The semester has finally come to an end and I have gained valuable insight into girls and popular culture throughout. Before taking this course, I did not realize that Girls Studies was an actual sub-field to be studied. I intend on pursuing this area of work for my Master's thesis, which deals with representation issues in the series "16 and Pregnant" and "Teen Mom". I hope you enjoyed my postings and if I have time in the future I try to update this blog with insights into my research project!
Eating disorders are an extremely important problem facing girls in the 20th and 21st century. There are many different phenomena linked to the increase in eating disorders that our generation face and most often the media is to blame for creating unrealistic body images into the minds of women. Jean Kilbourne's film series Killing Us Softly is just one example of a Media Education Foundation film (mef.org) that aims to expose advertising's negative portrayal of women as sex objects. Not only are these images of women harmful to women of all ages, but specifically are harmful to younger women who may be more susceptible to believe these images are the 'ideal beauty/body'. Here is the trailer of the latest Killing Us Softly film to gain a brief background of the problem.
New media forms are an important way for girls to connect to other girls to create friendships and offer new spaces for girls to communicate with one another. As often as these spaces may be productive and generate positive relationships, there are also problematic aspects. For example, there are a variety of Pro-Ana and Pro-Mia blogs and forums on the web. These pro-anorexic and pro-bulimia sites offer girls a space to communicate and support each other's eating disorder habits and often times helpful tips and advice are provided to support the eating disorders. One example of a blog I found is at http://indigoemptied.blogspot.com/ and is titled Empty Plate, Empty Girl. Here is an "inspiring image" as the blogger puts it that I found on her blog...
Next to the image is the caption "I starve until there's nothing left, free fall without a safety net". Indigo, the blogger, is 5'4", weighs 103 lbs, has a BMI of 17.7 AND is only 15 years old. She recognizes her disease openly on the blog and talks about her disgust over her current body and forever struggle to remain as thin as possible.
There is also the forum www.mianaland.com. This website and forum offers anorexic and bulimic members a place to discuss their issues and provide tips to one another. Below is a screen shot of the 'About Us' section of the website.
Clearly, new media may offer some positive spaces for girls to connect. However, new media also offers negative spaces for girls to connect with one another also. What can we do to transform these blogs and forums into ways to help out the anonymous individuals who create them? It seems as if some users of these forums are not looking for a way to cure their disease, but are only looking for acceptance and encouragement of their disorders. My question is... are these forums more helpful or harmful to those involved?
Some of my favorite Young Teens and Girls books when I was young have recently become hit television series or blockbuster movies. These include:
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (movies: 2005, 2008)
Babysitter's Club (movie: 1995)
Gossip Girl (TV series: 2008)
I have seen both movies and watched several seasons of the television series, but it just did not offer me the same experience as reading the books when I was a young teen. This largely has to do with being disappointed by the transition from book to film/tv show that is often expressed whenever a popular book of any genre is adapted for the silver screen. My own personal qualms with the particular transition of these novels into film is not primarily with the adapted storylines. Although I do not appreciate the changes made to the storylines, I understand that this is a necessary adaptation because books often included vivid, detailed (and lengthy) descriptions to provide the reader with enough information to create a specific image in her mind. However, this is exactly where my dissent lies within the transition from book to film. It seems that the only actresses suited to play the female roles within these stories are super skinny, very attractive, 5'10 model-looking actresses. I think this is an unfair selection. When I read these novels as a young girl, I was able to use the authors' descriptions to create images of these female leads in my own mind. Often times, the images I chose did not involve the stereotypical 'beauty queens' we see on television and in movies. As girls transition into including more television and film watching than reading in their daily lives, I think it is important to fill these roles with diverse women (in terms of their race, attractiveness, etc.) in order to allow girls to better relate to the characters and not feel the pressures to become the "stereotypical image of a woman".
In recent years there has been a lot of talk about the sexualization of girls' Halloween costumes. The costumes are said to be getting more revealing as the years gone on and are even given names heavily laden with sexual innuendo. Again the Halloween costumes pose women as objects and suggest they be looked at via Laura Mulvey's infamous "male gaze". These overtly sexualized costumes are not only available for tween and teenage girls, but are available for girls even younger. What is particularly disturbing is that many of these costumes are aimed at young girls, ages 8-12. These are not only sexualized, but also have girls "dress-up" in the feminized roles, including witch, dancer, and flirty Army general. Halloween costumes need to be more age appropriate and provide girls with an equal number of non-feminized outfits. Here a few examples of what I mean by sexualized costumes for girls...
Tomorrow we are visiting the mall to look at girls clothing and jewelry stores. So I decided that before going to the stores in the mall, I should examine the websites of the stores to see if the store's websites are feminized with pink, purple, sparkles, etc.
Justice Clothing @ www.shopjustice.com (Previously known as the Limited Too!)
This website was coded in the colors pink and purple, as expected would be in a gendered girl's clothing website. Here are a few snapshots of the website.
What I found to be particularly interesting of this girls' store for girls age 8-14 is that the website feature's a college fan shop. As the target of this store is not for college-aged girls or even high school aged girls, it is interesting to me that this would be a line of clothing for the brand. Are they actually targeting these young women who may/may not be fans of college teams? I know that when I was a young girl in that age group, I didn't have a favorite college or follow college sports at all. Is this encouraging girls to think about college at a younger age? Or perhaps some older girls go into the store and buy this college wear for themselves? I'm not quite sure, but I think it is a very interesting element of the brand and should be further investigated.
Claire's Jewelry @ www.claires.com
Again another girls' clothing and accessories website that is gendered with the colors pink and purple. This brand is aimed at girls of an older age, but still fits the color-assigned design for girls sites. Because the online stores are coded with pink, I am curious to see if the actual set-up and design of the mall stores are also gender-coded with these traditionally female colors. What about certain colors are particularly male or female? Why have certain colors been assigned to each gender?
This week's assignment was to design a bedroom on the website www.dressupgirl.net. The instructions were to chose an age (birth-teenager) and design a bedroom based on building a specific persona for that age.
I chose to design the bedroom of a 16 year-old teenage girl named Jessica. Jessica lives in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. with her parents, sisters, and cat named Georgia. She is in the eleventh grade at Archbishop Ryan Catholic High School. She plays the violin in the band and runs varsity track. Her favorite color is purple and she loves hanging out with her friends and listening to Coldplay. She hangs out with the "preppy" kids at school, although you can't tell because uniforms are a school requirement.
She loves watching Gossip Girl and her favorite movie from her childhood is Now and Then.
