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The Manufacture Of Teen Space On Cruise Ships

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The Manufacture of Teen Space on Cruise Ships: An Environment of Autonomous, Aspirational Consumption
Cruise ships are cathedrals of consumption in which consumer activity is controlled and encouraged by the enchanting environment constructed (Ritzer, 7). Through an atmosphere of spectacle and grandiosity cruise ships entice spending from passengers. This effect continues throughout all areas of the ship, including space specifically designed for young travelers. Capitalism’s construction of the child as a consumer is reified in these isolated and purified kids-only areas. By creating age specific “kidspaces”, cruise-ship companies effectively encourage the Kids Getting Older Younger (KGOY) phenomenon and the growing anti-adultism mentality, by granting tweens and teens an effective façade of independence that allows them to enact their power of consumer choice. Spaces geared for ages 12-17 will be explored on three major cruise lines; Carnival, Disney, and Royal Caribbean, in order to better understand the effects of these environments on young consumers. In order to decipher the ways each cruise line hails the youth audience, this essay will look at the construction of “kidspace” as well as the language used to describe each environment.
As mentioned above, cruise ships are in fact consumer spaces. These massive ships encompass so many facets of contemporary capitalist society. Restaurants, hotels, shopping malls, amusement parks, spas and nightclubs, are just a start to

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