More lately the spotlight has shifted on to white working-class boys, ripe for the picking by the BNP, who have not been given the attention they required. And now we have a number of studies warning of a crisis among teenage girls, a specific demographic that has been schooled, as social researcher Helen Sweeting put it, in the "fine art of dissatisfaction" with their lives, their possessions and their bodies.
It is a far cry from the days when the Spice Girls proclaimed a generation of girl power and a new stage in the march of feminism was heralded. Young women were strong, independent, autonomous and knew their own minds. Not any more. As a result of increasing success in education, mass exposure to the celebrity culture, and sexualisation at a younger and younger age, they face profound doubts about their sexual and social identities. Today, the pressures of rampant consumerism to comply with a particular body image and to do well in education are producing what commentators are describing as a pretty toxic mix.
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