Chapter 2 Family & Personal Relationships (1)

Chapter 2Family & Personal Relationships (1)Sept. 2007Xiao Huiyun

A 1 The FamilyIn modern Britain post WW2, the amount of the diverse families has grown due to changes over time Nuclear familyLone-parent familyCohabiting couple

A 1 The Family cont.One-parent families & their dependent children

A 1 Family cont.Almost half of all marriages fail. If present divorce rates continue, more than one child in four will experience the divorce of their parents before they reach age sixteen. Britain has one of the highest divorce rates in Europe. Lone parenting has increased three-fold in the last twenty years. 1 in 10 families is a lone parent family 4 in 10 people are born outside marriage 1 in 10 of Britons cohabiting Annual marriage rates are at their lowest since records began in 1840

A 1 Family cont.From all these facts and figures, it appears that the traditional family is in decline. But is this really so?According to the Soul of Britain survey:80% of Britons believe that marriage is not out-dated 76% of Britons expect our marriages to last for life 46% of Britons disapprove of lone parenting as a lifestyle choice Columnist Melanie Phillips argues that the traditional nuclear family has been at the root of their democracy, because it leads to the formation of people who are secure, stable, inner-directed and self-confident, and who have a sense of duty and responsibility to each other.

A 1 Family cont.Traditional families are better for childrenBob Rowthorne, professor of economics at Cambridge University challenged the propaganda that the blended family or step family at its best can provide a good alternative to the traditional family. He claimed that there is overwhelming evidence that on average (rather than at the best) step families are very dangerous places for children to be. The level of child murder is many times higher in step families than in traditional married couples.Rowthorne also pointed out that children do not do as well in lone-parent families or in cohabiting families as they do in stable married couples.The phenomena of lone- parent families in contemporary British society have led to an increase in poverty and social problems related to poverty.

A 1 The FamilyHome is Where the Heart is

Stable marriage will be the most important ingredient for a happy home life in Millennium Britain, according to a new Alliance & Leicester public opinion poll by MORI.The survey asked 1,938 people what would be the most important ingredient to family life in 25 years time. Key findings included: Stable marriage and less divorce topped the poll with more than one in four people (26 per cent). The importance attached to stable marriage was consistent across all age groups, dispelling the possibility that the findings on marriage were simply a symptom of youthful idealism.

A 2 YouthYouth is not simply an age group, but a social organization. In Britain in the 1950s things happened that changed the way that young people thought about themselves and the way they behaved. For about ten years after the end of the Second World War in 1945 there was a rise in the birth rate. There were more young people around with money to spend. Companies started to manufacture things - music, films, clothes - especially for young peopleExisting in the British culture this kind of age group is a subdivision of the national culture, hence the term youth subculture.

A2 YouthYouth SubculturesSubculture : a cultural group within a larger culture often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture (COD) Youth subcultures have a distinct individual style certain ways of dressing, speaking, listening to music and gathering in similar places.Youth subculture can be described as the way of life shared by young people.Youth subcultures are inevitable products of affluent society. ( e.g. The Teddy Boys )The majority of people leave the subcultures at some later point, often at the point of marriage.

A 2 YouthThe 1950s was the Rock 'n' Roll era. This music was originally made by black people in the USA. When copied by white musicians like Elvis, it became popular with white audiences - especially white teenagers. British kids loved it too and one of the first post-War teenage cults, the Teddy Boys or 'Teds', adopted it as their music. Teds had slicked-back 'quiffs' or 'DA' haircuts. They wore narrow 'drainpipe' trousers, 'drape' jackets, fancy shirts and 'bootlace' ties. They had a reputation for violence

A 2 YouthTeddy Boys cont.Characteristics of Teddy boys:Group-mindedness a reaffirmation of traditional working class values and the strong sense of territory. They demonstrated working class resistance through rituals.Extreme touchiness to insults this over-sensitivity became attached to the distinctive dress and appearance of the groupConditions for its formation extensive welfare provision (social security, health, housing), European economic boom with Marshall plan, abolishing of draft, introduction of hire purchaseTeddy Boys drastically and fundamentally altered the concept of the adolescent and introduced the concept of a youth subculture

A 2 Youth cont.Teddy Boys in the 1950s

A 2 Youth cont.The BeatniksBeatniks -Members of the beat movement in the United States in the 1950s. Beatniks frequently rejected middle-class American values, customs, and tastes in favor of radical politics and exotic jazz, art, and literature. Their visual symbols - jazz, poetry, marijuanna were exported to Britain & became the hallmarks of British Beatniks, a section of middle-class youthThe Beatniks therefore constituted a counter-culture in the decade.

A 2 Youth Beatniks contCharacteristicsExtremely pessimistic about future & possibilities of progress Aspired for freedom and the anguish of being alone, undecided and separateTheir central ideology did not gain wide popularity in Britain until mid-1960s, when it was further developed with the coming of the Hippies

A 2 YouthThe Beatniks

A 2 YouthMods and RockersThe 1960s Rock 'n' roll rebellion faded away a little between 1958 and 1963. But then, as a new mood of optimism and change began to sweep through British society, the young brought rebellion back. With a bang. In the early sixties there were the mods and the rockers. Rockers liked rock 'n' roll and big motorbikes, and they 'dressed down' in leather jackets and denim. Mods liked American rhythm and blues music and rode scooters. They 'dressed up' in sharp suits and ties (Italian style). Like the Teddy Boys, Rockers came from working class, but far more butch and masculinity driven than the former.. The Mods were from working-class backgrounds but worked in non-traditional clerical or service jobs

A 2 YouthRockers and their motor-bikes

A 2 YouthThe Beatles

A 2 YouthThe Beatles cont.Britain became the centre of the music, fashion and pop worlds, and for a few brief years everyone wanted to film in Britain too. Despite the media hype there was a genuine energy, creativity and optimism which was totally contrary to the mood of the country a few years previously.

A 2 YouthMods and their scootors

A2 YouthThe HippiesIn addition to Mods and Rockers, there were the Hippies and Skinheads. The term hippie covers a wide range of bohemian, student and radical subcultures.They are critical of growing dominance of technology & bureaucracy of capitalist societies.They distrusted establishment.They criticised inequality and affluence of society and sought social change through peaceful means.The subculture contains contradictions they scorned materialism, yet lived to share the fruits of affluence. They preached egalitarianism, but remain reactionary.

A 2 YouthSkinheads cont. Unlike Beats and Hippies, Skinheads largely came from the unskilled working-class community.Their lifestyle was centred round working-class activities, located around the pubs, football and streets , associated with football hooliganism.HallmarksDress big industrial boots & jeans rolled up high to reveal themSkinheads appeared towards the end of the 1960s, the result of relative worsening of situation of working-class. Appearance hair cut to the skullEmphasis on collectivity, physical toughness ,,and local rivalry; this explained why hippies became targets for the aggression of skinheads

A2 Youth cont.Hippies (left) Skin heads (right)

A2 YouthPunksThe 1970s The seventies can be characterised by Punk, Heavy Metal and Rastafarianism. Punk was youth culture in the extreme. With their spiked hair, ripped and outlandishly customized clothing and much-publicized obscene language, Punks tried to both cut themselves off from society and also to shock it into action. Heavy Metal music first appeared in the sixties, but really grew in the seventies, when bikers - descendants of the rockers who still had a taste for motorbikes and long hair - took to it. It has increased in popularity since then and the music has been adopted by other cults. Rastafarianism is a philosophy and a religion originating in Jamaica. It became popular in black Britain in the seventies. It was popularised in the rest of British society through the reggae music of Bob Marley.

A 2 Youth cont.The punks

A2 YouthRastas

The Influence of Reggae on PunkSearch for authenticityThe romanticization of petty criminalitywhite translation of black ethnicity (Hebdige p.64)Reggae musicNon-mainstreamWorking class credentialsPolitical awarenessMusic of the outsider

A 2 YouthThe RaversThe 1980s Cults of the eighties included: the New Romantics, a short-lived cult of the late seventies and early Eighties which involved wearing flamboyant clothes often like those of the eighteenth century 'dandies'; Hip Hop, originating in the black communities of the USA, takes in rap music, graffiti art, sportswear-based dress and other cultural elements; Rave, grew out of the 'acid house' cult of 1988. Devotees favoured American 'house' music, baggy colourful clothing and taking drugs like LSD and Ecstacy. 'Ravers' go to all night dancing events called raves. These were often held in remote out of the way places

A2 YouthRavers

A 2 YouthRagga & JungleThe 1990s The nineties, saw the emergence of Ragga and Jungle. Predominantly black, ragga or raggamuffin culture revolves around ragga music, a dance-oriented form of reggae commonly with the lyric spoken or 'chatted'. Many young Asians who were born in Britain and now in their teens and twenties have developed a similar culture often referred to as 'bhangramuffin' after the Asian music, Bhangra. Jungle, meanwhile, fuses ragga with elements of house music and rave culture, and has become the most innovative, original youth culture of the mid-1990s.

A 2 YouthMillennial TensionYoung males postmodernity destroyed traditional social role, respect, authorityErosion of masculine forms of work, sources of self-respect

A 2 YouthSuicide SolutionMassive increases in suicide amongst young males in UK (5X higher than young women

A 2 YouthConclusionHunger for and exposure to commercial consumption of youth has increased as society has agedBlurring of upper and lower boundaries of youth Consequently subcultures no longer so subcultural (or oppositional) more escapistAbsorption into mainstream has undermined exclusive association of youth with styles BUT has reinforced expectation that youth will generate consumer idealsChildhood associated with modernist optimism, youth associated with postmodernist freedom and possibility But the real problems of youth are being forgotten

A 4 Marriage & DivorceMarriage and cohabitationIn 2000 :54 per cent of men and 52 per cent of women aged 16 and over were married; 10 per cent of men and nine per cent of women were cohabiting 27 per cent of men and 18 per cent of women were single Three per cent of men and 12 per cent of women were widowed Six per cent of men were either divorced or separated, compared with nine per cent of women.

Sociological Explanations of the Increase in DivorceThe value of marriage Conflict between spouses The ease of divorce Women, paid employment and marital conflict Income and class AgeMarital status of parents Background and role expectations Occupation

Towards a More Civilised Society Most other European economies have fiscal instruments of support for marriage, through joint taxation. In Britain, family commitments have become largely irrelevant to tax assessment, whereas in most of Europe adults with families to support are paying tax at much lower rates than single earners.It is time for the state to signal its approbation and support for the structure most successful in maintaining social stability: the married family. The nurture of children should be a primary objective of every civilised society. -- Center for Policy Studies

Filed under Children and families, United Kingdom, Legal and law enforcement, Social and cultural issues UK: Statistics: Divorces fall by 7 per cent in 2006 (August 30, 2007 at 10:10 pm )The provisional divorce rate in England and Wales fell for a second consecutive year and by 7 per cent compared with 2005 to 12.2 divorcing people per 1,000 married population in 2006. The divorce rate is now at its lowest level since 1984. Source: National Statistics Office

YouthSamuel Erman1. Youth is not a time of life, it is a state of mind, it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees, it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions, it is the freshness of the deep spring of life.

Youth cont2. Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of 60 more than a boy of 20. Nobody grows merely by a number of years; we grow old by deserting our ideas.3. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.

Youth cont4. Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human beings heart the lure of wonders, the unfailing childlike appetite of whats next and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station: so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from man and from the Infinite, so long as you are young.

Youth cont5. When the aerials are down, and your spirits are covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then youve grown old even at 20, but as long as your aerials are up to catch waves of optimism, theres hope you may die young at 80.