Response to Looking into the Digital Mirror: Reflections on a computer camp for girls, by girls (Blair, McLaughlin, and Hurley)…
In reading the journal article, I recognized the parallels between the Digital Mirror and the Girlhood Remix. Both camps centered on identity discovery, preteen female participants, and technology based objectives.
Regarding technology, it makes sense that the camps want to empower the girls through access and knowledge of technological skills. However, technology can also be a slippery slope in terms of pedagogy. I see it as a distraction at times. I understand that technology has emerged as a more engaging teaching tool rather than traditional methods of learning. Yet, arguably, society’s attention span has shortened; we want more eye and ear candy to keep us involved. When was the last time any of us watched a YouTube video or program on television all the way through before clicking the mouse or pressing the remote? As a teacher, I constantly contend with students who text in class during highly complex instructions in operating a camera or navigating editing software. Students check emails, Facebook, and store ads during class time. In a recent (non-scientific) survey, workers admit spending half their shift doing activities unrelated to work; mostly on the Internet.
Of course it is important to teach young people about technology, but also to be adept and productive in other areas too. In the very least, we must find a balance.
The website gurl.com is a commonplace for many relevant girlhood topics. Sort of a judgment free zone that lets its young (female) viewers ask, discuss, and learn about issues that might be awkwardly broached when done face to face. I recognize the site’s value in terms of being a resource for (mostly) young girls needing guidance and support while maintaining some level of anonymity. I bet a significant number of boys have also learned a thing or two from scanning the articles on gurl.com.
When examined through a business lens, the website is a clever way to offer products that appeal to a captive (female) audience; it is populated with banner ads mostly related to fashion, relationships, and of course sex. Regarding sex, clicking on the Health, Sex, and Relationships tab will offer advice to questions such as “Should Guys Also Shave Their Pubic Hair?” and other articles that umm…never mind. Glad I learned about the benefits of doing kegel exercises.
After reading Mary Jane Kehily’s article, “Taking centre
stage? Girlhood and the contradictions of femininity across three generations,”
I paused at McRobbie and Garber’s starting point with speculation that
the relative absence of girls in
subcultures may hinge around issues of gender and space, with girls being more
centrally involved in the ‘private’ domestic sphere of home and family life
rather than the ‘public’ world of the street where most subcultural activities
seem to occur.” (53)
Assuming this is so, the future of girlhood and identities
will be less of a “topic” for discussion and research in terms of seeking
audience for girlhood studies.
Because females are no longer predominantly placed in the “domestic
sphere” and are heard more frequently in the “public” world, I believe that the
conversations on girlhood and female identity will change over time.
This is not to say, however, that I believe the research and
focus no longer need to exist because females are out of the private
sphere. This is not so, and of course;
I am only speaking from a Western experience. Globally, female and girl positionalities vary, thus
necessitating varying discussions via varying forms of media.
I believe that we will begin to hear more voices, candid
responses, covert and overt voices of resistance, as women find and realize the
necessity of creating space for sharing.
I think that the video, “A Girl Like Me,” could be positioned
as resistance. Reason being, is
that by acknowledging that there is a difficulty with the way in which African
American females are perceived and held to “white” standards is a form of
resistance. By opening up a space
in which the African-American females could share their stories about the color
of their skin and wearing their hair natural, in addition to their family’s
responses, the discourse is challenged.
Although this is neither secret nor overt resistance, as discussed by
Kristen Schilt, it is resistance just the same. The female who created the video with her own
“do-it-yourself empowerment” (Schilt, 238) and those participating resisted and
spoke out against being measured against white standards, as African-American
females.
Because this video is made by a girl, it is a female social
and cultural artifact. It seeks to
make a statement and to solve a problem.
The problem of black females ironing their hair, or lightening their
skin in attempt to look white, is part of the problem. The other part of the problem is
parents encouraging the behavior. The
statement is made through this artifact, similar to the zines, as it creates a
space for other females to speak out.
In this class we have spent a
fair share of time analyzing postfeminism, “Girl Power”, and resistance. These themes
are important to girlhood studies as they help us to better understand
contemporary influences of girlhood culture in Western, neoliberal societies. Part
of our answer to the question “where are girlhood studies/identities going in
the future” lies with the complexity and contradictory ways in which girlhood
culture is produced in Western societies. Here we see that girlhood takes on what McRobbie calls a kind of “‘post-feminist masquerade’”
where girls perform and “balance masculine qualities of phallic power with
renewed pressures around hypersexualized visual display and performances of
normative femininity” (Gonik, Renold, Ringrose and Weems 2). Further, there is
complexity in the globalization of girlhood discourse, where women and girls in
third world countries are increasingly feeling the pressures of the “Western
way”, a way that privileges a model of “West vs. the Rest”. Moreover,
“otherness” and diversity seem to be becoming more and more of a “marketable
commodity” in globalized cultural economies and we see a “‘simultaneous
displacement and refixing’ of binary oppositions” with femininity and
masculinity (Gonik, Renold, Ringrose and Weems 3). This simultaneous
displacement and refixing of gender binaries saturates much of Western popular
culture. For example, Rhianna’s song “So Hard” presents a dominant, confident,
and tough sexual performance with a heternormative script of sexually commodified
girlhood “hottest bitch in heels right here”, “I need it all the money, the
fame, the car, the clothes”. This popular culture text provides an example of
the complex and contradictory nature with which masculinity and femininity are simultaneously
displaced and refixed. Gonick, Renold, Ringrose and Weems (2009) therefore, posit
that girlhood studies needs to develop new approaches to the ways we look at “relations
between girlhood, power, agency and resistance” (1). They argue that girlhood
studies should pay more attention to the “contradictory (schizoid) spaces of
family, the media, school and popular culture” and how dynamic and open to adaptation
and change femininities are as they are reproduced, performed, and resisted.
Thus, by illuminating the contradictory (schizoid) spaces of institutions and
cultural texts we open ourselves up to examining the “contingent and ambiguous
practices of identity” with which girls perform, reproduce, and resist
normative femininity (6).
Supplemental Reference
Gonick, Marnina, Emma Renold, Jessica Ringrose, and Lisa Weems. "Rethinking Agency and Resistance: What Comes After Girl Power?" Girhood Studies 2.2 (2009): 1-9.
I think the most elemental components of enacting resistance is calling out the offending source and then creating a reactionary force, which is how this video positions itself. I really admired the ways the girls were able to articulate the influences and messages around them concerning their hair and the lightness of their skin. These girls are able to come together in a way that acknowledges the disparages voices and messages they hear and react in a way that is positive and attempts to take back the control of how they should look.
I thought it was really interesting when one girl pointed out that being from a people who were displaced against their will, it seems as if she doesn’t have a heritage or a background. We have seen examples of girls trying to create their own reality and in that, their own culture and understanding of their history and how it affects them. I think this video acts a means to regain power over how these girls view themselves and their peers, instead of letting it be dictated by an outside (internalized) group.
I found Mary Jane Kehily's observation to have the greatest relevance in looking towards the future of girlhood. She writes, "viewed in intergenerational terms, young women may be exploring points of continuity with previous generations in ways that creatively rework feminism rather than reject it" (58). This statement, for me, highlights perspective in looking at girlhood from the lens of feminist or post-feminist studies and work. I believe there is a need to explore the ways that something might work, rather than picking apart what definitely doesn't. Also, Kehily brings up a valid point in researching "lived lives." These women, girls, are experiencing life, not necessarily in a vaccuum of gender, but are living in a bubble of social, economic, and cultural prescripts that work in conjunction with the individualized "I". The challenge is to find ways to explore social interactions that are or are becoming less gendered, and to also allow the possibility that there are sites in which being a woman or a girl becomes irrelevant. Since gender is constantly reinscribed by social behavior more research and insight needs to found in how gender is performed in non-normative households, vs the larger scale communites. Francine M. Deutsch posits that what is often ignored is "the interactional level" that "illuminates the possibility of change" (114). Exploration needs to go deeper into the possibilit. As evidence, Deutsch references a study that shows over time men that earned less than their wives came to view and perform gender in a more "egalitarian" way. Also, Deutsch begs a question: "Does difference always mean inequality?"This question resonates because its from this standpoint that girls/women disconnected from "publicly available versions of feminist politics...the language of oppression and feelings of anger" (Kehily58). Far removed from their grandmother's suffrage plight, girls are products of Grrl power and consumer fetishism. The goal of the future should be to break the chain of marketing and objectifying that currently passes for liberation, and to reconnect girls with the very aspects of themselves that fall under feminist derision or PinkThink shame.
references
Deutsch, Francine M. "Undoing Gender." Gender and Society, Vol. 21, No. 1 (Feb. 2007) pp. 106-127.
“Kim grew up with a taken-for-granted
notion of gender equity. Being a girl has not been experienced by her as a barrier
to education or aspiration” are the comments of Mary Jane Kehily about the
experience of a girl in the post-feminism era (p. 65). Based on this
comment, one can innocently think that women’s position in these days is equal
to men’s; hence girls don’t worry about feminism like women in the past have
done it. However, Kehily in her study adds that this same girl who has not experienced
the gender barrier is a young single mother who depends morally and economically
on her parents and is “unlikely to achieve independence in the near future.” Unfortunately,
this is the dilemma of the teenage girls of today. Girls are facing a society
that has increasingly “hyper-sexualized” the image of young women converting
them into mass consumption subjects. What does this mean to the future of
girlhood? Unless there is a change from consuming to producing in girls’ culture,
the future of girlhood looks very similar to that of the 60s and 70s where many
young women believed that feminism consisted of being free to express sexual desire
and pleasure –note that girls’ sexy image is clearly connected to the same
beauty/decoration image that women of centuries ago had—.
Girls are more educated and visible than
ever, then why does popular culture –with all its beauty standards— still seems
to have a powerful grasp on girls’ identities? Are pop culture and media doing
a better job than us parents? These are questions still unresolved. Kehily
accurately indicates that family and parenting need to be part of the equation
of girlhood studies. Socio-economic status stands out as another key factor in
the future of girlhood. And although we have seen different forms of girls’ resilience,
there is more to do to instill further resistance in young women; this is where
the future of girlhood resides.
I was curious if the mores of American culture take precedence over the mores of the culture and community that you live in. That is to say that we all live under a different set of rules depending on the community that we reside in, if we live in a large city like New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago then we have to look at the mores of each of the different sub cultures. Our immediate society will often dictate what is moral and acceptable first and then the mores of the next level and so on. As I was reading about the “ladettes” and how the surrounding society was concerned about their behavior I began to question how females are positioned in regards to mores and the society and culture or sub culture that they live in. I would like to further explore whether young women like the “ladettes” view their standing in their communities, whether they feel as if they are merely carving out their own paths or whether they know or feel as if they are purposely being deviant in order to affect social change with regards to gender roles. I have seen women come from a place of complete oppression and objectification and from a place of being considered chattel, to being respected, independent, and productive members of society. But it has not been easy road and there has been much resistance, even from our own sisters. I have seen this through my own eyes and for every step that I took it seemed as though I was pushed back 2 steps. I see girlhood studies taking us to a place of acceptance and equality without question and without the constructs of our societies and cultures.
As we move forward in feminist studies I think it is important to recognize the multitude of changes in girls and women that will take place at the collective level. While each of us has an individual experience, collectivity is a vital element of developing identity in a shifting society.
With increasing feminist awareness and freedoms for women, there is also more responsibility for those of us invested in the progressive movement to commit to making sure we do not regress into comfortable practices from the past. Progress can be scary and if we are not careful we can lose the great gains we have made.
One of the ways I see this manifesting itself was in today’s reading that “emergent codes of sexual freedom and hedonism associated with new femininities should be understood as new technologies of the self rather than celebratory expressions of changing female subjectivity” (60). While I don’t necessarily disagree with the statement, I see this as a way in which collective ideas can be construed in a way that constructs sexuality and femininity and feminism out of the control of girls and women and puts it in the hands of others outside of the experience.
If we are able to reject societal and collective representations, we can embrace and control the “greater degree of fluidity about what femininity means and how exactly it is anchored in social reality” (55) ourselves and on our own terms. Thus creating a collective reality of our making, one that is truly representative of our reality.
I wonder how long the Pink Think mentality will persist in our
culture.Despite women’s advancements
since the 1960, Pink Think is still going strong – just flip through the pages
of a girls’ magazine or stroll down the girl aisle at your local Toys R Us, and
you will be inundated with pink and with toys focusing on girls’ appearance or
their role at nurturer.I don’t
necessarily think this is pernicious, but I believe it does set them up to be
more passive as adults.But what will it
take to change -- anmd will it *ever* change?I am reminded of some
Laurie Anderson lyrics (from the 80s, so the figures have changed I am sure):
“For every dollar a man makes, a woman makes 63 cents.Now, fifty years ago it was 62 cents.So, with that kind of luck, it will be the year
3,888 before we make a buck.”Pink Think
maintains the status quo.I wonder, in
my lifetime, how Pink Think will evolve and where it will lead.
I am also interested in the psychology of Pink Think, and the
psychology of Western girlhood in general. Girls are taught to be passive, but at the
same time extroversion is preferred in our culture over introversion
(interestingly, in the East, the opposite tends to be true.As you can tell, I am pretty fascinated by
the introversion-extraversion spectrum).So, girls have to walk a fine line – they have to be extroverted, but
not *too* extroverted or they might be perceived as aggressive / abrasive.Interestingly, when I look back on my grade
school and high school experience, I think the girls who were bullied /
ostracized tended to be introverts.I
guess this speaks to a larger phenomenon: it seems the further a girl falls
from the traditional, “girly girl” definition of girlhood, the more likely she
is to be ostracized by her peers.I
guess this is true of boys, too – children have an acute sense of normalcy and
tend to punish any form of eccentricity.Not that Pink Think is responsible for every ill that girls experience –
I mean, some girls will *always* be ostracized, it’s just an inescapable social
dynamic – but … Pink Think is not entirely innocuous, either.
Also, I would like to do more research on the experience of minority
girls, particularly, African American girls.Generally speaking, they are not taught passivity to the same degree as
Caucasian girls.(I remember reading
somewhere that black women experience abuse at the hands of their mates at the
same rates as white women, however, black women are twice as likely to fight
back.)How does Pink Think affect these
girls? They are given conflicting messages from their culture and from society
at large.Also, I would like to look at
body image issues among African American girls, and how they resist (or not)
the stereotypical white ideal of beauty.
So I guess I am most concerned in how Pink Think affects girls as they
mature into adults, and I would be interested in studying this in greater
depth, especially from a psychological angle.
In her essay, “Taking Center Stage?:
Girlhood and the contradictions of femininity across three
generations.” Mary Jane Kehily summarizes the different ways of
feminism well. She writes this important sentence “Women appear to
take center stage in the reconfiguration of labor patterns,
consumption practices and gender roles.” This rang true with me.
Within my generation I see girls who are keenly aware of their
portrayal to those around them. But they also have a strong sense of
self portrayal and many have a confidence and a strong sense of
identity. Not only that, I think several feel they have an obligation
to share their “reconfigured”selves and philosophies within their
own communities so as to educate those around them about what
girlhood means to them. Some of these things may be; acknowledging
self-acceptance; accepting one's sexuality without worrying about the
repercussions of the male gaze; exercising the right to enjoy
yourself socially even if this means being a “laddette” and
drinking too much; setting high goals for yourself in the workplace
(perhaps there is a girl out there who would like to be the head of
Apple one day, for example). In this way they become active producers
of their own culture. In the future I see this type of active
production only increasing. I think for sure an e-zine could be
launched online for example. In any case the Internet will be the key
to this wave of positive mass production in the name of girlhood.
Without a doubt, technology will be the key to spreading new notions
of girlhood. This is one reason the girlhood remixed camp was such a
breath of fresh air; these young women present at camp are starting
to think in this type of empowering way now.
I always revert back to Charles Dickens and “A Tale of Two
Cities.” His quote, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times,”
reverberates in the many conversations that were opened in this discussion
board. It also reverberates in the many research studies that I have plowed
through for my final proposal. The consistent theme of binary, dichotomy,
either/or thinking always shows through. This comes through once again in the stories
of three generations of women. What was interesting was the fact that Nancy
lived a life of privilege until she married. The story does not tell us much
about Nancy’s personality but it does tell us that she married a man strong and
controlling. Why did Nancy let this man take her children?
Gillian is brought up during 2nd wave feminism
but it seems that both gender and social class interfere with what is defined
as having agency. Where did this agency come from? Was it self- defined? I did
not see any kind of subjectivity except her eating disorder (an attempt to have
some control over her life in some small sense?).
Kim’s “taken for granted notion” of feminism also suggests
that she too has agency. What is missing from these stories are the essence of
subjectivity and agency. These girls
grew up with the skeletal idea of feminism and tagged onto the “ideal” of what
feminism might mean. However, unless this notion of “being all that one can be”
is actually taught and girls are socialized into a culture of equality,
subjectivity and agency will always be illusive. Possibly that is the
consequence of social movements, the skeletal framework is put into place but
it isn’t enacted upon until there is more meaning, understanding, and dialogue
to build upon the framework. What is missing perhaps is the “resistance” that
was mentioned in yesterday’s blog. These women resisted in a sense some of what
was told to them but in a sad defense, they acted as culture dictated to them. Definitely, the consequences of difference also comes into play. Social class affects gender. Gender affects social class. It is intersectional
and important not to dichotomize the two.
“According to what Walkerdine et al. suggest, working-class and
middle-class girls become ‘each other’s Other’ (2001) existing as cautionary
examples of what you could become by transgressing the regulatory framework”
(55).
Therefore what I read from this is that there continues to be that sinister
regulatory mechanism regardless of time. For instance McRobbie mentions “that there is
a “new sexual contract” taking shape in which women conform to the regulatory
powers of the fashion and beauty industry while simultaneously renouncing any
critique of patriarchy. Has the experience of being a girl seemingly changed
while the regulation of femininity takes on newly pernicious guises or has feminist
scholarship come full circle” (61)? This is a strong statement and I can’t
agree with it more. Are we in “the best of times?” Yet once again there is
the stranglehold that overcomes or subdues even the strongest of personas. I
firmly believe that girlhood is on a positive path, but it needs to defy or
resist objectification by consumerism and introduce agency in the form of
understanding economic power and be willing to accept the responsibility of
that power. Unfortunately, I have to end with this question. Can we teach our
girls that responsibility? "The best of times" are still to come, I think.
Girlhood studies and identities will
be more focused on education and technology.Educational researchers who subscribe to postmodern feminist
theories stress that the female’s position, in reference to culture and class
identities, is not homogeneous.Feminist
educational theorists believe that education’s role is to provide an individual with the skills and habits necessary for
participating within patriarchal society.Socialization
through education is the way social and cultural identity is attained.Accordingly, the concept of cultural
transmission (how culture communicates values) shows how culture, and in
particular expectations of the genders, can be transmitted from one generation
to the next.Student cultures act as
they have been taught.Schools
are instrumental in solidifying this identity formation, and resistance to school is a resistance to oppression and
restricted life opportunities.For the
some girls, education is seen as a means to save them from the lower class
lifestyles.
The
ideology that identity is formed within schools is
the culmination of what is happening to adolescents who find themselves
racially and ethnically marginalized.It
is very possible that in the future, girl studies’ will investigate adolescents
and how they assert their voices in resistance to cultural and ethnic social
categories.
To understand “the dangers of adolescence,” as Kristen
Schilt calls them, is imperative to be aware of what puberty in essence
represents: a change. It is the transformation from childhood to adulthood through
physical and mental modifications. The changes are so radical that teens –and the
adults around them— don’t know if they are still kids or have finally become adults.
In addition to the physical and mental changes, adolescents have to face peer pressure,
sexual harassment –or something worse—, racial stereotypes, and gender
expectations. In other words, they are forced to face adulthood reality through
the eyes of a child. A dangerous place? Absolutely.
In spite of the circumstances, It is here where adult attributes
are allegedly defined, hence the importance of girls resilience through
creation. Creating to survive has become a powerful method of resistance among
teenage girls. “I start to feel free telling more and more people,” is what one
zine maker has to say about writing. Zine editors have found a way to cope with
the dangers of the teenage years; they have found a support system that provides
them with “emotional validation.” The video “A Girl Like Me” is also an admirable
example of girls trying to understand the racial stereotypes that
they are subjected to. The video questions the labels society has given to black
girls based on their skin color and, interestingly, their hair. It is evident that
instead of supporting, society confuses them. Like Schilt’s zines, the video
puts aside the perceptions of scientists –most likely white male scientists—
about clinical studies done primarily through observations, allowing us to see
the world of African-American girls through their own eyes. Girls’ resistance
by means of creation inspires young ladies not only to express their ideas, but
–first and foremost— to hold on to their own voice.
In the future, I see the dichotomy between self-expression and commodification in girlhood increasing. Technology will play a role on both sides of the continuum. With premeditated acts of marketing as evidenced by AM&M, the materialism and identity by consumption will increase further commodifying girlhood. I can foresee personalized targeted advertisements being sent to one's smart phone. Women as a market force will also increase. The increase in households headed by a woman and more women enrolled in college than men giving them increased incomes in the future are some of the factors that make women a lucrative market. Sites like she-conomy have done their research and corporations will target women's interpretation of femininity in order to sell their products. The perception of need to create identity will continue to be generated by corporations.
Opportunities for self-expression and production will also increase. SNS, blogs, and other formats we haven't imagined yet will give girls opportunities to broadcast their unique brand of femininity. More counter-culture groups will spring up adding diverse voices to participate in defining girlhood. Beauty, while still being a focus of identity, will allow for more more variances encompassing individual and ethnic differences. Furthermore, globalism, migration, and multiculturalism will enhance diversity. After watching the Olympics and seeing diverse beauty as well as diverse cultural traits, for example, the diva-hood of the Russians, the stoicism of the Chinese, society will accept more interpretations of normal female expression making it less west-centric. Additionally, appearance as being a conscious choice instead of mainstream consumerism will flourish with counter-culture groups. A downside to the individualism and counter-culture groups is that they may further increase the exclusionary behavior of girls towards one another, de facto creating a greater variety of cliques instead of bringing women and girls together as a community.
As in the case of Nancy, Gillian, and Kim, the choice of sexual partners will continue to shape identity reflecting family dynamics and socio-cultural positioning. Early or unplanned pregnancy curtails educational and employment opportunities. Also divorce, often shrinks the resources available to a woman. These situations have a psychological as well as an economic cost. I believe the ratio of at-risk girls will increase. As more women come out as lesbians, diverse sexual identities will also become more commonplace and continue to play a role in girlhood.
While political feminism is cited as not a priority, hopefully a woman president is a reality. A woman who is able to employ new medias may be able to unify diverse groups. Girlhood studies will have a fertile future as girlhood is exhibited through both self-expression and commodification.
After viewing “A Girl Like Me"
I was quite surprised that the appearance of something as harmless as
hair was such a big deal in the piece. It clearly carried more weight
for these girls and the people around them in their lives than I
would have thought possible. A male friend remarked to me the other
day that he could never go out with anyone with a weave. He put it
thusly. “I can't stand weave. If a girl has to have 5 feet of extra
hair so that she can feel good about herself what does that say about
her? It says she cannot accept herself for who she truly is. It also
means she's not the girl for me." I would say that this video is
a good example of a girl produced artifact because as viewers we can
see those interviewed understand certain views of female identity
have been consumed around them and they feel pressured by these views
and frustrated because they understand the female identity being
presented to them is not the only option for them. In fact you can
argue the identity being portrayed is inauthentic. As we have read
about in Jamming Girl Culture, it is extremely beneficial for girls
to produce rather than consume their own ideas and notions about
girlhood. Essentially we are talking about the opposite of the pink
think movement. By realizing there is a problem and attempting to
suss out the roots and reasons for these certain constructions taking
place – by partaking in this specific dialogue these girls are
attempting to jam the girlhood culture messages they are receiving.
One girl in the piece said about her ancestors, "They couldn't
be themselves. They had to be what everyone else told them to be. "
Well, in this film these girls are pushing back against what
“everyone else”is telling them to be.
I had already watched this video in a couple of other classes and it is just as powerful as the first time that I watched it. I find it puzzling that we as a society continue to look for solutions that we as a society continue to create. That being said let me explain what I mean. The issue of body image or self esteem is an issue that doesn’t even enter our mind until someone makes it an issue in our life. In infancy and childhood we are often told by those around us that we are adorable, precious, and cute. Once we, as girls reach our preteen years we begin to see those images of what we are supposed to look like. In the afro American and Latino/ Hispanic/ Chicano communities it is all about the hair and skin tone, in the Caucasian community it is all about maintaining a slim physique. Women of color have been taught that femininity is about have long beautiful flowing hair, Oprah Winfrey talked about wanting to have a long ponytail and Chris Rock did a documentary all about black women and their hair. Women of color also have to contend with skin tone, there is an intra cultural ideology within the black and Latino communities that light skinned people are more attractive and if you are dark skinned you have to stay out of the sun so that you won’t get any darker. In my family if you are lighter skinned then you are revered and remind of how beautiful you are. It is similar to when the girl on the video was talking about skin bleaching, there is a misconception that lighter is better, long straight hair is better, and being thin is better. We should be teaching our girls about self acceptance and that beauty doesn’t have to be painful either physically or emotionally. I believe that girls and women should be able to express themselves and alter their looks if they choose to but I don’t believe that they should change just because society expects them to. On that note, I think that the time has come for us to allow our girls to dictate who and what they look like and what they become it is no longer up to society to dictate what constitutes being a girl.
Despite
growing up in the 1990s, I wasn’t aware of the zine phenomenon until I looked
at today’s reading.I would imagine that
since then, zines have largely been replaced by social media, message boards,
blogging, etc.I wrote my second
artifact analysis on a girl-created website that was active between 1996 and
1999.I think, though, there has been an
marked evolution in online spaces in the past twenty years: as the web has
become more ubiquitous and less exclusive, websites have largely been replaced
by social media sites with their “one size fits all” approach.So, I think zines, much like early webpages,
were more creative and DIY than sites like Facebook.Even MySpace, which afforded users great
variation in the physical appearance of their pages, has largely fallen into
disfavor in the past few years.
So zines
filled a distinctive niche, almost suspended chronologically between the
offline and online worlds.I thought it
was interesting how the zines discussed taboo subjects like self-mutilation and
sexual abuse.Again, since the internet
has become more widespread, I think these issues have become more widely
discussable.Zines don’t appear to have
ever reached mainstream culture (I graduated from high school in 2002 and like
I said, I never heard the word zine until this class.)So, only a small number of girls ever really
benefitted from the open forum that zines provided.However, message boards, blogs, and social
networks have given girls more opportunities to go mainstream with taboo
subjects.That being said, despite
having these resources, I believe that only a certain percentage of the
population (female or male) will ever chose to disclose personal information
about sexual abuse or cutting online.I
think many girls and women who struggle with these issues never tell anyone (or
only close friends), let alone strangers, despite their anonymity online.
--
“A Girl Like
Me”
I thought
this video was an important portrayal of the African American girl experience,
which in many ways differs from the white experience.A couple of years ago on our local public
radio station (Columbus, Ohio), a few women were interviewed who were studying
violence and its prominence in so many black girls’ lives.I wish I remembered the names of the
researchers, because it was fascinating (and heartbreaking).I remember a story about one girl whose uncle
had murdered her aunt and gone to prison.The girl said she lived in constant fear of her uncle being released
from prison and killing her, too.This
is not to say that white girls are exempt from experiencing violence in their
lives, but the research shows that African American girls see it at much higher
rates.I might talk about this more in
my next post, but I would be interested in looking at girls of color and the
ways that their perceptions and experiences of girlhood / femininity differ.
Oh … one
more thing.I had heard and forgotten
about the doll test that they briefly discussed in the video.I am not sure how I could have forgotten,
because it had a profound effect on me.
So happy to read this article. Gilligan’s research intrigues me and at
the same time it is also disturbing in that
she describes the difficulties girls have on a relational level. Therefore, I am glad that Schilt took a stand to
study the content of zines for clues to how girls feel outside of the laboratory
setting. Her quote from Green and Taormino is wonderful, “[s]ometimes paper is
the only thing that will listen to you” (236). Schiltz also differentiates how
adults construct problems versus girls actual experiences. One of the studies I have run
across shows how “silencing” girls’ voices
is powerful. In a particular school setting, Thorne studied children in their natural
setting and found that adults condone boys’ risk-taking behavior and turn the other
cheek when they break rules, thus encouraging boys to transgress the norms. However,
girls are strictly made to obey the rules. I think this explains a little about
how girls are made to feel inadequate early on, thus the confidence gap. Resisting
such stereotypic behavior is crucial for one’s confidence. Using zines for possible
location of girlhood is a great idea given the difficulty of understanding self.
I agree that using this kind of method for research gives insight as to what girls
are feeling without any residual researcher effect. Interpreting girls meaning in the zines
gives us another way to look at how a person truly feels about an incident. It can give insight as to how a girl might want
to resist cultural meanings or stereotypes. Yes, I do think that a girl can be
made to feel inadequate by certain things that are said by adults if the adult
adheres to normative views on how, and what, gendered behavior should be.
The video is a strong medium of resistance. Just the fact that these girls
are expressing their knowledge of how our culture defines good and bad is a strong
message by these girls. I believe it is resistance because they are refusing to
close the conversation on the idea of privilege. This is a huge step because
sometimes we are taught not to talk about such things or to deny that difference
exists.
These girls are telling their audience that that no one should be telling
“us what we should be.” They go on to say that “we just take it because we don’t
know where we came from.” The message from
this video, that one lives in silence because
there is no knowledge of one’s past, must be listened to.. These girls are telling
the world that they do have knowledge and they should embrace it and the rest
of those who try to tell them otherwise are wrong. This is a conversation that needs to continue. They are continuing the conversation that no one wants to believe is covertly out there.
The short film "A Girl Like Me" by Kiri Davis breaks taboos by giving voice to young black women's feelings about being black. Instead of puberty resulting in "many girls leaving adolescence with no voice with which to articulate their thoughts and beliefs," Davis uses film to speak out and reach a large audience (Schilt). The issues she raises of skin, hair, asses, are part of the female concern with appearance and identity. I think one reason boys pass through adolescence with more confidence and girls emerge with less self-esteem is due to the bodily changes women go through. If identity is appearance, young women are suddenly transformed by puberty into aliens in a male dominated world that doesn't value their way of communicating. Black women as historically the other other may struggle even more than white women with their identity.
I am going to enter realms where I have no expertise, but here I go. bell hooks alludes to black women being subjugated by white men in "Holding My Sister's Hand." While white women are objectified, and in a sense then considered valuable for consensual sexual relations, black women's historical sexual relations with white men were through force and coercion. Therefore subjugation is further from the power center then objectification. hooks states that freedom came to be seen as black men having sexual access to white women's bodies. This further left black women's identities outside the norm. Sexual fears and competition estranged black and white women in the feminist movement. Although this may seem to have little to do with the film, I think some of the issues being raised carry over from these traditional roles.
When the children are asked which doll they like and which doll is good, their choice is based on generations of lived experience, and, sadly, they choose the white doll. As one Girlhood Remixed participant responded to the child in the film who chose the black doll as bad, "That's you. Don't you know what you're doing?" It would be easy for me to say the parents of those children need to counter society's messages. Remember the girl in the film whose mother didn't like her hair natural because she looked African? Instead of holding black mothers responsible for all the messages their daughters are receiving, the reality is that society fermented these issues and we need to keep working on solving them. This will be accomplished though dialogue and active choices about defining beauty. bell hooks cals for a "woman space where we can value difference and complexity" (110). I applaud Davis for bringing her voice and her sisters' to the conversation.
There
is a lack of understanding of how males and females are using digital
technologies to construct their identities in positive or negative, expressive
ways.Definitions and conceptions of
sexuality have not changed with the use of computers.Technology is supposed to encourage girls to contribute
ideas and feel comfortable with their ideas, and even provide agency to a more equal
playing field with male age-mates.However,
girls’ identities are underdeveloped in reference to technology due to
male-controlled barriers, and sexuality and gender construction via digital technologies
in a supposedly de-sexualized cyberspace that is disillusioned and saturated with
masculine attributes.Girls still feel
inferior to boys, so to create equal identities, girls assimilate male
characteristics.This may be in the form
of aggressive images, writings, pictures, and or politically charged slogans
signifying a representation of the girl who demonstrates it.Girlhood is further complicated by girls who
construct their identities by dis-empowering their own gender, and wrongfully
feeling empowered by morphing male.
For my final paper, I plan to compare the perceptions of society and the
perceived male dominated gaming community pertaining to female computer gamers
as opposed to what is actual fact. I
plan on reading articles that talk about what the stereotype for girls playing
computer games is and compare them to studies that poll and interview girls
that actually play computer games. I
will also study how the media portrays these very stereotypes concerning female
gamers. Then I will come up with a
conclusion as to how close the current stereotypes are to the reality of girls
that play. I also plan on keeping this
restricted to just computer games and not venture out into the world of console
games as to their number of games for each different console and the ability of
people to buy them.
This is seen as resistance because girls are honestly commenting on and
questioning society. In this video, adolescent black girls are
exasperated with and recognize society's stereotypes that are obviously against
blacks. The stereotypes favor the white race. I am not sure that I
personally see this as resistance because no one in the video voiced that they
are ready for change. Yes, they were
angry and “pissed” at previous generations, rightly felt degraded, but what are
they planning to do about it? The girls
recognize that parents or other adults are crucial to establishing stereotypes
in lives. How can we help the girls in our lives resist the stereotypes? Answering that question is resistance.
The internet provides agency for cultural expression, and this video in
example is a cultural artifact in the present. Most cultural artifacts
are rooted in the past, but technology enables an easy way to create cultural
artifacts in present time. Much of cultural heritage has taken a digital
form, and it is difficult to speculate how this will effect preservation and
creation of heritage in the future. The zines are also cultural artifacts. I like the idea of a zine to "talk" and "share." Of course, technology has presented a digital option for that too - "E-Zines."
Influenced
by Foucault and Bourdieu, Michael de Certeau contributed to practice theory the
notion that practice itself could act as a form of resistance to domination. He
identifies two main types: strategies and tactics. Further, he suggests “strategies
are only available to subjects of ‘will’ and ‘power,’ so defined because of
their access to a spatial or institutional location that allows them to
objectify the rest of the social environment,” i.e., the marketers and produces.
These people employ strategies that order a schematic and stratified ordering
of social realities. Meanwhile, those individuals lacking spatial relevance
practice resistance tactically by using every day practices of consumption to
re-signify and disrupt the schematic ordering of their social realities. In
this way, Webzines and DIY is a form of resistance for girls pushing back
against the culture and the markets that seek to make them either products or sources
of income.
It seems
that much of girlhood has to do with their bodies, how marketed images or denigration/praise
arbitrates how girls identify with their bodies. In one of our class responses
to the summer camp experience, someone wrote that one of the girl’s brother’s
girlfriend called the camp girl fat. The brother intervened telling girlfriend
that he wouldn’t date someone who put down his baby sister. However, the
retelling of the story, on its own, points to the impact of the label. After
reading Kristen Schilt’s essay, I couldn’t help but notice how much of girlhood
is sorted out through the ever-present and unchangeable position that is the
physical body—periods, sex, and sexual abuse. “I knew all about periods,
technically,” sums up the difference between the experience of menstruation and
the education of it. It’s one thing to read, this is going to happen to me. It
happens to nearly all women, but the bodily experience of it is “frightening”
and “embarrassing” no matter the level of pre-existing knowledge. The segment
dealing with the girl’s experiences of sex, the feeling that their body was to
be exchanged for emotional fulfillment within relationships, a feeling of
surrender to the inevitability that their body couldn’t be theirs if they
wanted to keep a relationship, also highlights the inescapability of body in
determining girlhood (Schilt 239-242). It is also extremely interesting that
their coping methods embody physically, self-destructive acts as a means of
control—anorexia, or other eating disorders, cutting. The title of Schilt’s
essay, “I’ll Resist With Every Inch and Every Breath” illustrates the bodily
prison of girls, whereby their resistance is configured in the limiting
confines of their jails.
In
thinking of other forms of resistance, I started (for obvious reasons) down the
path of body modification. However, it occurred to me that within the last four
years another bodily trend has surfaced. It began with the Dove’s Everyday
Woman campaign, featuring “everyday” women to counter the images of impossibly
thin and beautiful models that shape feminine identification. While the
air-brushing scandal burst the bubble, it opened the doors for the French Elle’s
issue, “Stars Sans Fards” to become a widely popular image of models without
make-up, without airbrushing, looking “refreshingly natural, relaxed, and
vulnerable in a way American stars are seldom seen” (Romolini). Vulnerable is
an interesting adjective and an appropriate one because it speaks to social and
cultural mediation of their identities through either denigration or praise.
Another body culture trend is the an ala-natural
movement. Women across the country have said no to shampoo and gone poo-less. While
countless others have begun washing their bodies with household products like
olive oil, reporting that compared to their Clinique and other brand name washes,
olive oil has made their skin radiant and beautiful for significantly less. This
form of resistance highlights costs, and potential health concerns associated
with normative beauty prescriptions that insist on millions slathering
themselves down with chemicals daily. For more information check out the links:http://thehairpin.com/2011/04/how-to-quit-shampoo-without-becoming-disgusting/
While
Dove’s campaign got debunked for ultimately being unable to resist its own
pressure to airbrush, the message is still worth repeating.
Works Cited
Practices As Resistance: Michael De Certeau
http://science.jrank.org/pages10822/Practices-Resistance-Michael-de-Certeau.html". 2012. web. 31 July 2012.
Romolini, Jennifer. http://shine.yahoo.com/fashion/were-the-quot-real-quot-women-dove-ads-airbrushed-the-air-brusher-says-yes-dove-says-no-168010.html.
May 2008. web. 31 July 2012.
—. http://shine.yahoo.com/fashion/yay-french-elles-amazing-no-makeup-issue-and-why-american-mags-need-to-step-it-up-446538.html.
April 2009. web. 31 July 2012.
Schilt, Kristen. "I'll
Resist with Every Inch and Every Breath." Kearney, Mary Celeste. The
Gender and Media Reader . New York: Routledge, 2012. 232-246
After reading the article and the accounts of three generations of women (wow--so many hardships, it read like a Danille Steel novel!) I think that girlhood identity is going to revert back into a more conservative role.
Right now, girls and boys are putting themselves on 500x magnification of what all they do in their lives--texting, facebooking, playing on tumblr, pinning, blogging, etc etc. it never stops! While this may seem like a dream to researchers--heck, we know what type of foods girls like, what lyrics hit them hardest, hell you can even like your favorite brand of tampon on facebook (tmi in my opinion...) one of these days this urge to purge information is going to come to a halt. I'm not saying that girls are going to be back at staying at home, but I believe that girls are going to want to be empowered and reserved... any politican will tell you that his power comes from not showing all his cards at one time--girls need to take heed of this.
There's a reason why Mad Men is so successful on television right now--it's because there are so many plot lines, so many secrets and ulterior motives that it is interesting to watch! I'm sure girls are going to want to emulate this behavior--I think the current generation is just on the mindset of "ya-hoooo I have all these doors opened to me, which one should I pick--and I can go party and drink and partake in debauchery and not looked *too* down upon, AND I can still have my career and go to school etc etc etc." It's all so new-but I think once the novelty of being free from restraints wears off, girls are going to want to reel it in a bit more and not be so transparent, for there won't be a need to be.
I think girlhood studies is going to start moving even moreso into social media and politics. What does having an African American president mean to girls? Does it raise their hopes that women can be in office one day?
I think girlhood studies should also move into talking to previous generations, and asking what their thoughts are on girlhood today--especially to see that since some previous generations may have regrets on what they were not able to do as girls, seeing what they'd advise girls with this new freedom to do.
I find zines to be fascinating. The dedication and journalistic endeavours made by young females in making these zines is truly amazing. I am not sure how it is across the country, but going to high school in El Paso, only the really 'rebellious' girls made and read zines. These girls were into punk rock and rockabilly culture, didn't 'fit' into regular high school standards and thus produced tons on zines.
However, for the girls that felt so oppressed by high school society, it was strange that the zines were only for their group--they never reached out to the preppy, theater, band, athletic or apatheic kids--the zines were just for the rockabilly group, which numbered about 5 girls.
While I find a lot of great attributes in zine producers, such as time managment, creativity, and devotion, I feel that sometimes zines are for subgroups that seek to eliminate and alienate girls even more from eachother. While the article for today discusses how zines captured stories about puberty, sexual harrassment and mutiliation, it is my understanding (I was never able to see these zines up close at my old high school) that the zines being made were about music and underground art shows.
I'm not aware of other examples of zine-like quality going on today. It seems that our society wants things handed to them ASAP, so I am curious to if zines are rising or falling in production due to the pace of technology?
Sofia Vergara, the sexy Latina in Modern Family, has become the iconic
image of the typical sexy Latina that can get away with the thick accent, as
long as she has a nice body to look at. My paper will try to analyze the image
of Latina girlhood through Vergara’s image on TV. I propose a focus on the
purpose of the construction of this image and how it is perceived by young
Latinas. It has been difficult to separate the actress from her character as
Vergara tends to portray the same image in the TV commercials she does;
therefore, many question if her image has made her a superstar or a
super-stereotype. An article I recently read in Forbes magazine made me wonder
about her persona and her image on TV. The magazine named her the
highest paid female actress on TV, and at the same time discussed her role as a career
woman who gets involved in the creation of her image/career. It is obvious that
–like Marilyn Monroe in her time— Sofia Vergara is building and creating an image
as a commodity; however, many questions remain about her stereotypical Latina
image: is she taking the stereotype too far? What about those young Latinas who
see her as a role model? Do girls see her as a career woman who has broken the
racial glass ceiling on TV, or as the sexy lady they wish to be when they grow
up? Could Vergara’s image affect the perception of Latinas in the U.S.? And,
most importantly, could this affect young Latinas own perception of themselves?
