Youth stigmatisation: overrated? |30 September 2011

Here is what I mean; in my original article on juvenile delinquency, miniskirts and prisoner-style pants were my initial observations.

“Around me were young girls – scarcely 15 – in  mini shorts and skirts, sporting killer high heels and tops which left nothing to the imagination.”

And I’m sure even in France – unless one has a penchant for young pubescent girls ¬– children below the age of 16, sporting anything short enough to expose an indecent amount of flesh (unless they are figure skaters which I highly doubt judging from our climate) are usually frowned upon. Yes, the youth should express themselves, and I am 100% behind anybody who says our young need encouragement and applaud.

However, I do believe it could still be done with their clothes on and a slight lean towards less offensive language that do not include another person’s mother, genitalia or immature threats of punching anybody in the head.
“… most of them smelled like a tobacco factory merged with an alcohol distillery.”

That said, anyone supporting and encouraging smoking and drinking in children under the age of 18 – let alone 15 – is at the least, immoral and irresponsible. Which brings me back to my point; juvenile delinquency.

According to Wikipedia, Juvenile delinquency refers to antisocial or illegal behaviour by children or adolescents.

Going back to my original article, I distinctly remember talking about young children “scarcely 15” smelling of cigarettes and alcohol, wearing very little clothing and one memorable little girl having the mouth of a sailor after one too many bottles of rum.

In reference to the above explanation of juvenile delinquency, noticeably, antisocial and illegal activities were being carried out by children.

Notice I did not mention young adults or anybody from 18 and above – and strictly speaking, what a young adult gets up to is really none of my business. However, when it comes to children, anybody who believes this type of behaviour is normal or a reflection of their self expression should take a closer look and perhaps really ruminate on the implications of accepting and even encouraging this kind of society. Is this really what we need as notre AVENIR? Think about it.

As a side note to « Il est important de reconnaître que notre jeunesse arbore une autre forme de culture que celle que nous avons connue » or in other words, we need to realise that the young have a completely different culture to that which we can remember years ago…

To me, this statement is completely arbitrary as I did not grow up in a culture way passed and was not even born by the time our critic left Seychelles for France in 1968. In fact, I was born in 1989, which would technically place me as a youth of 22 living in this modern age…

As a final note; no, I would most certainly not be shocked by a young lady strutting down the streets of Paris in a micro-mini skirt, smoking and drinking – providing she was of legal age to do this.

Rebecca Chang-Tave