MARILYN MANSON: DISPOSABLE TEENS
And I'm a black rainbow and I'm an ape of God
I got a face that's made for violence upon
And I'm a teen distortion, survived abortion
A rebel from the waist down
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
I wanna thank you, mom, I wanna thank you, dad
For bringin' this fuckin' world to a bitter end
I never really hated a one true God
But the God of the people I hated
You say you want an evolution
The ape was a great big hit
You say you want a revolution, man
And I say that you're full of shit
We're disposable teens
We're disposable teens
We're disposable teens
We're disposable
We're disposable teens
We're disposable teens
We're disposable teens
We're disposable
You say you want an evolution
The ape was a great big hit
You say you want a revolution, man
And I say that you're full of shit (Yeah, yeah, yeah)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
The more that you fear us, the bigger we get
The more that you fear us, the bigger we get
And don't be surprised, don't be surprised
Don't be surprised when we discover it
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
You say you want an evolution
The ape was a great big hit
You say you want a revolution, man
And I say that you're full of shit (Yeah, yeah, yeah)
You say you want an evolution
The ape was a great big hit
You say you want a revolution, man
And I say that you're full of shit (Yeah, yeah, yeah)
We're disposable teens
We're disposable teens
We're disposable teens
We're disposable
We're disposable teens
We're disposable teens
We're disposable teens
We're disposable
This was the song that came to mind while I was reading Raby's piece on "Girls Negotiating Adolescence." The discourse surrounding adolescence (teens) make up "certain key traits" that are "applied to all teenagers" thus making them seem as though one teenager is no different from another (430). This song's title "Disposable Teens" almost conveys this idea--all teenagers are the same, so they are all disposable. Which also brings to mind Raby's point about teenagers being "courted as a high-consumer group"--they are only a source of profit and must be manipulated into the perfect consumer (437).
Raby also explains that teenagers are often generally thought of as "dangerous, ungoverned and in need of control" (430). Which made me think of "I got a face that's made for violence upon" in Manson's song. Teenagers are often thought to be violent with dark expressions that are to be feared, a "social problem." When I was a "teenager" I had become very interested in Marilyn Manson and I identified (in a way) with some of his music. There was something appealing about the "grungy clothes, their nose rings, their tattoos" to me (436). I wonder now if trying to become this particular kind of person was my own way of taking back control from my mother who kept me under heavy surveillance, that if she was going to be looking for the trouble maker in me, I should really give her something to see.
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| Look at what a satanic little girl I was. Pretending to be a rock-star. What nonsense. |
Similar to the "one respondent" in Raby's study who "said that she gained pleasure from being seen as a 'bad' teen," I (in some small ways) embraced this stereotype (441). I remember being frustrated that my mother assumed that I was bad, and treated me as though I were a terrible person, before finding any sort of evidence to justify that opinion she held of me. She was worried that I would get into things that had never even crossed my mind. I remember her explicitly forbidding me to listen to Marilyn Manson (because she thought it was "Satanic"*) and I specifically went against her wishes. Even though she always feared that I would do drugs or drink or party, I never attempted that.
I was a shy rebel.
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| MAKING THE SAME FACE YEARS LATER #face of rebellion |
(* Note on the link: I'm not supporting any of the claims that this person is making. I can't get through this webpage without laughing so hard)
6 thoughts:
I like how you shared your personal experience being a "teenager" I feel like this article made many of us think about what it was like growing up and how misunderstood teenagers are. Such as you liking Marilyn Manson ( made people think you would do drugs and party) but you did not. You could relate to the music and it brought you joy.(?)
"This song's title "Disposable Teens" almost conveys this idea--all teenagers are the same, so they are all disposable." YES! That sentence of yours is one of the few things that help me understand what Raby means when she posits that teenagers are a subjugated group. I still don't particularly agree with that label but I can understand where she's coming from. Teenagers are viewed as disposable; they are a de/undervalued class of people (while still being highly valued by corporations and media. Go figure!).
I wasn't really a "bad" teen but I LOVED bad teenagers. In middle school my favorite Young Adult characters were the rebellious ones. There was always just something alluring about them. That "I don't give a fuck. I'm damaged and now I hate everyone so FUCK YOU" was just so badass to 13 year old me. Hell, I still love those kind of characters in films and movies (although now when I see a teenager depicted that way I can't help but roll my eyes sometimes. Mostly because it's just so stereotypical! I should check myself on that. It is a stereotype that teens are "bad" and "rebellious" but it's also true to character for some because PEOPLE can be "bad" and "rebellious" and teens are people, after all. Right? No, maybe they're aliens [kidding])
I like the song I also think it goes well with the piece.
I also like your idea about a “disposable teen”, because this made me think that since they are disposable its ok to: 1. make their lives a living hell and 2. We shouldn’t put much effort in trying to understand them, because after all they are disposable.
Also thank you for sharing part of your experience as a teen.
I love your last thought: “a shy rebel”.
When I read that I thought of all the “bad” things most adults think teenagers are either doing or thinking of attempting when in reality it hadn’t crossed their minds until they mentioned it. And I actually find that hilarious, because even if you don’t want or never wanted to do it once an adult says: “when I was a teen, I got away with this and that, so I know exactly what you’re thinking, etc…” one as a teenager starts contemplating it like: hmmm wait! I can really try this and no one would find out?” again even if you wasn’t thinking or were interested about in the first place, I think it’s a sense of curiosity.
How does your experience as a shy rebel fit with or challenge Raby's work? As in is a shy rebel a contradiction?
Great song choice too, though I was always a dope show/beautiful people guy.
How did you get a whole bunch of feministy quotes to appear on your blog on the right?
CHRIS: I think that "shy rebel" comes from a variety of socio-cultural pressures put on me as I was socialized as a "female/woman/so on."
There was internal desire to rebel (fulfilling teenage stereotypes) meeting strong social pressures that say that "girls" should be quiet, behave themselves in public, and restrain their behavior (more so than "boys").
Interesting thought. Makes me want to write a paper on myself, critiquing myself. (Is that vain?)
And the feministy-quote slide show was a drawn out process.
1) gather quotes
2) arrange quotes as powerpoint slides
3) mess with the formatting for hours so it looks the way you want it to
4) save as JPG
4.a) this will cause something to pop up saying "do you want to export every slide in the presentation or just this slide" to which you should select "every slide"
4.b) another popup will tell you were this is saved
5) log on to photobucket. If you don't have an account make one (I don't know how to do this otherwise).
6) upload ALL of the files into a separate "album."
7) View this album as a slideshow.
8) click "share" in the upper right corner.
9) copy the "HTML embed" code.
10) log on to blogger, go to layout, add "HTML/Java script" gadget.
11) paste the code into the box provided.
12) EDIT THE FOLLOWING!!!!
div style="width:480px;text-align:right;" embed width="480" height="360"
Above is the first part of the code. You have to play around with the size of the box depending on your layout. Above is the default size. I had to change width to 250 and height to 240 in order to get it to fit into my layout. This is really just guesswork.
13) Enjoy it! :)
If you need more elaborate (screenshots) help, or would like to see the class do something similar, I can make a blog post explaining with more detail.
Thanks for the comments!
I loved your song and I love. How you answered Chris's question
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