Tagged: youth subcultures

Sociology of Culture

"Old enough to know better?" The decline of deviance in the young

    A recent article by editor of The Spectator, Fraser Nelson, highlighted an interesting set of trends among young people in the UK. Young people are having less sex, drinking less, and taking fewer drugs than older generations. Nelson invoked the 1990s BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, where the mother – binge-drinking, hedonistic, promiscuous fashionista Edina – was consistently disappointed by the celibacy, abstinence and downright sensibleness displayed by her daughter Saffron.  Saffie would chastise her mother for disturbing her...

Social Psychology & Lifecourse / Sociology of Law, Crime and Deviance

‘Hoodies or Altar Boys?’

by paulabowles Recent research commissioned by the group Women in Journalism has looked at the portrayal of teenage boys in the press. By analysing both national and regional papers, the research team hoped to gain some insight into the representation of youth by the British media. Perhaps, unsurprisingly the overarching theme was one of negativity, with labels such as ‘yob’, ‘thug’, ‘feral’, ‘scum’ and louts cropping up again and again. The only exception to this representation appears to have been...