A Historical Andenken: Youthful Appropriations

Abstract

“Youth” as a dominant signifier of postmodernity is under constant semiosis. Its signification is constantly being redefined by newer technologies, like facial injections of Botox (botulinum toxin), for instance, taken every six months to take wrinkles away. The practice has become so common in Hollywood that directors have begun to complain that some actors who are chronic users are not able to express the full range of emotions because of their facial swelling which makes them appear to look younger. This “surface aesthetic” of everyday life seems all pervasive. Youth researchers operating with modernist tenants of scientific validity struggle to stop its slippage of meaning so as to work with clear, more precise, and bounded definitions for statistical and ethnographic purposes.