to them, leading youth to hide their feelings and do things behind their parents back, because of the lack of trust.

I think that class and race plays a small role in this stereotype. Youth from low or high-income communities are all affected by parents who do not listen or care about their opinions and feelings. In both communities, you can have parents who work too much and do not have time to sit with their children and listen to them. Some parents might be too tired and do not feel like dealing with "teenage drama" and many other factors can affect this.

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In the article by Shirley Steinberg, she starts off the piece with a conversation he had with a parent when she went back to teach high school drama classes. The parent had asked Ms.Steinberg why she liked teaching these teenagers and why she takes them out after school for dinner. The parent said that no likes teenagers because they're so bad and evil.

While reading this piece, I realized that Steinberg had a focus on the one stereotype that many people believe, teenagers are mean, bad, cynical, evil and simply cannot be trusted.

I was once a teenager, and I think it's obvious to say we all were, are or will become teenagers at some point. Speaking from experience, I do think that most teens go through a rebel stage, but I don't think that necessarily makes them bad or evil.

I believe that race and class, do play a bigger role in this because teens of color and from low-income community are seen as bad and dangerous than teens who are white and come from high-income communities. Black teen males are portrayed as more dangerous and uneducated because of their race and the community they grew up in.

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In the last piece by Collier Meyerson, the author touches base on a very common stereotype amongs African American girls. Meyerson states that because of slavery, black girls have a "more active sex life" which portrays them as older than what they really are.

Meyerson describes how there are 3 common stereotypes:

• Jezebel: Naturally hypersexual 
• Sapphire: Angry, masculine 
• Mammy: Motherlike, asexual, nurturing 

Meyerson is stating that African Americans are seen as older than what they are and what I listed above, are the reasons why. African American girls are seen as more sexual than girls of other races ad its because during slavery, they would be sold at young ages and they would usually start having children as early as age 12 or 13, due to being raped by their owners. African American women are also seen as angry, because of their temper, masculine because some are more muscular than women of other races. They are also portrayed as motherly, because of their culture and nurturing. 

Of course, race plays an enormous role in this stereotype. Meyerson explains how girls of color get in more trouble for breaking dress codes than white girls. Also, girls of color are given harsher punishments in school than white girls. 

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After reading through all 3 readings, I thought about a time I was put into a stereotype as a teen. When I was about 12 or 13, I did not want to listen to my mom and I was in my rebel stage of life and my mom would just think that I was bad and up to no good. What she wasn't realizing was that she was working 6 days a week to be able to put me through private school, she would come home tired and we really did not have a lot of time to talk and discuss how I was feeling.

I hated the middle school I was going too but I knew how hard my mother was working to be able to pay for it so that I could get a better education. I believe that class played a role in this because I was going to a private (since the public middle schools in my district weren't the best) my mom had to pay for me to go there. She was a single mom and she worked as much as she could to pay the tuition. I'm sure that if maybe we had more money, my mom would be able to pay for it without any problems so she wouldn't have to work so much and spend more time with me and my sister. 

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