Teenage Girls and The Crucible

[Wandawomble]

I just showed this film to my dd - it’s a stunning example of teenage social contagion - any others?

Heavenly Creatures is another film we’ve watched recently

• and discussion of wider scale things like the pro-ana and the self harm - you see pockets of girls involved and influenced. What are the hallmarks of this kind of behaviour do you think? Her observations were interesting - she said that self harm for instance is being very much glamorised online - pictures of depressed looking girls with long sleeves and statements like “no one knows me” - she said it’s very deliberately designed with an appealing aesthetic.

On a similar theme, there's the sleeping refugee children in Sweden:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-41748485

I don't know if it's only girls who are experiencing it, but all the cases I've read about are girls.

What could once be viewed as cries for help has become outright attention seeking, and I only hope that resources will still be prioritised for the former group.

I feel the same. Obviously it's a real issue...some kids really hurt themselves and it's terrifying but others are adding little scratches to their arms like temporary tattoos.

Where does the attraction to this frail aesthetic come from? Its very disturbing.

If has existed for a long time. Forget 'Heroin chic' in the 1800s it was 'consumption chic'

The Falling! That's the one!

Thank you ChekhovsWorkshoppedShooter and MayYouLiveInInterestingTimes

I wonder whether it is also due to girls reaching puberty younger than boys so have less real agency when dealing with heightened feelings that come with it? When boys start having similar feelings, they have more access to drink/drugs and more freedom so can simply use energy differently or on external rather than internal distractions from unease

I think the appeal of the ‘frail/drugged’ thing is vulnerability. It’s appealing to men because it kind of puts across the idea that they might be able to get in with someone ‘higher up’ than they normally would because the girl is damaged in some way so won’t reject them. It bothered me for a long time about why the tabloids were so interested in especially young women being very drunk or taking drugs. I mean why is it interesting enough to be publishable? I think it’s for male readers who can think, oh, if I’d been there I could’ve helped her home and....who knows what might happen next! Or something. Then the teens are trying to be attractive and that’s what they see.

It bothered me for a long time about why the tabloids were so interested in especially young women being very drunk or taking drugs. I mean why is it interesting enough to be publishable? I think it’s for male readers who can think, oh, if I’d been there I could’ve helped her home and....who knows what might happen next! Or something.

That's an interesting point. I think there's also a judgenent on their morality. They're often skimpily dressed and revealing more than they normally would becasue they're drunk.