I decided to write my adolescent position paper on Amber Tamblyn’s character, Tibby in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. In this movie, Tibby plays an emerging adult who is finding her place in the world. This movie is about a group of four best friends who have been friends since birth. Tibby is deciding how she is going to spend her first summer without her friends. This summer they are going their separate ways for various occasions, but Tibby is the only one who will stay home in Maryland to work at a superstore, while her friends get to visit amazing places like Mexico, Greece, and South Carolina. On their last day together, they decide to go shopping and they find a pair of jeans that magically fits every one of them perfectly! They …show more content…
decide to share the jeans over the summer and take turns wearing them. Before they leave each other for the summer, they have a friendship ceremony where they promise to send the pants to one another throughout the summer. Tibby is a teenager who works at a supermarket called Wallman’s. She is a healthy emerging adult who is very rebellious and sarcastic. Tibby has a unique outlook on life and a unique look in general. She wears piercings all over her body and blue and blonde streaks of color in her hair. While growing up, Tibby’s parents moved through various careers, which makes her view the world through skeptical and cautious eyes. Tibby is not happy that she is working all summer because she sees the people in the town as ridiculous losers. She decides to create a documentary to interview the “losers” in the town to see what they do. She called this documentary a “Suckumentary”. She has her three best friends, Carmen, Lena, and Bridget. She is considered to be in a clique because she is in a small group of friends who know each other better than anyone else, doing everything together, and have formed amazing friendships. This summer she also met a twelve-year-old girl named Bailey. Tibby met Bailey while she was working. A display case fell on top of a girl and knocked her unconscious. While looking for some sort of identification, Tibby found out that her name was Bailey. When Lena was sending the pants back to Maryland to give to Tibby for a week, the mailman accidently delivered them to the wrong house. He delivered them to the next house over where Bailey lived. Tibby found out from one of her neighbors that Bailey had leukemia. She was diagnosed with this cancer when she was seven years old. When Bailey returned the pants to Tibby, she was very intrigued by her personality. From then on Bailey visited the store regularly and found out that Tibby was filming a documentary. She really wanted to help her with this, but Tibby found her annoying and in the way. But after a while, Tibby opened up to Bailey and let her help with the documentary. With Tibby, you see the importance of friendship.
It is important for Tibby to show and receive the trust and loyalty in a friendship. She is known to be more distant when making new friends, but she realizes how important it is to keep these friends and spend as much time as possible with them. Tibby realizes how lucky she was to have found Bailey. Without Bailey, she wouldn’t have understood how important it is to be more accepting of new friendships. Bailey became a loyal assistant to Tibby’s filming of her documentary. When Tibby is conducting interviews for her documentary, she meets people that are lonely and don’t have friends to lean on. She sees what a gift this is to have uncovered this and help realize their true potential in life. Tibby sees that just because someone is different then her, it doesn’t mean they are wrong in how they live their life. Unfortunately, at the end of the movie, Bailey passes away. Bailey always saw the positive in every situation and she taught Tibby to try and do the same. We see how big of an impact Bailey had on Tibby and this shows how the social context is influencing her development to change how she …show more content…
lives. I can also see the difficulty Tibby is having with growing up.
Since her parent’s went through so many different jobs, she had to mature more quickly than her friends. With Bailey’s death she was able to accept people who are different from her and be able to see the world in a new light. She is in the period of extensive identity exploration. Another way we can represent the change that Tibby sees in the world is through her documentary. Through her camera lens she views the world without any understanding. She thinks that everyone in the town she lives in is absurd. While Bailey was helping her film, she looked deeper into others lives and realized that these are stories that need to be told. They may have been sad or difficult stories, but that is what made her documentary a touching exploration of people whose lives were clearly different from
hers. Tibby is afraid of being hurt and unsure of what she wants in life. She hides these feelings with the facade that she puts on everyday (piercings and blue/blonde streaks). Once Bailey helps show Tibby her true identity, Tibby loses the piercings and streaks and finds whom she truly is inside. After the period of extensive identify exploration, Tibby changed her viewpoints and her attitude to represent how she is on the inside and outside. It looked as if she used her look on the outside to portray how she was feeling about herself, dark and rebellious. But after she found her true identity, she was able to blossom into who she really was. Tibby has clearly gone through puberty, but I think that she developed later than her friends. All of her other friends knew who they were and what they wanted, but Tibby needed that extra push to find who she truly was. Since Tibby is in the phase of emerging adulthood, we see that she passed the puberty stage, but has not figured out her true identity until the end of the movie. If the girls never found the pants then the entire series of events would have changed; the pants wouldn’t have been delivered to Bailey’s home, Bailey and Tibby would have never met, and Tibby’s outlook on life would not have changed. Tibby dismissed not only the people around her, but also people’s opinions of topics she did not agree with. Since skepticism is so common in adolescence, we can see why Tibby would be acting this way. All of her friends are in different stages of their adolescence/emerging adulthood and Tibby seems to be the last one in the group to develop into adulthood. According to the ecological systems theory, Tibby is going through the chronosystem where she is going through a major life transition. She is finding her true identity and learning more about herself every day.
The world of young adults is a complicated landscape, with cliques and a desire to fit in. This push for conformity stretches not only through behavior, but more noticeably through the apparel worn by youths. At the beginning of the story, the narrator states that she and her friends are in “trouble,” but they “do not know what [they did], and [they are] sure [they] did not mean to do it” (103). This fear of the unknown continues throughout the entirety of the story, and readers can infer that the crime the girls have committed was simply dressing out of the norm for their age. The narrator also mentions that she is “white-skinned, ebony-haired, red-lipped, and ethereal,” far different than the expectation for her being “suntanned, golden-haired, peach-lipped, and earthbound” like her mother had been (103). As time repeats itself, so too do the fashion trends popular among the masses, and the look that the narrator’s mother portrayed was the same as the look her daughter is expected to adhere to. This is not the case, though, and because of her and her band’s choices in clothes, the narrator feels ostracized by not only her peers but her father as well, who “looks at [them] without moving his mouth or turning his head” as they leave the house (104). This reaction, or lack thereof, indicates that the father disapproves of the choices his daughter has made about how she dresses, but feels as though it is not his place to criticize her. The ending line does an excellent job at summarizing the angst felt by most teens as the narrator and her band feel as though “[they] are right to turn [themselves] in” to the pressures exerted by their peers to comply to what is expected of them (104). Just as women’s individuality is torn down by the pressures
In this book therapist Mary Pipher writes about her experiences at work with adolescent girls. It is intended to make the reader aware of the perils of being a teenager in today's sexualized and media-saturated culture. She talks about how this new and more hostile environment affects adolescent girls' emotional growth and development, and how hard it is to stay true to yourself while trying to fit in with peers. For the most part this book is Dr. Pipher's attempt to reach out to adolescents, as well as their parents and teachers, and tell them that this "problem without a name" is not a death sentence but rather a journey to adulthood, and tells adults how to help these impressionable young girls through what might be the most trying period of their lives.
Why is it so important for Walker and her friends to define themselves through dress, special language, dance, and music? What do teenagers use today to express themselves?
Confusion, adolescents are on a journey for who they really are, what they believe in, and where do they fit in. Stuck in between a child and an adult, this stage can prove dramatic at times. With awkward changes through puberty and social environments in school, no wonder adolescents have that uncomfortable feeling Erikson refers to. DJ depicted an adolescent uncomfortable in her own skin while worrying too much about what others thought. A group of cheerleaders told her she had to lose weight to get in, consequently, DJ began to eat less and exercise more until she passed out at the gym.
Teenagers enter into adolescence feeling insecure and unsure of themselves. They desire to fit in and belong. If they don't, they see themselves as abnormal. Children seek to become independent from their parents and immerse themselves in their own social environment during adolescence. According to Psychologist Erik Erikson “Peer groups fulfill the adolescent’s need for validity and acceptance and provide space and opportunity for exploration and experimentation.” This is likewise to the Protagonist Tracy because in order for her to get Evies acceptance she stole a purse from an old lady and afterwards went on a shopping spree. Tracy explored and experimented many things with her new found peer group however, from there, it all spirals down as Tracy experiences and responds to a variety of pressures and situations not uncommo...
Sexual Dalliance and its Outcomes in Victorian Society: Christina Rossetti’s “An Apple Gathering” and “Cousin Kate”
The book I chose for this assignment is Reviving Ophelia. This was a very interesting book. Mary Pipher, PhD. discusses the roles that society plays in shaping the self esteem of teenage and preteen age girls. The author contends that our society today is very look-obsessed and media driven. Through magazines, television, fashion, and retail the "idea" girl is formed and anyone who doesn't fit this idea is not perfect in the culture that girls live in today. Weight issues have caused conditions of anorexia and bulimia putting young girls in jeopardy of declining health. Dr. Pipher chronicles the life of adolescent girls from their carefree days of being energetic, assertive, and tomboyish to their losing themselves at the onset of puberty. Most girls lose their previous selves to fit into a norm of society, being more passive, depressed, and self-critical. The main point of this book is to help uncover the true self of adolescent girls and to give them techniques to help them combat the views of society. This quote from the book summarizes all that the author was addressing when writing this book. "Most girls choose to be socially accepted and split into two selves, one that is authentic and one that is culturally scripted. In public they become who they are suppose to be."
"I am waiting like a tiger in the trees, now ready to leap out, ready to cut her spirit loose." The Joy Luck Club, an Oliver Stone production, depicts four women and their strife bringing up their American born daughters. Directed by Wayne Wang, this rated R movie featured actors and actresses such as Ming-na Wen, Rosalind Chao, Russell Wong, and Lisa Lu.
Roberts, Kate “The Paradox of Teenage Girls: Today Are They to Grown Up or Lagging Down?” http//drkateroberts.com 2013/12/25. Web 4/25/2014.
As we all know children grow and develop at their own pace but for an adolescent is isn’t just pimples or being too skinny. For adolescents their appearance can make or break their entire school experience. They can either be the popular prom queen such a Claire or maybe even the tough bad boy like Bender. But what about the little guys out there what about the not so pretty or not so big and tough guys what about people like Brian? Brian is very intelligent yet he lacks something that the other boys in the movie have and that is size. Brian is significantly smaller than the other two. For a child like Brian it is difficult to be accepted into social circles that involve things that more mature looking adolescents are involved in. Although this is something adolescents have been having to deal with for generations their appearance can cause then tremendous issues. Like Brian, a child will be pushed around talked over or even bullied for their small stature or in ...
Adolescence is the stage in life when you are no longer a child, but not yet an adult. There are many things that still need to be explored, learned and conquered. In the film Thirteen, the main character, Tracy Freeland, is just entering adolescence. While trying to conquer Erikson’s theory of Identity vs. Role confusion, Tracy is affected by many influences, including family and friends that hinder her development. Many concepts from what we have learned in class can be applied to this character from identity development, to depression, to adolescent sexuality and more. In this film Tracy is a prime example of an adolescent and much of what I have learned this year can be applied to her character.
When a pair of jeans manages to work on four diffirent best friends and make each look uniquely special, that's when you know you're in possession of a truly remarkable article of clothing. The pants of, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, by Ann Brashares, is what makes the book complete. Even though this novel is a "girly" book; that's what makes the characters more relatable, the plot interesting in almost gossipy way, and the theme, which is the importance of friendship.
Proactivity allows a female to harness her power with aspirations of removing female stereotypes and rising up for equality between genders. The gender difference perspective examines how women's location in social situations differ from that of men. The Paper Bag Princess written by Robert Munsch, explores Elizabeth's transgression with social gender roles displaying feminist values. The pro feminist text challenges social norms by illustrating a non-stereotypical view of Elizabeth and her female empowerment by breaking traditional folktale gender roles.
The “Bad Girls Club” display groups of women who are obsess with drinking and violent behavior to handle their situations, shining the light on negative stereotypes, defining a “bad girls” and the influencing young girls in today’s society. The way these girls act on TV is the way the media portray women as vulnerable and in need of male attention. By depicting women solely as physical objects, we rarely see them as powerful. Women have often seen each other as competition in many realms of their lives and so have become adept at quickly sizing up their female competition as to what makes a women’s woman (Kramer 210).The show 's has a foundation of seven women with personal, social and psychological problems, who consider their self to be
Bauman, Lawrence. The Ten Most Troublesome Teen-age Problems and How to Solve Them. New York: Citadel Press, 1997.