Gender Roles and Youth Culture: An Analysis of Puberty Blues

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of the Australian TV miniseries 'Puberty Blues,' focusing on the portrayal of gender roles, youth culture, and the social context of the 1970s. It explores the experiences of the main characters, Debbie and Sue, as they navigate adolescence and the pressures of social acceptance within the surfing subculture. The essay examines the objectification of women, the influence of social groups, and the binary representation of male and female roles. It also considers the portrayal of family dynamics and the implications of these cultural norms, drawing on feminist theory and intersectional perspectives to highlight the persistent inequalities and challenges faced by young women in the film. The essay concludes that the film reflects conventional norms and that the youth culture depicted is a product of these traditional values.

Running head: Youth Essay
Youth essay
Name of the student
Name of university
Authors note

Youth Essay
Introduction
Puberty Blues is an Australian TV miniseries based on the coming-of-age comedy
drama. This series is also inspiration for the 1981 film, Puberty Blues. The movie is set in the
late 1970 and revolves around the characters of Debbie and Sue. These two inseparable
friends where coming across their childhood and entering in their teenage period. Debbie,
referred as Deb and sue are 13 years old who idealize to become the “surf kicks”. These girls
aspire to become member of the popular group, in the course of the movie, these girls manage
to become the member of the prestigious group and they get their respective boyfriends.
However, the boys treated them just as any other sexual objects. Stealing away their self-
resect and self-esteem, these girls are only left with their aspirations. This movie addresses
the sexism that exists around the surf culture and youth cultures in genera; in Australia
around the 1970s. It also addresses to the common notion that are related to the teen aging
periods such as love, sex, and identity.
Prominence of social group among the teenagers
In this movie, as Deb in her voice over rightly states that in order to gain popularity
one either needs to be surfer or a nerd. They regarded the ultimate destination as a utopian
goal. As a result, they brown nosed their way to become members of the elite Greenhills gang
along with their bitchy girlfriends. The plot signifies the impulsion of being included in the
group. They being included in the group is a matter of prestige, this show how the important
is the influence of secondary socialization. The movie also depicts sexual readiness in the
minds of Deb for holding on the group membership. The depicts if the surfing subculture,
with the ritual experimenting with sex and drugs were something which was showcased in the
movie in a frank manner. However if one needs to understand the dynamic relationship and
their context one needs to delve deeper.

Youth Essay
The Importance of the Social Context and Surfing as a masculine territory
The social context is not only the place where the social process takes place. The
context works both as a structure and it also facilities the agents to act according to their
placement in the structure. Social reality cannot be explain using a single variable because it
would then inhibit the presence of the other variable that that are intersecting each other.
Studies made the feminist geographers show that how the consumption of space has been
gendered. Surfing is usually thought of as an arena that is meant for male member of the
society. There is an intersection youth and gender, which results in the social and cultural
differences. In the movie the differences that are portrayed is a result of how the lives of the
young people will be structured according the embodied differences like examples ages,
gender, class ethnicity and so on. It is important to understand that women out here do not
possess their own autonomy even though at the end they break the space barrier and surfs the
sea. The gendered identity is produced and reproduced because women are defined and
differentiated with the reference of man. The problem is that men are not defined in reference
to the women thus, it is not the men who fits to the role of the Deb and Sue rather it is the
opposite. Thus, the entire notion of gendered empowerment fails in its ulterior motive.
Feminist interpretation of the movie
In the movie, the character of Deb and Sue was to show that they are exploited for a
group membership for this they are again portrayed as sex object. In this way, the characters
are only dandified in terms of their body. As stated by Simone de Beauvoir in her famous
book The second Sex’ women are only defined in terms of their body which is why they are
always regarded as the “other” against the “absolute” men figure. It is very important to
understand the social context in which the social dynamics is playing. The cultural context
has created a belief system where the roles of men and women are predefines. These pre-
defined set of roles has also extended to their pattern of addressing each other. As if one of

Youth Essay
their friends urges Deb and Sue to date the boys and secures them by saying that “they will
not bite” shows that how sexually they are aware (Cotton et al 2006). This kind of remark
shows how delusional they are. This is because they are urged to follow a gendered norm
where the only function of their existence is to satiate the desires of men. The characters of
the movie is painted in binary terms which is only depicting a partial reality. As Adichi in her
narrative talks about The Danger of Single Story she accurately addresses the archetypical
role because it creates universalism and thus lies the danger of single narrative because it
stripes of the other variation that exist otherwise. However, the binary depiction of the roles
played in this particular movie is built on the false values, which are culturally predefined. In
addition, this is how Deb and Sue Brown-nose to their ideal goals of self-fulfilment. The
ways in which these girls views their opportunity and obstacle are the reflection of their
socialization process.
Portrayal of family and its broader implications
The actions that are portrayed in puberty blues are centred on the schools in the movie
they are mostly seen around their school but school is not seen as a place of education but it
is scene more as a place of socializing (Aronson 2003). The family portrayal in this film is of
a typical white family where the mother is a homemaker and there is a young sister. Thus the
entire purpose of the education sphere is subverted only to showcase the peer connection and
sexual interaction. In this way the space of education where a person receive knowledge is
reduced to a place where girls and boys interact. Interaction of these teenage are given
importance because they are portrayed as the stereotype notion of teenage as the experimental
group.
Difference in male and females goals
The boys in this movie is also portrayed as sexual mongers who do not understand
any language of compassion or ethics. In this movie, the boy problem is gradually discovered

Youth Essay
where the boys do not try to fit into the roles of others (Appelrouth and Edles 2010). They
purse their own interest, he succumb to their own bodily desires and seen to enjoy recreation
with the homosocial associations. These men are depicted in two ways either by empty
headed, sexual mongers like the case of Bruce. Moreover, the other men who are
overwhelmed by their parental pressure and drug culture as shown in the case of Gary. At the
course of the movie, Gary dies out of heroin overdose. Men are all portrayed as the absolute
even they rupture the moral fabric of the culture. However the case of women is different,
even when the women is to show herself as being empowered she will be doing the work of
men in order to show that she is empowered. However, as feminist scholars has suggested
that empowering is not by playing the roles of men but it is by having the power to make
their own decisions. The masculine activities as shown in the movie is actually more violent
however the when it comes to girls the way of competing with each other is very different
from the boy.
The fact that they buy surfboat of their own is actually a challenge to the male
hegemony of their surfboat. The self-authorization of Deb and Sue is nothing but a naïve
attempt of portraying themselves as achievers. The emancipation of the female role is
manifested only when they ape the male behaviours. In order to feel empowered they could
have to a theatre or playing table tennis, but they chooses to surf boat thus it becomes evident
that females are placed lower in the power structure.
Conclusion
It is very important acknowledge that the social context in which thing are manifested.
The family is also following the traditional norms where the male member of the family is
breadwinner and female member is the homemaker. The portrayal of the family is also in
binary this shows how space is segregated based on gendered. The youth culture is emerging
is actually a reflection of the conventional norms that is held by their primary institution. The

Youth Essay
structure of the family is neatly divided into the area of consumption and the area of
production. This kind of binary representation can have dire consequences as the it is only a
partial analysis of the reality. Fragmentation of identity can be very attractive however; there
is presence of persistence inequality where women are still treated inferior to the other male
counterpart. According to the Intersectional theory by Crenshaw, the inferior position of
women is result of the intersection of race, class and other factors. In here the position of the
females counter are placed in an unequal position here they are victim of drug and sexual
abuse; they are also willing to go at any level to befriend the inlet group. This depict the low
level of self consciousness they have and the end they decide to buy surf boats for aping the
boys. In this way, they feel that they have levelled up, which is why they are feel they living
in the false consciousness.

Youth Essay
References
Aronson, P., 2003. Feminists or “postfeminists”? Young women’s attitudes toward feminism
and gender relations. Gender & Society, 17(6), pp.903-922.
Appelrouth, S. and Edles, L.D. eds., 2010. Sociological theory in the contemporary era: Text
and readings. Pine Forge Press.
Cotton, S.M., Wright, A., Harris, M.G., Jorm, A.F. and McGorry, P.D., 2006. Influence of
gender on mental health literacy in young Australians. Australian and New Zealand Journal
of Psychiatry, 40(9), pp.790-796.