Teens vs. Parents vs. Teens
by Aretha Franklin said it best in the “60″s, “R-E-S-P-E-C-T find out what it means to me”. Everyone wants it, very few give it, even less understand what it is.
Much confusion and so many hurt feelings exists between teens and parents. The wedge dividing the relationship widens with each generation. Respect in past generations was a constant demand on the lips of parents. Today the lips demanding respect speak face to face, parents and teens; each accusing the other of lacking respect. What’s behind this paradigm shift?
Are we moving toward a complete metamorphosis where roles are opposite? Unlike our Asian neighbors who respect the wisdom commensurate with accumulated years, our western society strongly places emphasis on youth and youthfulness. The western emphasis on youth is so pronounced that Hollywood sets the standard for our society so much so that men are having face lifts, hair coloring, liposuction, Botox injections, hair transplants, teeth whitenings, make overs, tummy tucks and fanny lifts as often as the opposite sex. By all appearances, parents are in competition with their offspring in clothing, in language, in music, in make up in dance, in hair styles, in attitudes, etc.
Look at today’s sitcoms, children and teens dictate the rules in the home. They ridicule the actions of the parents. They scoff the parents limited experience with electronic technology. One vast change in sitcom world is the back seat position and total lack of authority given to the father figure. He’s portrayed as a bumbling, fumbling idiot who knows little to nothing about his family, kids, wife, love or even what or when to eat. This guy is doing good if he has enough sense to follow simple instructions from his teens or wife. If the sitcom is a cartoon even the baby and the dog can outwit poor old dad who’s chief position is to provide comic relief when the camera is on him. Millions of Americans tune in weekly to laugh at and consider these things entertainment. Little wonder respect is a matter of grave confusion.
A quick examination of what’s portrayed on the silver screen may shed more light on what’s bending the curve. What was considered “spooky movies” in the ’50’s like The Fly, The Creature From The Black Lagoon, and The Blob, etc. are now funny. They would now fall into the category of comedy due to desensitization. Movies have progressively moved toward the bizarre, the macabre, the gruesome and the unholy. Kids sit with their parents and watch how to perform sexual acts in living color at the movies and then again at home on tv. The movie ratings have tiptoed and inched their way into younger and younger audiences. PG 17 is now G, and R is now PG 17, and X is now R. Will ratings become obsolete in the not to long future? Even the G rated movies have curse words and they are being said a lot of the time by kids.
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