Goths In Tomorrowland Summary

Relations between Teenagers and Adults

A common phrase that adults can testify to hearing from any given teenager is, “You don’t understand!” This proves a struggle between the youth and the adults that quite possibly is never-ending. Adults make assumptions about kids, based on the way they dress, which pushes kids further and further away. In the essay, “Goths in Tomorrowland” by Thomas Hine (2001), he emphasizes the beliefs that adults began the idea of youth alienation from older societies and the teenagers keep it that way. Donna Gaine’s (2001) essay, “Teenage Wasteland,” discusses four teenagers who were mocked and misunderstood by adults and reporters alike. Jon Katz (2001) lets the kids explain themselves about their seclusion from society and the
The teenagers from “Goths in Tomorrowland” were not accepted by adults simply for the reason that the teens dressed differently from what was considered to be normal dress. “They [adults] confuse thrashers with metalheads and goths because they all wear black. Then they assume that they’re all taking drugs and worshipping Satan” (Hine, 2001, p.71). Adults do not understand that teenagers are constantly searching to define themselves as individuals. Expression through clothing is a form of that. Yet, Hine’s article is not about merely how the teenagers dressed differently to express themselves, “It is about the alienation of teenagers from adult society, and equally about the alienation of that society from its teenagers. The mere presence of teenagers threatens us [adults]” (p. 69). Is it the idea that this young generation of gothic-dressed supposed losers will be replacing the elders when their time is up that is so scary? Or are the youth of today causing this boundary that is formed by instigating the adults with things that they know scare