21st birthday...so what?

My friend recently turned 21, and it got me to wondering, what is so special about turning 21 nowadays, especially when one lives in a college environment. I was at her 21st birthday party, when I noticed how every single thing we did at her party was not any different than anything we would do at any other party before turning 21. A birthday card she received at the party read, “At 21, you can do all kinds of things you couldn’t have done before!...(inside flap) Excuse me-SHOLDN’T have done before”.

This brings up the question, with the extraordinary amount of underage drinking occurring at universities, has turning 21 years old lost its significance? Many college freshmen and sophomores can agree with me when I say that you do not need to be 21 to live like a 21 year old.

There are many ways in which an underage college student can gain possession of alcohol. One way is by owning a fake ID, which is an easy way to gain access into the bars just off campus. Having people who are 21 years old buy alcohol for you is another possible way to obtain alcohol.

With all this drinking occurring at college, for most people, turning 21 is just another birthday that simply makes it a little less stressful to have fun on the weekends. It used to be where there were no fake IDs or anything like that, but now with this newer easy access to alcohol, especially in college, many teenagers get to live the lives of 21 year olds without actually needing to be 21 years old. Frecerro’s discussion of power relations is relevant to this idea because the power of being 21 years old is being given to those who are younger due to the environment of life in college. I feel that to make the power divide between these two groups visible again could only be achieved by having stricter security at bars to stop those who have fake ID’s, however doing something like this is very unlikely so I highly doubt that this power divide will ever be reconstructed.