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.