Youth

Young people in Myanmar are growing up in a period of social transformation, faced with an influx of foreign goods, including music, cars, clothes, art and alcohol. Despite burgeoning opportunities for young people to redefine themselves, the ways young people are adapting alternative identities and lifestyles reveals some persistent features in Myanmar that endured through the social transformation of Myanmar: virgins, virtue and vice. Myanmar society values ideas of feminine purity and sexual conservatism. The female comes into play in the political realm frequently, particularly during recent communal violence between Buddhists and Muslims since 2012. An analysis of the complexity of Myanmar gender relations expressed through young people's relationships reveals that ideas of virtue, fidelity and trust are paramount. The new generation of Myanmar's youth are experiencing lives which have become individualised and are increasingly focused on non-traditional methods of political participation. It is possible to see young people's political consciousness expressed at the informal level of consumption and leisure.