Do 'Kidulthood' and 'Fish Tank' provide a realistic representation of youth?

A focus on identity requires us to pay close attention to the diverse ways in which media and technologies used in everday life and their consequences both for individuals and social groups- David Buckingham


Kidulthood and Fish Tank are films which both represent youth in a similar way representing the negative hegemonic view of youth in today's society. Both Fish Tank and Kidulthood are Y2K films which represents typical lives of teenagers. Noel Clarke, a young black male who claims to have an understanding of youth being young and living in the urban areas of London as a child. Fish Tank, directed by Andrea Arnold a middle class white woman, follows a similar story line but follows one young girl struggle on an Essex estate. In both films there is an explicit reference to issues such as drug taking, alcohol abuse, teenage pregnancy and teens being sexually promiscuous. Many scenes  in the film are shocking and to an adult audience their automatic assumption would be all teenagers act like this when this isn't the case. A small minority of the teenage population are portrayed and the films are both an exaggeration of the truth. 


Kidulthood follows a group of teenagers and their different lives. Two girls, one who sells her body for drugs and the other who is 16 and pregnant. Bullying leading to suicide and heavy violence leading to a young boys death. In a review by Total Film it was written "After seeing it, you'll never look at the kids on your bus in the same way again...". Written by an adult, this shows that the view taken from this film is a negative one and the hegemonic view remains. Already a bad reputation, Kidulthood seems to perhaps amplify this. A headline in the sun newspaper also said that it "glamourises violence" which with the high statistics of teenage knife crime already this again amplifies this issue in a negative way making it look acceptable and somewhat 'cool'. The issues raised in Kidulthood may have some prominence in 21st century society among teenagers but in Kidulthood they are highly exaggerated and only a minority of the teenage population are similar to these characters and their lives. Noel Clarke wrote back to critics, "It’s like Trainspotting and drug culture, when people were suddenly awoken to what was actually going on" which to some extent is true because the older generation may not have been aware of the gritty issues facing youth today and Noel Clarke being a young male who has grown up in similar areas would have perhaps experiences such as these. 


Fish Tank shows the struggles of 15 year old Mia being brought up on an estate by her single mother who is just as dysfunctional, her only escape is her street dancing. The film contains a lot of symbolism through things such as the horse being chained up and her trying to set it free, perhaps trying to free herself from her everyday struggles. Andrea Arnold being a middle class older woman would have this stereotypical view of youth and this can be seen through the film as she is dressed in a tracksuit with her hair scraped into a ponytail, her language is vulgar and she is going to a referral unit for fighting. Mia conforms to the hegemonic view of teenagers but also Arnold seems to implicitly imply that there is perhaps a glimmer of hope such as when Mia is dancing in the derelict flat and the sky is a ruby red and looks beautiful. This portrayal of youth by Arnold shows that they are disenfranchised and corrupt yet there is hope on the horizon which I personally believe is more of a realistic representation of youth today compared to Kidulthood as although there are many negative issues surrounding the youth of today this in the grand scale of things is a very small minority and there are many redeeming qualities teenagers possess but with society's dominant negative view of them it is understandably hard for this to be seen and consequently teenagers will rebel and not want to prove these representations of youth.