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Young Femininity: Girlhood, Power and Social Change
This text draws on international work to do with femininity, identity and youth cultures to explore how girlhood is defined and portrayed in contemporary theoretical and popular discourses, and to examine how young women from different social backgrounds and cultural contexts negotiate their gendered identities. Encompassing topics such as sexuality, the body, friendship, family, education, work and citizenship, this is an appealing and wide-ranging text for students of sociology, gender studies and cultural studies.
248 pages, Paperback
First published February 5, 2005
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About the author
Sinikka Aapola
4 booksSinikka Aapola is a researcher in the Department of Sociology at the University of Helsinki, Finland.
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March 1, 2008
Aapola, Gonick and Harris have collected essays that explore interpretations of girlhood, issues faced by girls in the 21st century, and their responses to these issues in the course of growing up female. The hegemonic discourses that define young femininity also create marginalized others who do not conform to this standard. Through a multi-disciplinary approach, using a variety of methods, the authors seek to answer the following questions:
1. “How is girlhood defined within media, contemporary theory, and pedagogical and psychological discourses” (Aapola, Gonick, and Harris 2005:4)?
2. “What kinds of possibilities do these discourses surrounding femininity and youth create for girls in negotiating their own gendered identities, and what global socio-economic forces come to bear on this process” (Aapola, Gonick, and Harris 2005:4)?
3. “What are the strategies girls use in their effors to find their way among traditions, new possibilities and challenges” (Aapola, Gonick, and Harris 2005:4)?
The authors “question the normative ways in which the category [of girl] is consctructed within the social contexts of schools, work, popular culture, and families” (Aapola, Gonick, and Harris 2005:6).
Main topics:
• “Girlhood” as a contested and historically located term, constructed by media, youth and gender studies, and cultural, pedagogical, and psychological discourses.
• Girlhood within the context of 21st century economic and social forces.
• The negotiation of young feminine identities and their relationships to the body, friendships, and sexuality.
• The politics of girlhood.
While careful not to misrepresent this work as representative of girlhood or to deny the interventions of the researchers in selecting material for the book, they do include selections from girls throughout. The authors do this to demonstrate the inability to read the “contemporary meanings of girlhood as coherent, contained, and fully comprehensible,” to non-girls (Aapola, Gonick, and Harris 2005:16).
This collection pays particular attention to the effects of postindustrial globalization and the different meanings of opportunity: the implications on access to necessary educational and job opportunities. While it does get away from the U.S.-centric literature, its treatment of the effects of globalization is decidedly still a Western point of view.
1. “How is girlhood defined within media, contemporary theory, and pedagogical and psychological discourses” (Aapola, Gonick, and Harris 2005:4)?
2. “What kinds of possibilities do these discourses surrounding femininity and youth create for girls in negotiating their own gendered identities, and what global socio-economic forces come to bear on this process” (Aapola, Gonick, and Harris 2005:4)?
3. “What are the strategies girls use in their effors to find their way among traditions, new possibilities and challenges” (Aapola, Gonick, and Harris 2005:4)?
The authors “question the normative ways in which the category [of girl] is consctructed within the social contexts of schools, work, popular culture, and families” (Aapola, Gonick, and Harris 2005:6).
Main topics:
• “Girlhood” as a contested and historically located term, constructed by media, youth and gender studies, and cultural, pedagogical, and psychological discourses.
• Girlhood within the context of 21st century economic and social forces.
• The negotiation of young feminine identities and their relationships to the body, friendships, and sexuality.
• The politics of girlhood.
While careful not to misrepresent this work as representative of girlhood or to deny the interventions of the researchers in selecting material for the book, they do include selections from girls throughout. The authors do this to demonstrate the inability to read the “contemporary meanings of girlhood as coherent, contained, and fully comprehensible,” to non-girls (Aapola, Gonick, and Harris 2005:16).
This collection pays particular attention to the effects of postindustrial globalization and the different meanings of opportunity: the implications on access to necessary educational and job opportunities. While it does get away from the U.S.-centric literature, its treatment of the effects of globalization is decidedly still a Western point of view.
Displaying 1 of 1 review