Svartmaling av gutter og sykeliggjøring av jenter
This chapter explores gendered narratives about young people. We argue that – in recent decades – two clearly gendered problem representations have come to dominate the academic and public debate about youth: “pathologisation of girls” and “negative representations of boys”. For boys the narratives revolve around society’s problems with them. Regarding girls the focus is more on various ways in which societal pressures concerning self-expression and individual performance affect them negatively. In other words, the popular story about pressure and stress among girls today contains an undertone of “poor them”, whereas corresponding representations regarding boys often include a “poor us” assumption. Based on recent research, we discuss the basis for these narratives, how they are expressed, and the role research plays in their emergence and in nuancing the predominant problem representations. Moreover, we demonstrate how such gendered stories about blame and victimization appear in extreme versions when it comes to young Norwegians with minority backgrounds. We discuss how these gendered problem narratives may affect youth policy, views of youth, and not least the young people themselves. What happens when problems that concern a relatively small number of young Norwegians come to dominate narratives about all boys and girls?