It is my contention that although identity has changed since 1944, the
socialization of girls’ sexuality continues to position them in the same
location as Seventeen Magazine’s 1944
debut. In other words, all three waves of feminism have made huge advances in girls empowerment in education, their technical abilities, and their confidence in career building. However, given similar stories of magazines and commonplaces, girls are still reading about how to get the boy. It is my concern that girls’ sexual scripts have remained unchanged and girls
are still trying to find ways to get boys to notice them. Instead of the
traumatic stories about sexting, my view is that sexting has become a different
vehicle to be noticed. Unfortunately, the lack of knowledge about female
adolescent desire only heightens the panic over this new form of getting
attention. Therefore it is important to understand how girls and boys are
socialized into their sexual scripts, and how the term empowerment by such
franchises as GGW were used as a covert means to objectify girlhood and how media today, through the latest form of sexting continues to obscure the word 'empowerment' in order to maintain a double sexual standard. In other words, girls are still taught to deny any sexual desire exists and because of this there is a dis-empowerment for girls according to Deborah Tolman who writes about female adolescent desire.
Wow – I think is a great topic. I would be interested in looking at how Seventeen compares with teen magazines in other first-world countries, especially ones that are more socially progressive than the US (I am thinking of pretty much most of Western Europe, especially Scandinavia). I don’t know anything about teen magazines in those countries, but I wonder if they’re more feminist-based … ? Something to consider I think.
ReplyDeleteAnother fantastic topic! I find it interested that on the Redbook website and on the sidelines of Yahoo articles are topics such as: "7 Ways to Keep Your Man Interested," or "10 of the Hottest Looks Your Man Wants." Those were off the cuff, but you get the picture, right? From girlhood to womanhood, messages are being sent to the girl and woman that they need to work hard to both get and keep the boy/man. Interesting messages being sent!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, teen media still revolves around the old idea of how to catch a boy. Times have changed, women have careers in just about anything, and media still beats the dead horse. Your paper focuses in a topic that is not only interesting, but needed to understand today's teen culture.
ReplyDeleteNora
You might think about Seventeen as a modern conduct manual. Conduct manuals exploded in popularity in the early 1900s with people being instructed on the right ways to do everything - wear clothes, sign greeting cards, start dinner conversation. Might be another string of research for you down the road!
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