I chose to base my blog on the show “One on One” that has since been cancelled but owned aired on the WB and was the sitcom of a single African American father raising his teenage daughter and the trials and tribulations that come with it. Being a teenage girl in society comes with being faced with many issues of sexuality, the body and decisions and historically, girls have been situated as markers of society’s moral location. The show deals with many of these issues and shows the daughter, whose name is Breiana, in high school dealing with the stereotypical problems of the average high school student. The comedy components comes when she is faced with the ordinary issues of teenage life in which are projected as the essence of innocents and the ignorant to some of the real issues that lie ahead in the future as they mature in to adults. The high school issues that they face are within a world of youth ignorant to the real world as seen from the outside but to them they are amidst the jungle of high school problems and issues that consume them but are not taken seriously or regarded as “real” issues. From the Mayne reading, he tells us that representations reflect, reinterpret, and recreate norms, and the representation of teenage life and issues offers lens for society to see itself and its own discourses surrounding norms of gender, race, and sexuality. Examples within the show are Breyona’s continuous issues with her boyfriend Arnez, and social issues of status and reputation within high school. These teenage characters are some times seen as flighty, emotional, unserious, and pretty much adults in the making. Although representations of teenage girl hood are predominantly white, there are few show like “One on One” that relates to the average black teenage household which at the same time breaks traditional standard by having the household ran by a single parent Dad which is very rare. Single moms are the norm by far, even over two parent household in the black community. Some discourses surrounding adolescence are reinscribed by showing teenage girls and boys in relationships and having that be the main focus of there lives, over shadowing other responsibilities and school. This show also addresses the issue of teenagers and sex, and the coming of age where they are in the experimental stages and face curiosity, peer pressure and over all uncertainty about issues regarding sex and sexual encounters. The daughter Brianna is a virgin throughout the show and manages to hold on to that up until she reaches college where she loses it to Ray-J (of all people.lol) But this was not without facing obstacles of peer pressure, expectations and close encounter all through out her high school years. I believe this is a positive discourse because so many girls and boys are pressured into sex and a large percent end up losing there virginity before they graduate. This TV show depicts and girl who is faced with similar issues of teen peer pressure and society but holds on to her innocence and does not give in to the pressures of society. I believe this was a great show and much needed by black adolescence because it is a rarity to have something on mainstream TV that black teenagers could relate too that displays discourses surrounding the issue of adolescence that reinscribe,, recreate and even challenge social norms regarding these issues.
Reading: Mayne
Powerpoint : intro into girlhood studies
