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.
Here we have a micro-blog dedicated to talking about "white girl problems" in society. It is a parody-style blog that critiques issues that are commonly associated with "white girls" in American society. For example, recent #whitegirlproblem tweets include...
To explain the significance, #hashtags on Twitter are the latest way to "trend" and connect with others who are speaking on the same topic. This trend is just one example of how social media and online culture connects girls from all different areas to state their complaints and issues with a certain aspect of life. Although many of these 'problems' are stereotypical 'women's issues' these are often some of the most "re-tweeted" posts. Girls often 'tweet' their own #girlproblems as a way to connect with other girls who are facing similar problems. This creates a culture where girls can find a sympathetic ear of another girl who can relate to the girl's problem or respond with positive advice. This tweeting trend has also lead to similar problems including all types of #_______girlproblems. Just proving that girls will find ways to connect and unite together, even if it involves complain together at the same time.
This week we examined the historical background of teenage prostitutes in early American history. There was a moral panic surrounding girl prostitutes back in the 1800s and early 1900s. The girls in this time period were seeking an alternative source of income for their struggling families. Prostitution was more regulated than it is now, and much safer for the girls. Proportionately there were similar rates of girl prostitution when the moral panic was going on.
A similar moral panic exists today. The current issue of teenage prostitution is exposed in this video. This video terms the teenage prostitutes as "victims", the men who are "pimps" are the perpetrators. But to say, this girls are victims of what? Victims of misogyny? Victims of a patriarchal system? Or is this just another moral scare?
Many of the girls come from different backgrounds, not the traditional "abused-as-a-child" scenario. One says she comes from "a nice family, with good values". Not all of these girls come from impoverished homes. Some say that they are "dared" to try it. What are the implications of girls' friends "daring" them to prostitute? Why would girls dare other girls to do such a thing?
This week's cover of People magazine featured an article on the TLC series Toddlers and Tiaras. We discussed this television show in class on the first day, but I think it is important to continue discussing this controversial show. The article states that after three years of the show "viewers and pageant skeptics have been expressing horror at an industry that is now accused of "sexualizing" young girls." My question to this is: why now? What has changed in the show in the past three years that now all of a sudden the girls are being sexualized? Throughout the series the girls have been sexualized while they play "dress-up" and have been infantalized whenever they actually do "act" their age (i.e. crying, temper tantrums, etc.). We discussed this as an example of the absence of "girlhood" on the show. It appears that Toddlers and Tiaras only promotes the binary of being an infant or being a grown adult, and there is no place for "girlhood".
Interesting enough, one dissenter of the show was quoted saying...
"Little girls are supposed to play with dolls, not be dolls," New York-based licensed clinical social worker Mark Sichel tells PEOPLE in its new issue, on newsstands now.
Although he argues against the sexualization of the young girls, he seems to fully support the other gender stereotypes that exist in our society. Little girls should be able to play with whichever toys please little girls the most.
Mr. Sichel does point out another problematic activity in the show-- the use of 'padding, fake hair, flippers (faux teeth) and spray tans to (re)create celebrity look-alikes'. Not only does this promote young girls to use and consume these products; it also promotes the adulation of celebrities at a young age. This contributes to the consumer culture marketers have built around young girls, including the marketing term "tweens" (which I am sure to discuss later in the semester). It also sets a false and unachievable beauty standard for girls to hold themselves to, which can further contribute to the psychological and physical health risks (anorexia, low self-esteem, poor body-image) that we find in young girls today.
In an column written by author Lisa Bloom, her Don't Dumb Girls Down article discusses the ways in which adults consistently approach little girls and proceed to call them words like "cute, nice, adorable, beautiful, well-dressed, etc". She sees this as particularly problematic in a society where girls at younger and younger ages are beginning to wear make-up, develop eating disorders, and lose self-esteem.
What does she say is missing? "A life of meaning, a life of ideas and reading books and being valued for our thoughts and accomplishments." This directly connects to this week's reading from The Girls History and Culture Reader: The Nineteenth Century. The two essays we read directly spoke to the early 19th century education techniques and standards for young girls in the United States. In Chapter 2, the essay "Grown Girls, Highly Cultivated" discusses female education in the Antebellum Southern Family, namely for the family of Elizabeth and William Wirt. In raising their first daughter, the couple emphasized a diverse education that focused both on intellectual development and housewifery. They hoped to raise their daughter Laura with "female gentleness and delicacy, with masculine learning & genius-- simple yet elegant-- soft and timid, yet dignified and commanding" (pg. 34). The outcome of this formalized version of learning was deemed unsatisfactory by the parents and in educating the younger children they changed their educational curriculum and focus onto purely domestic issues (while allowing their daughters to seek more 'masculine' education during leisure time).
Two hundred years later, we find the women in American expected to be educated by those same standards of promoting "female gentleness and delicacy, with masculine learning & genius-- simple yet elegant-- soft and timid, yet dignified and commanding" (pg. 34). Still in a culture that is media-saturated and capitalist/consumer oriented, girls cannot escape other informal types of education. It is important that we take the initiative to speak to girls about important issues in current media, to ensure that girls receive positive messages along with the negative messages. Sadly, I have to agree with Bloom when she says that she can't impact the larger community, but can only work at changing opinions and attitudes at the individual level.
In this week's reading "Feminism and Youth Culture", Angela McRobbie goes into great depth discussing the participation in and visibility of girls in subcultures. This piece was written in the late 1970s, early 1980s and deconstructs girls' participation in the motorbike, mod, hippy and teeny-bopper subcultures of that era. She notes that historically "the mod preoccupation with style and the emergence of the unisex look and the 'effeminate' mode man, gave girls a more legitimate place in the subculture than had previously been the case" (McRobbie 7). Although this granted girls access into the subculture, it did not permit any form of "sexual fluidity" (as McRobbie describes) it for girls (7).
Now let's turn an eye onto one of today's most popular teeny-bopper icon: Justin Bieber.
Justin Bieber is the Canadian-born pop singer that was discovered on YouTube. Quickly after his musical debut, he became a pop-sensation and won the adoration of girls all across the world.
We discussed Justin Bieber a little bit in class last week, namely that there is a girl's perfume coming out branded with his name. What I find to be particularly interesting is the following website: LesbiansWhoLookLikeJustinBieber.tumblr.com
LesbiansWhoLookLikeJustinBieber.tumblr.com
This is a teeny-bopper culture that is centralized around girls who physically resemble the pop-icon Justin Bieber. Not only do the girls glamourize having the physical appearance of Bieber, they also celebrates a non-traditional form of beauty: girls who resemble an effeminate boy. Sexuality is another aspect of this subculture that must be considered. This particular subculture consists of homosexual women who are in a way celebrating their resistance to "normative sex roles" by explicitly stating their adoration and (sexual) desire for the other girls featured on the site. An example of this can be seen in the following two comments:
Considering all the aforementioned information, I have a few questions.
What are the implications of new media on the formation of girls' subcultures?
Does new media open a new venue for subcultures, even countercultures to form and exist whereas in other circumstances these subcultures may fail to flourish?
**(Although the specific ages of the website participants is not explicit, it can be determined through the picture that the individuals still belong to our loosely-defined category of "girls".)
As a memory work exercise, our first assignment was to either a) find an actual picture of us playing with a toy as a child or b) think of a memory of us playing with a toy as a child. I began thinking about all the toys I had as a child, Barbies, K-nex, Polly Pockets, a Sega Genesis etc. As I listed off all the toys I could think of playing as a child, it occurred to me that I had an equal share of toys that were considered to be for either "boys" or "girls". It made me wonder how I managed to find equal enjoyment playing with toys that were made for my gender and those that were made for the "opposing" gender. Then I began to think of the advertising that goes into marketing these toys to children of all ages.
How are these advertisements created to inform children of the "gender appropriate" toys they should be playing with?
Is it just the colors associated with the products?
Are there certain gendered adjectives and descriptions included in the commercials?
Here is a look at the two word clouds on the site:
Words Associated in Boys' Toy Advertisements
Words Associated with Girls' Toys Advertisements
As the author of the blog post points out there is clearly a gendered difference between the two. Boys' advertisements focus more on "violence, danger, excitement, aggression, and action". Whereas, girls' advertisements focus more on "love, fashion, friendship, docility, and socializing".
Where did these traits arise from? How were these associations prescribed to each gender and where do these associations derive from?
Furthermore, is it required that girls identify with these traits and descriptions to really qualify as being a "girl"?
I am starting this blog as a class assignment for Women's Studies 597A: Girls' Cultures and Popular Cultures (Fall 2011). The purpose of this blog is that of a "commonplace book", a place to discuss all ideas, topics, issues, and concerns surrounding contemporary girls' culture in the United States and abroad.
As can be viewed on our syllabus, a central component of this course is to add, refine, complicate, and explore the following questions:
1) Who is a girl? How is girlhood defined and why? Is there a unified idea of girlhood?
2) What are the temporal spaces of girlhood? How have ideas of girlhood changed across time?
3) What are the socio-cultural spaces of girlhood? How have ideas of girlhood changed across cultures and within cultures?
4) What is the history of the field? How has the focus of research changed over time?
5) How does the research link the lives of girls and women?
6) What methodologies are being employed? How do girls and women participate? To what extent do we succeed in making our projects girl-centered?
These are just a few examples of the critical elements that will be discussed throughout the course of the semester, both within the classroom setting and throughout my blog. Throughout this blog, I also intend to employ a critical eye on popular culture's representations of girls while reflecting on my own past and present experiences as a girl growing up in the United States during the late 20th and early 21st century.
