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In this essay I will be critically analysing the 1995 movie “Kids”; written by Harmony Korine and directed by the controversial director, Larry Clark. The film is about a group of street kids who roam and live within the streets of Manhattan in the late 90’s. Throughout the film, the main character Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick), makes it his goal to sleep with as many virgin girls as he can, concealing the fact that he’s HIV positive. While searching for girls to deflower, Telly and his best friend Casper bumble around New York smoking weed and stealing beer from shops, acting like stereotypical problem teens (B.Detrick - 2015). I have chosen this cultural text to analyse in my essay because of the many complex and controversial topics it encompasses. Within this essay, I will be explaining and exploring the different cultural choices and decisions the characters make through out the film and analysing the reasons why I think they made these decisions and why they are important in a teenagers life.

The films young screenwriter, Harmony Korine came to Larry Clark’s attention when he was observing and researching the New York Skateboard culture. In fact, all of the actors that were used in the film were real life street kids and Clark formed a relationship with the group of kids and cast them into roles for the film (Maslin J. 1995). Personally, this is one of the most crucial parts of why this film is so hard hitting, the authentic, rawness fact these characters are all real street kids from New York make the topics and issues in the film that little bit more genuine. Additionally, it also means the actors know exactly what its like to be their character and how to play the role. For instance, because the film is set over a 24 hour time period, you can see what a typical day in the life for our typical New York teenage skater is like. The film shows every aspect of NYC teenage culture and how the group spent 24 hours boozing, rolling blunts, fighting and indulging in unsafe, emotionally vacant sex (Maslin J. 1995).

The first culture I am going to touch upon within this film is the culture around skateboarding. In the late 90’s skateboarding was one of the tightest, close knit communities out there in New York City. All of the skate kids stayed together and stuck by one another, they hung out everyday and would roam all around the city finding different curbs to skate due to the lack of real skate parks within the city centre (A.Banks 2016). A lot more than just a close knit community came with the culture though. In the film, during one of first couple of scenes, Telly and Jasper are walking through the streets and enter a store, where Jasper steals a 40oz bottle of beer and runs from the shop keeper. They then swing by a dirty, graffiti covered apartment where everyone is rolling up blunts and smoking weed; these were two big aspects that embodies the skateboarding community (smoking weed and petty crime)(Maslin J. 1995)). The kids that were skating were troublesome, colourful kids looking for something and somewhere to express themselves; skateboarding was the perfect platform for these teens, somewhere where you can throw yourself down flights of stairs for tricks and just mess about with your friends without the pressure of parents or school keeping on at you for being part of the skateboarding community. You can even see examples in the film that these kids made choices based on the culture they were apart of; for example, smoking weed was something the older kids were doing in the apartment, so naturally, all of the younger boys would join in to feel included; their decision to do so came from fitting in within this culture.

Another critical cultural aspect of the film is the way it portrays the meaningless relationships between teenagers and sex. Telly is the number one prime example of this; the first scene in the film is centred around him persuading a young girl to have sex with him, he tells her “it wont hurt” and how “he cares” about her and it will be more than just sex. Yet as soon as the deed is done, he's on the street again joking about the experience with his friend and already talking about his next ‘victim’ (R.Ebert 1995). Clark said himself he was making a movie about “The great american teenager”, people know the topics covered in this film are prevalent in teenage culture (Coach Potato 2015), but they just don't want to talk about it even when it needs to be talked about, especially back in 1995 when HIV was a big occurring problem. Even 22 years later the film still hits the nail on the head about how teenagers treat sex. Without meaning to generalise, a large part of male culture in the UK reflects these experiences that Telly has; its almost an achievement to treat women and girls they have sex with disrespect- the bigger the number the better. Larry Clark showed us the reality of what it was like to be a New York street kid, but even 22 years later the same narrow minded sexist views are still being used and circulated within teenage culture. Despite this contemporary aspect, we are seeing a definite change in perspectives towards sex and male attitudes, campaigns such as “It Happens Here” in 2017 highlight this trend. However, Kids as a cultural text is still incredibly relevant and applicable to an aspect of today’s society; it isn’t simply framed around the lives of one teenage group at one time, but the teenage generation as a whole.

The last cultural aspect I am going to be analysing is the drug culture shown within the film. In various points throughout the film you can see the groups of teenagers smoking constantly, whether its chain smoking cigarettes or rolling up blunts with their friends (Maslin J. 1995). The characters and the friends of characters are smoking weed constantly throughout the film, as mentioned previously, this is a result of being a part of the skateboarding community in NYC during this period. The point isn't that all skateboarders are addicted to smoking weed but it is a big part of the community culture and can be seen as something thats ‘cool’ to do to fit in within the hierarchy of older skaters in the group. There is a scene in the middle of the film when four young boys, around the age of 11-12, are passing round a blunt to one another and talking about smoking. Being around the older skaters, they would have copied their actions and would have believed smoking weed is part of being a cool skater like the older guys. This here is an example of how cultures can exhibit power relationships and being a part of a certain culture can have a negative effect on someones life just for the acceptance of ‘fitting in’.

To conclude, various aspects of the culture depicted through Kids have been discussed and analysed, including drugs, emotionless sex, the skateboarding community and how these all link to the power plays present. This cultural text is significant to study as it highlights contemporary teenage attitudes despite the film being set 22 years ago. It is important to stress that this film is based around a very specific demographic, and thus cannot be used to generalise the whole of teenage society. However, it is still a useful tool to understand key motives and influences of this culture and can also be used to realise changes in attitudes over time.

Bibliography

Banks A. 2016 http://www.highsnobiety.com/2016/11/24/supreme-skate-team/. Highsnobiety. Web.

Couch Potato (Anon) 2015 https://attackofthecouchpotato.wordpress.com/2015/06/24/movie-review-kids-1995/. Wordpress. Web.

Detrick B. 2015 https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/23/fashion/kids-20th-anniversary-chloe-sevigny-rosario-dawson.html?_r=0. The New York Times. Web.

Ebert R. 1995 http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/kids-1995. Web.

Maslin J. 1995 http://www.nytimes.com/movie/reviewres=990CEEDF1231F932A15754C0A963958260. The New York Times. Web.

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Barbara Kruger, who was born in 1945 on January 26th, is an American conceptual artist who's work consists of black and white photographs overlaid with declarative captions in the two fonts Helvetica Ultra Condensed and Futura Bold Oblique, the phrases in her work normally dress cultural constructions of power, sexuality and identity. Kruger lives and works in New York and Los Angeles.

Being female in todays society is a constant struggle when their image and appearance is always playing on a woman’s mind constantly, although there are some who can break away from this continuous cycle of staring, examining and judging. Most women will experience this during their teenage and adult hood. Barbara Kruger exhibits this struggle in “Your body is a battleground”

The photo she used was originally used from a poster for a pro-choice march that took place in April of 1989 in Washington, DC. Although now its purpose is to voice her opinion to protect womens rights through an image that raises issues about power, patriarchy and stereotyping. “Your Body is a Battleground” seems to question the viewer about feminism by using the said photography in which Barbara Krugers message is contradicting the idea that culture has given, this is the idea concerning ideal beauty as advertised in magazines.

This photograph that Barbara Kruger uses backs up the points that were made earlier about her interest in addressing the political issues, using a models face as the central image, she gives the photo additional meaning by dividing the photograph into sections: on the right and the left the image reverses from positive to negative, and from top to bottom the face is divided into thirds with the slogan “Your body is a battleground.” Kruger curiosities the objectified standard of symmetry applied in modern times to feminine beauty by social media and the tabloids. In this Barbara Kruger also criticises society’s view of beauty having to be symmetrical. The image is showing contrasting actions for example positive and negative, good versus bad etc. This is done through the split image of the face, the figures characteristics such as her hair and make-up display 1950’s style.

Kruger fought for women’s rights over their bodies which is the purpose of this image, I can relate to this statement, as I'm sure many other people my age can, by understanding we do care about our appearance way too much, rather than accepting ourselves for who we really are, we also fight in the wrong ways, which is against our natural body rather than against the stupid fake standards that advertising and social media lay down in front of us and expect us to live by these ways religiously. Taking from the research i have done about this image and what it stands for as well as what Barbara Kruger was trying to portray with this artwork, in my opinion the image is a very strong representative of not only women’s struggle but the struggle everyone faces against societies standards and the ‘rules’ we follow on how our bodies should look rather than how we want our bodies to look and feel comfortable in.

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Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist, born in Brooklyn, New York. He first achieved notoriety as part of SAMO, an informal graffiti duo who wrote ‘enigmatic epigrams in the cultural hotbed of the lower east side of Manhattan during the late 1970’s where the post punk, hip hop street art movement had started.

Jean-Michel Basquiat’s art focused on suggestive dichotomies such as wealth versus poverty, and inner versus outer experience. He used drawing, poetry and painting and married text and image in his artwork as well as historical information mixed with contemporary critique.

There are a couple different ways one could look at and consider “The Boxer”, one for example being by looking at and examining the subject of the painting or the style and character of the presentation (the latter being very basquiat). One well informed discussion of the piece was done by the auction house Christies that reads “The upraised arms of the boxer in this painting invoke not only the victorious stance of the winner of a boxing match” says christie “but also a doubling of the raised fist of the Black Power salute.” Continued ���Although his arms are upraised in victory, Basquiat’s boxer also seems marked by vulnerability in the way that his monolithic body is pierced in areas that expose an abstracted skeletal grid, while his mask-like face suggesting a skull-like specter of death. In fact, the outstretched arms also call to mind the pose of Christ upon the cross, while the halo might morph into a crown of thorns. Both victor and victim, the boxer that dominates the frame of Basquiat's monumental painting is a complexly conflicted figure."

Until reading Christies evaluation on what they think “The Boxer” painting means, i never thought of the case that it could be a symbol painting that also represents the Black Power salute of the Black Panthers, which in my opinion would make sense for basquiat to touch upon this, as he himself suffered from racism living and growing up in Manhattan New york at the time. I also think the point of using the boxer as a recurring theme through out this set of paintings is also a great metaphor for Basquiats life, whether he meant for this meaning to be apparent i don't know but the struggles he went through as a young homeless artistic man, living in 1970’s New York City, he himself is very much like a boxer, the type of figure and person who gets knocked down, (by poverty, racism, class levels, drug abuse) but always keeps fighting until they get what they want and until they are famous in his case working with great artists such as Andy Warhol.

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Word Glossary for the essay on International Graphic Design by Rick Poynor

Carte Blanche - “complete freedom to act as one wishes”

The dream for any graphic design if the client gives them Carte Blanche.

Structural Integrity - “Structural integrity is the term used for the performance characteristic applied to a component, a single structure, or a structure consisting of different components. Structural integrity is the ability of an item to hold together under a load, including its own weight, resisting breakage or bending.”

- In the essay it says Greiman gained structural integrity during a certain period of time, meaning she gained a certain order to her work as she quoted “You cant have chaos without order”

New Wave - “a group of people or artistic works introducing new styles or ideas, in particular.”

- A New Wave in graphic design is kind of like keeping up with fashion, you have to be clued up in these New Waves to stay relevant in the industry.

Hybridising Approach - “Using two different mediums together to achieve a final outcome”

- Hybridising approach could mean using two different ways of mark or print making to achieve a final design or piece of work. Which graphic designers use rather regularly.

Egalitarian - “believing in or based on the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.”

- As a graphic designer you have to be respectful of everyones rights and opportunities when relaying or creating work that gives off a certain message.

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Evaluating evidence from Bell Hooks Critical Thinking Essay

Through out Bell Hooks Critical Thinking essay, she gives us a lot of useful information into what it was like studying and teaching in american schools between the 70’s and then 90’s. She has tried to make us understand the types of racism and sexism she and her fellow class mates experienced and how teaching has changed from when she was at the school desk until she was at the front of the class teaching.

Her first piece of information that dives into the understanding of what it was like back then was on page 2 of the essay when she describes briefly what her teachers were like in the classroom, who's ‘primary pleasure’ was to exercise their authoritarian power over her fellow students, ‘crushing their spirits’ and dehumanising their minds. Although you cant argue that Hooks and her fellow students suffered this type of racism, she uses the word teachers when she started her statement which made me personally think that the majority of her teachers at her high school were like this and she suffered this problems in all of her classes, but does that mean all of the teachers she encountered were like this or only a select few, because the first part of the essay was about racism and how she suffered it in school I can see why she did mention about these few teachers but personally would have liked to know clearly if all of her teachers were like this, or just a select few that were particularly bad.

Although I do agree with a majority of what Bell Hooks is trying to say and get across with this essay, on page 8 she starts to mention about how ‘children’s passion for thinking often ends when they encounter a world that seeks to educate them for conformity and obedience only’. She then goes on to say ‘Most Children are taught early on that thinking is dangerous’, using the word most with something as important as this is a very vague comment, and think it would benefit from some sort of survey or solid research behind it that would provide more evidence for her point.