Boys will be boys: a brief story | Nation

As charges of sexual misconduct and even aggression are brought against him, Trump substitutes such as Kellyanne Conway reject his acts that are only those of a "teenager". The adult Kavanaugh can not be held responsible because these alleged acts were only 17 or 18 years old.

What exactly do we mean by adolescent behavior? And who will be this kind of teenager? These questions are at the center of the conversation.

In the United States, it is often assumed that adolescence is a time of experimentation, risk-taking and rebellion. But this notion of adolescence as a phase of irresponsible behavior is a relatively new invention.

It is only in the first decade of the 20th century that American psychologists have had the idea of ​​a separate life phase called adolescence and have begun to treat these years as an extension of life. ;childhood.

The term "adolescence" – which comes from the Latin word for youth, young people – has circulated in English since the Middle Ages, but modern psychologists establish it as a specific chronological phase during which a person prepares for adulthood. by remaining a child. And, as my research shows, the idea of ​​adolescence for American psychologists has taken time to take root and travel slowly to other parts of the world, even in India.

In the United States, compulsory schooling and age-based classrooms inaugurated in the 1870s laid the foundation for teens' imagination as a protected phase. In the 1910s, educators came to a consensus that compulsory high school should be extended until the age of 18. Before that date, most men and women had to work, get married and even have children.

The most powerful explanation of adolescence as a distinct phase emerged in the work of G. Stanley Hall, founder of the American Journal of Psychology and first president of the American Psychological Association. His "Adolescence" of 1904 describes a phase that extends from 12 to 18 years, encompassing the breaking of voice and facial hair in boys and the first menses and breast development in girls – and the emotional maturation following these physical developments.

While the end of childhood had been marked in many cultures by a passage to puberty – like the bar mitzvah or the quinceanera – he proposed that the emotional transition really last longer and ends later.

Hall described adolescence as a period of rebellion and individualism. Rebellion, he believed, was a developmental requirement for full bloom. He also expressed his concern about how to deal with boys' sexual urges during adolescence, devoting a whole chapter to the "dangers" of sexual development. More than any other psychologist, Hall has contributed to the understanding of adolescence as a time of storm and stress and emotional turbulence. The chosen constellation of its characteristics – rebellion, emotional turbulence, sexual insouciance – has become the model for analyzing and evaluating youth problems.

But here is the trap. Many of these early descriptions of adolescence were written for and about boys from the same social background as the author – white and middle class. It is especially these boys who can live a prolonged childhood characterized by social and sexual experiences. Lower-class boys and most black boys had to grow up earlier by entering the manual labor market and assuming responsibilities in adolescence. Prolonged preparation in adulthood was in fact only accessible to those who had economic means.

A similar double standard is found today in the way Kavanaugh's supporters give him leeway. The sympathetic stories relativize Kavanaugh's behavior as part of the culture of boys in elite institutions where he studied and simply "brutalized". This reaction is part of a social tendency to regard the actions of rich white boys as innocent and not dangerous. Black boys, on the other hand, regularly experience "adultification," as historian Ann Ferguson has called it: the attribution of adult motivations and abilities. We do not need to look far to find contemporary examples: Trayvon Martin, 17, was hunted down and killed by a neighbor of the self-defense group who suspected him of being a threat. Even Tamir Rice, 12, was killed because police thought he was a danger. And 17-year-old boys of color are regularly tried as adults and sent to prison.

Expectations of adolescent behavior are also deeply sexist in the United States.

Innocent behavior has always been the preserve of teenagers rather than girls. The rebellion was frowned upon if the girls – black or white – expressed it. The historian Crista DeLuzio goes so far as to portray much of the writing about adolescence as a "boyology". Psychologists simply did not imagine that girls had the same right to innocent experimentation and risk-taking.

This double standard continues to permeate American culture. There is a relevant example of the context of American universities: sororities, unlike fraternities, are linked by a ban on alcohol by the National Panhellenic Conference.

The alleged acts of Kavanaugh as a teenager under the influence of alcohol did not tarnish his reputation as a judge for many people of the political right. But Donald Trump pillaged Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez because they were probably drunk at the age of 15 and 18. Kavanaugh's view of adolescent responsibility is revealing: in a controversial decision delaying access to an abortion of a pregnant 17-year-old girl without papers. Although he claimed that it was because she was a minor and needed the consent of her parents, her delay could have forced the 17-year-old into maternity – a consequence for adults.

Humans going through puberty are certainly endocrine changes and neuronal growth. But our social expectations of behavior are what allows – and in fact arouses – specific types of acts, such as lack of drunkenness. As psychologist Jeffrey Arnett notes, Hall's subsequent ideas on the storm and adolescent stress have been largely rejected by subsequent generations of psychologists, although some of the physiological changes he has followed are still considered accurate . And Crista de Luzio notes that in the 17th century, youth was considered a "relatively smooth" period in the puritan culture of New England, unlike Europe at the same time. According to her, the generalized rebellion of the young people corresponded more generally to social instability.

In the end, there is no physiological reason for asserting that undisciplined or rebellious behavior must accompany endocrine changes in adolescence. Our uneven expectations of adolescent behavior – endorsing the actions of wealthy white boys, but not girls 'or boys' – tell us more about us than about the teenagers themselves.