Theories

Youth/Age-

Stanley Hall-1904-

 “Adolescence is inherently a time of storm & stress when all young people go through some degree of emotional and behavioral upheaval, before establishing a more stable equilibrium at adulthood."

Hall also argued that:

1. The common mood of teenagers is a state of depression.

2. Criminal activity increases between the ages of 12 & 24.

3. Young people are extreme and need excitement; “Youth must have excitement and if this is not at hand in the form of moral intellectual enthusiasms it is more prone to be sought in; sex, drink or drugs.”

Osgerby-1998-

“The portrayal of youth is not entirely pessimistic,” he argues that “Mixed metaphors” appear when analysing the representation of youth.

He claims; “Dual stereotyping of youth,” creates these mixed metaphors that Dick Hebdige (1988) termed; “Youth as fun,” and “Youth as trouble maker.”

Evans (1998):

“Old people in our culture are also segregated and treated as though they are waiting to die. There are close associations between dependency, illness, dying and death. It seems that increasingly in our culture there are pressures that encourage a reversion to infantile feelings which have to be madly defended against.”

Disability-

EVANS (1998), drawing on the works of Freud and other psychoanalysis, states:

“Disable people are seen as childish, dependant and underdeveloped and are regarding as ‘other’ and are punished by being excluded from ordinary life. Thus popular images and rhetoric of disabled people abound which comfort us with people who are imperfect, helpless, disgusting, shitty, dribbling – a threat to rigid ego boundaries."

In short, disability is portrayed as ‘otherness’ and as a weakness. Often it is not shown at all and when it is the disabled person (be that mentally or physically) is rarely seen as anything other than disabled (EVANS 1998).