Reaction to “A Girl Like Me"

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.

What is a pretty girl?

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.     

Zines / A Girl Like Me

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. 

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“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.

Things we are not supposed to talk about-a study in resistance

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. 

Texas Girls Use Fake Facebook Page to Bully Classmate

Just came across this today.  Might interest some of you:

http://jezebel.com/5930380/texas-girls-may-still-be-in-detention-after-using-fake-facebook-page-to-bully-classmate

Sisterhood

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.

Proposal

Morphing Male

 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.

Final Paper Proposal

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.  

Resistance and a girl like me.

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."

Resisting with the Body

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

Girlhood's Future--Aug. 1 Post

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.

Zines--pushing against culture and weeding others out

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?

Final Paper: The Construction of Latina Girlhood Through Sofia Vergara's Image

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?

 

Steampunk as Resistance

With its focus on Do-It-Yourself innovation, and its origins in Cyberpunk recalcitrance against technology and specialization, Steampunk’s non-luddite rewrite of history, which creates a paradox between 19^th century and present day anxieties, seems to afford girls an opportunity to produce and to change the scope of gender within the culture industry. Unknown and previously un-published authors contribute much to Steampunk fanzines and magazines. In this way, I see Steampunk-Zines and magazines as outlets that allow girls to be producers, producing literature that is a re-write of normative traditions of girl behavior. In addition, many Steampunk communities foster innovation, creativity, and engineering of crafts and products, hosted in conventions. My research in this project seeks to answer how Steampunk works as counterculture. How does its resistance to reductive characterization and labeling create an affinity with women and girls that questions gender stereotyping in society? How can Steampunk work in a variety of media to resist the reproduction of gender structures and gender commoditization by choosing either to highlight, ignore, or re-create certain aspects of Victorian and 19^th century culture? In overlapping histories, communities, and categories, I hope to illustrate how Steampunk can rewrite a past of PinkThink normativity while promoting change in feminine commoditization and consumerism.

Final Proposal

My proposal for the final paper in English 582, Representations of Girlhood, is to focus on the global nature of girl and female low art as a means of building community.  I proposal that the sources I annotate for the final paper proposal consider friendships, tips and sharing, as well as instruction sharing between women/girls happening at the global level. 

There are numerous blogs, Pinterest, and websites dedicated to sharing of “how-to’s” and “DIY” or Do It Yourself projects, which women from numerous locations across the globe share.  Some of these Internet sites include:  Pinterest, The Knot, DIYGirl.tumblr.com, and You Tube.  These sites of only a few of hundreds of sites girls/women can visit to post questions, and problems with reference to their art.  They range from photo postings, such as Pinterest, to You Tube videos where girls and women post themselves actually creating the craft or art they have posted about.  Various forms of media are used and many are interested.  Many blogs utilize text, while posting photographs or short video tutorials on how to complete a particular tas.  

In a nutshell, this final paper should examine the various sites and media made by girls and women, for girls and women, at the global level.

Technologies of the Gendered Self

Because video game play is not exclusively a male activity and because technology related professions are not exclusively male, it is important to question why more females are not involved in technological professions, to include video game creation, as opposed to marketing of video games or other facets of the business end of the video game industry. 

A concern posed by scholars Jennifer Isabelle Pei Ling Ong and Pei-Wen Tzuo is that their study, which positions girls as consumers only, instead of as active creators, cannot add depth to our understand of their views.  The gaming industry, however, does position girls and women in ways, which are positioned to draw the female to the industry.  I look to an education game project, which took place in the Digital Media department of the University of Central Florida.  Based on the folktale, “The Turkey Maiden,” with its genesis in 1930, in Ybor City, Florida, this study engaged young females by modifying an existing game a user-created addition to the original game was created.  Speaking to gender, Natalie M. Underberg revisits the Cinderella tale, where Rosa, the Latin-American heroin must complete culture based quests.  Within this tale, the heroin rescues the Prince who is ill, cures him, and in the end they are married, keeping consistent with both the Spanish and English versions of the Cinderella tale.  This modification visited the gendered positionality of the heroine in the game as the female student

integrates specific tasks the heroine must successfully complete in order to advance

in the game… Adapting an oral folktale with an active female protagonist into a heritage-based computer game involved experimenting with feminist game design principle (gender differences in play), and understanding how features of digital environments, like spatiality and interactivity, affect storytelling and game play. (Underberg, 201)

Numerous articles, many of which reviewed, contextualized, and critiqued the current involvement of girls/females as portrayed and involved in technology and gaming were available on the Internet.  I was drawn to this educational computer game project as a focus, because it led me to draw on the works of Gloria Anzaldúa , in recognition of my own positionality as a mestiza, between-borders, a non-Spanish speaking, third generation American (Anzaldúa , 1987).  I also felt it important to draw from Anzaldúa based on the context of this past week’s Girlhood Remixed camp, which revisited the role of the female in technological fields, crossing boundaries into fields that reveal professional positions, which are historically predominantly male: “Necesitamos teorıas that will rewrite history using race, class, gender and ethnicity as categories of analysis, categories that cross borders, that blur boundaries—new kinds of theories with new theorizing methods” (Anzaldúa 1990, xxv).

It seems that historically, video game creators have either drawn the damsel in distress female, or the hypermasculine female with impossible bodily measurements.  However, with educational games such as with “The Turkey Maiden,” there is hope that games will be created where the female doesn’t have to be the subversive Cinderella, but can save herself based on measurements of her own capabilities, not those positioned next to the male.