How far does the representation of a particular social group change over time?

There are many different types of social groups and youths make up some of those social groups. Youths have their own identity and they go on to develop collective identites with others. Your identity includes aspects such as your personalities, interests and behaviours and your collective identity includes having these same aspects in common with others. Over time, this has changed for youths and to prove this Rebel Without A Cause (RWAC) will be juxtaposed along side Y2K film; Kidulthood.

Straight away the difference in youths is noticable when listening to the dialougue used in these films. James Dean, the star in RWAC, is well spoken and shows respect to who he is talking to. James Dean, although not requiring a uniform to go to school, dresses casually smart in and out of school. Only later on in the film does he wear a red jacket with the collar up as a result of his mediating collective identity. If we look at the dialogue used in Kidulthood, we can see that swearing and other taboo subjects are talked about openly with no respect to others around the youths. The youths in Kidulthood use colloquialism to communicate with one another which gives a sense of rebellion as others who don't often use the slang will not understand, mainly adults. The use of colloquialism is also used to give an accurate and realistic representation of youths so audiences can relate. The males dress is in hoodies, jeans and trainers and the females dress in low cut tops and other revealing clothing, all when not at school. Some of the youths wear a hoodie or hat over the uniform regardless, advertising their identity.

The difference in social class can be seen when looking at both films. James Dean and his family are of middle to upper class which explains why he is well spoken and dressed, opposed to the lower to working class characters who seem to be the rebels in Kidulthood. James Dean is also educated and doesn't see school and teachers as a bother. In the time this film was set, a sense of achievement was found when proving yourself good at something educational and/or achieveing an award for something related to education which will look good in the future. There is a scene where James Dean stands on the school's crest and is told by another student that he is being disrespectful and he is made to look like he is in the wrong. In this scenario, being disrespectful is seen as the 'out' group and being respectful is seen as the 'in' group. This can change depending on the perspective of the person as we see later on when James Dean joins the 'rebel' group.

Alternatively, when looking at the characters in Kidulthood while at school, they are all split up in the playground with their own groups and interaction bewteen groups is seen as awkward. There is a scene where a female student from one group looks at one the students in a hoodie from another group and he shouts obscenities at her. In this scanerio, the 'in' group is the rebellious and disrespectful group and the 'out' group is the students who are not willing to stand up for themselves. This creates a social heirarchy within Kidulthood as the recurring theme of standing up for yourself is used throughout. This means that a heirarchy of status is developed among youths. The consequence of this is that youths now feel a sense of achievement when passing someone on this heirarchy and thus promoting violence to out do the 'tougher' group above.

Henri Tajfel's theory can be applied here as both films have 'in' and 'out' groups that can be seen from different perspectives from different characters within the movie. When the audience sees things from other character's viewpoints, their opinions on other characters and groups within the film are swayed because of the way the films have been represented to us.

In RWAC, James Dean's parents are part of the story line showing that his mum and dad have some importance in his life. On the other hand, hardly any parents are seen in Kidulthood and the parents that are seen don't understand their children as well as they think because their children cannot tell them things in confidence, unlike James Dean and his parents. The rebels seen in Kidulthood don't seem to have both parents which could reflect today's reality of there being less couples that stay together when they have children. Unlike back when RWAC was set and staying together as a couple was taken more seriously.

The difference in what was considered 'rebellious' back then and nowadays has significantly changed. In RWAC, James Dean was considered a rebel for wearing a red jacket with the collar up and smoking a cigarette. His red jacket became iconic for being a rebel, having connotations of danger and risking taking. James Dean also tried to sort out his problems using words, but the rebel group wanted to solve their differences using violence. Compared to Kidulthood, socially unacceptable subjects are discussed such as drugs, alcohol, sex, underage pregnancies and violence and are common among youths and talked about explicitly. When a problem arises in Kidulthood, aggressive and quick physical action seems to be the solution to the youths instead of actually thinking about how they can sort out their problems in a clearer way. This change represents that the social group of rebel youths have made violence their primary source for getting things done. An example of this can be seen when a group of characters are discussing how to get their property back from another rebel youth. They take the physical action root and attempt to take it back.

Violence inyouths have become a popular subject for newspapers to talk about nowadays because it happens so often. This makes people fear youths and group them together in one big social group, with the one characteristic of them being dangerous. This is why perhaps youths don't stand up against each other when one group attacks another because of fear of this post modernistic view of youths. The rebels in RWAC didn't attempt to kill anyone, but just to rough people up until they gave them what they wanted. James Dean stood up to the rebels, which made the rebels feel like they were being challenged and James Dean ended up becoming a rebel via peer pressure.

Peer pressure is possibly the one similarity the films have in common, as youths are still peer pressured today. This supports Michael Foicault's theory of being born with a primary identity and it mediating when we meet new people, in which we develop a collective identity. Michael Foucault also said that developing a collective identity can be seen as negative, because once in a group, it's hard to change because of stereotyping. Examples of stereotyping can be seen in Kidulthood when the youths are followed around a clothes shop by the guard, or when one of the black youths attempted to hail a cab, the drivers ignored him.

Technology has also affected the way youths now interact as a social group. David Buckingham said that "A focus on identity requires us to pay closer attention to the ways in which media technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences for social groups".  In RWAC there were no mobile phones, only house phones, so youths would normally meet up with their friends and drive to a meeting point. Alternatively, in Kidulthood, we see the mobile phone used as a way to gain status for particular collective identities and for quick communication.

Identity is a complex thing and the youths in Kidulthood seem to want to express that openly, but face the consequences of being made fun of. This supports the theory of David Gauntlett who said "Identity is complicated and everybody thinks they have got one". Although, this is slightly exaggerated in Kidulthood to create drama and make the film more interesting.

To conclude, the representation of the rebel youth social group has changed significantly overtime by means of language, dress code and behaviours which are now more explicit and violent. Looking at this post modernistic view of youths we can see that the idea of a 'rebel' has changed from just popping your collar to beating someone to death.