The Merchants Of Cool

One of the essay our group represents is “Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids”. The author of this essay is Miller Milner, professor of sociology at the University of Virginia and senior fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. In his essay he showed how consumer culture has changed in United States. The social ideal becomes the person who both works hard and plays hard. Young people try to get a good education and work hard in order to attain a status that they become a lavish consumer. Most of these young people may or may not care about learning and ideas, but they concerned about getting decent grades to avoid be labeled as “looser” and in their adulthood to have a luxury life.

In Stephanie Hanes’ article “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect,” the author discusses how young girls have the desire to act older than their age and fulfill the narrowing looks created by the world surrounding them. Supporting this claim is the 2010 American Psychological Association (APA) report on the sexualization of girls. It describes that a girl’s value comes from mostly sex appeal that’s seen in magazines, marketers, music lyrics, and on television (Hanes). Hanes’ use of case studies, statistics, research, and storytelling provides the uprising issue to the reader and gives her opposition to this subject matter.

Urban Outfitters is a popular clothing and accessory store that was founded in 1970, and generates success from the type of merchandise it retails, as well as through the contemporary culture and ethos that it promotes to its customers. The store has stated that it is targeted towards a specific audience that ranges from eighteen to thirty years old, who are well “educated, [and] urban-minded” (“Urban Outfitters”). Urban Outfitters offers a specific shopping experience that is unique to its store, because it focuses on a well-defined audience that is attracted by its modern environment and trendy clothes. Many individuals are unconsciously lured into the store first by the placement of the store itself, then by what the consumer can see in the front windows, and lastly by the specific and well thought out placement of the store’s merchandise. It is evident that the theories regarding retail geography defined by Paco Underhill, including the stores location, the decompression zone, the invariant right, destination items, the

Despite all the formal training and experience in this field, Twenge herself is a part of the target audience. Twenge is a mother of three who states “they’re not yet old enough to display the traits of IGen teens, but I have already witnessed firsthand just how ingrained new media are in their young lives.” Throughout the article she provides both personal and statistical information to enhance her argument and support her findings. These Range from multiple surveys conducted throughout the country, including one that had been performed on undergraduates at San Diego State University. An interview with a teen girl from Texas had also been included into the work, avoiding a bombardment of the reader with evidence and numerical data. By providing this break from purely logos argumentation she allows the reader to build an emotional connection with the work; as well as, create a bridge between author and reader. The way she presents the statistical information in her article is by providing the reader with multiple surveys and studies that show this new generational data of how teens are becoming less socially interactive in public. while presenting her information she does show that there

(BBC network, 2014). It can also force people to change in character, which is a growing concern. Sexualisation in our society has become extremely prevalent within the younger female gender. Some may dismiss this issue as no more than yet another moral panic situation between sexuality and young girls, but some see this as a serious subject and some of these people are in fact the girls being targeted (Church, 2014). The music industry with their music

"What is on the minds of America's youth today?" was the prompt for an essay contest. The top of the page hosted two images; one of the youth of 1968 protesting racism, and one of teenagers on Spring Break in 2004. The magazine claimed that 30 years ago, young people were so focused on sit-ins, protests, and what was happening in the world around them and today, teens are content solely with "watching their MTV, and following the love lives of Brad, Jen, Jessica, and Paris." I was intrigued by the article. I let the prompt linger in my mind.

In The Cool Kids, Waldman shares common interests with her audience concerning the ideas of cool. The audience that Waldman addresses is adults around there 20’s and is interested in popular culture. Waldman first begins her article with her own experience of what was considered cool throughout middle school. She utilizes examples of different television series that were once considered cool, as well as different fashion trends that only cool kids wore throughout those years. Through her own experience, Waldman is able to draw a connection to her audience as her audience has most likely experienced scenarios that were similar. Since her audience is people who are concerned about the current events regarding popular culture, it is guaranteed that they have all gone through the struggle of trying to keep up with popular culture, whether it is trying to keep up with the latest television

Today’s youth grew up in the digital revolution when the Internet first became a public space. This (relatively) new and ever-expanding medium resulted in an explosion of the availability of information and new ideas. These ideas would serve as a catalyst to mold many aspects of present-day society. They established and cemented new ideas as real norms that further challenged societies’ perception of ideal norms. From this ideological explosion and conglomeration of contemporary conceptions of a nationally connected society came both the constructive and the controversial. The later included such groups as: otherkin, headmates, the never-ending stream of new gender identities, and the phenomenon of self-diagnosis of mental illness.

“When I stop calling their music garbage I began to listen and find commonalities between the methods of their music and mine. To me the music share the same anger, frustration, fears, and romanticize yet critical observations of black and brown communities feel with drugs, guns, and violence.” Page 5 Absent of this description is the important role that sex plays in the music and communities of the six young girls in the study. The cost of selling sex is African-American females being viewed as sexual objects thus suffering from sexual harassment, rape, and sexual assault. page 47

The sexualization of young girls and women in society is a prevalent theme in mass media. Presently, the sexualization of females is commonly seen in various consumer items like clothes, dolls, and even in Disney movies, according to “The Sexualization of Girls Is Harmful” article. The author says that sexualization occurs when “a person’s value comes only from his or her sexual appeal or behavior; a person is held to a standard that equates physical attractiveness with being sexy; a person is sexually objectified- made into a thing for others’ sexual use; and sexuality is inappropriately imposed upon a person (AboutKidsHealth).” Furthermore, the author provides statistics on how girls are being sexualized by the products they see and use

In the Frontline documentary The Merchants of Cool, the relationship between major media conglomerates and their hedonistic teenage customers is examined through exploring the different tactics industries use to discover and market the next “cool” thing. Industries maintain what the documentary refers to as a “feedback loop” with their customers, which is a cyclic, supply-and-demand relationship that blurs the line between fiction and reality. It has become impossible to tell which side is imitating the other: who do the products and trends that define popular youth culture belong to? What's more, are the sexual and aggressive hormone-fueled behaviors on television and in music intrinsic in adolescents or are they artificial ideas? If these

Sexuality and sex in America is a complicated subject in that there is little consensus on the topic of sex in, and the American media sends many mixed messages regarding sex and sexuality to everyone, not just to adolescents. Americans are aware of sex primarily through advertising (print media, commercials, etc.) as sex is used to sell anything and everything. The media also bombards Americans with sexuality and sex on television and in films. The sexuality of teenagers is not a straightforward issue in America either. Many parents do not discuss sex or sexuality with their children. There have been ongoing debates as to whether sexuality should be taught as part of school curricula because there are such a great deal of adolescents participating in reckless and/or dangerous sexual behaviors, largely because they are grossly uneducated about sex. The paper will reference the film Juno and other texts as a meditation on the relationship between adolescent sexuality and the media.

Sexualisation can be defined as the imposing adult sexuality on to children and young people before they are capable of coping with it usually through the media. In my investigation I aim to discover the effects that sexualisation of men and women in music videos and the effects that this has, mentally and emotionally, on the younger Australian generation. I also aim to discover the extent to which music videos have been sexualized over time.

By buying the product they feel that they can become ?sexy? also. Music videos are also very explicit in the way they elude to sexual activity. This not only brings out natural curiosities in young viewers but also portrays sex as something casually enjoyable ignoring the consequences therein.

Negative effects of Mass Media for teenagers,  The exposure of sex images and excessive portraits of violence in movies and dramas have instilled negative thoughts and taboos in the mind of these teenagers for they have been consistently getting increased exposure to things which are not suitable for their age.