Heteronormativity and Relationship Ed

Heard a story on NPR's Morning Edition today about abuse in young adult romantic relationships. I certainly appreciate the sentiments behind the healthy dating programs discussed in the story, but they seem to rest upon flawed, monolithic assumptions about teen desire and sexuality. The report applies this reasoning to the ways that teens interact in dating relationships:

"Teens are being exposed to these things at a very crucial moment in their development, when they are becoming interested in the opposite sex and when they're trying to establish a sexual identity. Up until adolescence, Wolfe (professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Toronto) points out, they've been relating to people of the same sex" (parenthesis added).

I'll definitely agree that socialization is gendered in that it is encouraged that boys play with boys and girls play with girls, but to carry that gender socialization over into questions about romantic relationships and sexual desire reaks of heteronormativity, and I won't agree that that is a good thing. If the folks running these programs assume their students are destined for heterosexual dating relationships, they further marginalize lesbian and gay teens and continue to mask the fact that abuse (emotional, physical, sexual, and otherwise) can and does occur in a variety of intimate relationships. When the goal is to provide students with a toolbox for engaging in complex relationships that may introduce them to the complications of sex, commitment, compromise, and power dynamics, it is unfortunate that these programs neglect a substantial portion of their audiences and, in effect, deny the importance of inclusive health education.

the fbomb

The definitions of feminist activism are many, and while the jury may be out on where blogging falls along that definitional spectrum, I'm inclined to declare the fbomb a sophisticated example of active, young feminism. It's not often that I come across 'by girls, for girls' projects that earnestly work toward feminist objectives and candidly express feminist perspectives (see the sometimes mess that is gurl.com). Certainly, the fbomb stands to gain a lot from more diverse feminist viewpoints and experiences, especially in terms of race, sexualities, and relationships among so-called 'first' and 'third' world women, but Julie's doing a pretty bang-up job thus far. I look forward to seeing how the project develops as Julie grows/changes/learns as a feminist.

The Barbie 'Issue'

Are we supposed to be impressed with Mattel's new line of African American Barbies? Are we to applaud Mattel for being so progressive, finally producing, in 2009, its iconic Barbie in several shades of brown?* I'm surprised at the amount of folks who actually are happy with the So in Style line of Barbies, or at least, the amount of folks who aren't as critical as I think this moment in Barbie history warrants. Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly behind efforts to diversify the world of dolls, but the way in which we've been introduced to the So in Style line makes me a little wary of this effort. See, for example, a supplement to the July 2009 issue of Vogue Italia - a tribute to 50-year-old Barbie featuring dolls of color in some interesting (ah, I love how vague that descriptor is) contexts. There are the S&M dolls, the bathing beauties, the lingerie-clad models, and the supplement itself is a nod to last year's 'all black' issue of Vogue Italia - an issue that is often read as a statement on the whitewashed fashion industry. It certainly says something that there must be a purposeful effort to produce an all black issue of Vogue and that the follow up this year is questionable in its depictions of black dolls. At the very least, I think we can safely say that that something these texts tell us is that most youth culture in the West remains white youth culture.

*The very first black Barbie appeared in 1980, but the first black doll in the Barbie family was Christie, who became friends with Barbie in 1968. Anyway, the difference between the earlier incarnations and the So in Style line is that the latter are touted as representing more 'authentic' or 'real' black girls and teens.

Back to it/the party!

I've been gone from this blog for some time, as I was holding down another blog during an education abroad program in Rome and then enjoying a bit of a respite from the blogosphere (not to mention other responsibilities). I hope to be back on semi-regular basis in the coming months - at least as often as I stumble across girl culture moments here and there.

For my first post back, I mostly just want to share a fantastic internet item that my friend Allison turned me on to. It's not necessarily new news, but I think it's important news and worth reminding everyone about if they've encountered it previously but since moved on. If you haven't seen Amy Poehler's series "Smart Girls at the Party" on ON Networks (.com), and you have a vested interest in girls' lives/girlhood studies/girl culture, you must grab a cup of tea, get comfy in your computer chair, and blow through every episode as soon as possible. Poehler and her co-creators use this series as a testament to the agency of girls and youth culture, and it's freakin' funny. The show is devoted to "extraordinary individuals who are changing the world by being themselves" - it just so happens that these individuals are girls. Unfortunately, it appears that no new episodes have been taped since "Smart Girls" premiered last fall, but I sincerely hope that another season is in the near future.

Indulge me here, because I have to plug my favorite episode: "The Feminist - Ruby" . . .

Stakes is High*

There have been cases of suspected gas poisoning at three girls' schools in Afghanistan. Earlier this year, Afghani girls attending school were sprayed with acid, resulting in scarring and discoloration on their faces, as well as damage to their eyesight.

Globally, it's not always easy for girls to go to school (not only in 'developing' nations but also those that get classified as 'developed'), and that is why I'll link back here to the United Nations Girls Education Initiative (UNGEI). I posted about this initiative a few months ago, and while I still want to press a bit more on the concept of education and what it is to engage in intervention, I have a vested interest as an educator and long-time student in emphasizing the seriousness of gender differences and disparities in diverse kinds of educational processes. What is at stake for girls who desire education?

*Unfortunately, I can't claim the title - credit to De La Soul.

The Lost Boys of Disney

How does one address issues of girlhood and girl culture without considering everyone's favorite youth empire: Disney? I must confront the Disney fates now, as a particularly salient point about the conglomerate's television network and marketing appeared in the New York Times online a couple days ago. This article sets up yet another "crisis of boyhood" scenario, however, it is Disney Channel that is most put out by this crisis. That is, with programs like Hannah Montana driving the sales of related merchandise, girls are literally investing in the brand, but boys are not (although, interestingly enough, males make up 40% of the audience tuning into Disney Channel).

The most frustrating component of the article is the way in which Disney Channel relies on scientific experts to decode the complex psychological terrain that is boys' brains. Girls are easy and transparent, so to speak, and so they become devoted to a program and its related products much quicker than savvy and capable boys with multiple interests:

"The guys are trickier to pin down for a host of reasons. They hop more quickly than their female counterparts from sporting activities to television to video games during leisure time. They can also be harder to understand: the cliché that girls are more willing to chitchat about their feelings is often true."

Boiling viewers and consumers down to demographics communicates media reliance on the false, yet persistent, dualism that girls are superficial and boys are complex. Clearly, gendered expectations contribute to rubrics that girls and boys must live up to, lest they perform "abnormally." What's more transparent than their female viewers, I'm inclined to argue, are Disney's marketing strategies.

Girls and Reproductive Rights

Very recently, a judge ruled that over the counter emergency contraception should be made available to customers 17 and older (the age requirement was previously 18). Not a month later, a teenager in Fairfax, VA received a two week suspension and a recommendation for expulsion when she was seen taking her daily birth control pill during lunchtime. These are not unrelated stories in the contemporary context of reproductive rights discourses, and specific to this blog, as they are related to questions of girls' rights. Both instances raise concerns about girls' bodies and to what extent they are capable of making decisions regarding their individual bodies - especially as those decisions affect the capacity for reproduction (which is certainly highly classed and racialized - although the Fairfax teen's identity was not revealed, is it not fair to ask the question, "Would a black or Latina teenager have been condemned similarly for essentially preventing a possible pregnancy?"). Now, it seems that all instances of students popping pills, be they aspirin or Ecstasy tabs, are grounds for punishment, but the significant element in the case of a female student taking birth control pills is that this medication is related to reproduction and (hetero)sexualized, warranted or not. Interestingly, the Washington Post reports that the suspended teen spent her time away from school poring over the Student Responsibilities and Rights handbook that indicated her fate. Her close reading indicated the following:

"If she had been caught high on LSD, heroin or another illegal drug, she found, she would have been suspended for five days. Taking her prescribed birth-control pill on campus drew the same punishment as bringing a gun to school would have."

Indeed, is birth control - in the broadest sense - akin to gun control? Is emergency contraception in the hands of a 17 year old somehow reminiscent of Columbine? I have a bit more confidence in girls than these strange discursive relationships indicate we should/might. What are reproductive rights to girls (in the U.S., at least), and who knows "best" in terms of upholding those rights?

I've been hesitant . . .

to blog about Rihanna and Chris Brown. Virtually all of the coverage of this "incident" has been distasteful, stereotypical, and all-around disheartening. Rihanna is caught in the double bind of having to either forgive Brown or demonstrate her strength and independence by rejecting him. Brown is often constructed as having been exposed to negative, violent, hypermasculine influences that tacitly pushed him to commit abuse.

I do think this issue is salient, especially as it exists at a nexus of cultural complexities, including abusive intimate partnerships, gender representations in mass media, and expectations of public figures who exist in a popular cult(ure) of celebrity, but I have no interest in perpetuating the "bad" discussions surrounding it. I was intrigued, then, when I saw this article in the New York Times, entitled "Teenage Girls Stand By Their Man."* This article is full of assumptions about 'how girls think,' as individuals and members of a collective girl culture, but it raises a lot of great points for further, more productive discussion about intimate partner violence and the reality of this particular example as spectacle. It's a piece that might be fruitful for discussion in the college classroom, especially.

*See if you can spot the nod to "girls' bedroom culture" (I concede the high nerd-factor in this asterisk point).

Dora Update

I previously posted about the changes to Dora's "little girl" image. The new Dora has been revealed, and particularly like this sarcastic discussion of the changes (the image can be found there, as well). She may not be all that sexed up, but the makeover is rather drastic, I think. One blogger noted that she was pleased Nickelodeon and Mattel did not lighten Dora's skin color. I'll say cheers to that, but I'm most displeased that Dora's lost her tomboy qualities. I read this image as a little heavy on the message, "I'm attracted to boys, and boys are attracted to me."

Gender Segregation in the Classroom

I'm not talking about girls or boys only schools here. This NYT article discusses the move to separate girls and boys in coeducational institutions. One of the motivators seems to be improving test scores, but I must press for more. Certainly, there were/are arguments to be made about the ways in which children and young adults are treated differently in the classroom due to gender/gendered performances, but this move to segregated learning environs seems much less critical in terms of addressing issues with teacher training and gender socialization. I'm not sold on the reification of heteronormativity or the ever-present gendered norms, either.

Save Dora!

I'm not really one for children's shows, but I do love me some Dora the Explorer. I was disheartened (as apparently a lot of folks were) when I learned that my girl with the backpack is likely going to be subject to an extreme makeover of sorts, due to her corporate owners' needs to sell more Dora. Sharon Lamb and Lyn Mikel Brown explain the "terms and conditions," so to speak, of Dora's makeover fate on their blog Packaging Girlhood (sound familiar? it's also the title of their co-authored book), and also provide a nice critique of the move to make Dora in the image of the 'tween' set. Also linked on the blog is a petition that you can sign to protest the transformation.

This should be an interesting case study (although extremely limited) in Internet activism and girl culture. I do encourage petition-signing!

Girls & Video Games: A MetaBlog(?)

This post is more about another blog post I bumped into on feministing.com than what knowledge or experience I have with gaming. I do think the questions in the video of Brenda Laurel's TED talk speak directly to those underlying the study of girlhoods - namely, "Why not girls?," "Where are the girls?," and "What do girls have to say?" Further, let's be clear that envisioning games for girls does not mean defaulting to pink packaging and slumber party premises.

In related news, the only video game that has my heart (and puzzle pieces of my girlhood) to this day: Tetris.

Title IX and the Crisis of Boyhood

When I was teaching public speaking last summer, one of my students was interested in focusing on Title IX in her policy speech. In the policy speech assignment, students are expected to propose a policy plan that addresses an issue that they argue is in urgent need of addressing. I get plenty of repetitive topic proposals - the 'obesity epidemic,' banning smoking in public, alternative energy sources, etc. - but gender-related issues are not often on the radar (unless, of course, we count the ol' abortion speech). Title IX especially is one of those topics that doesn't even register with students born around 1990. I was quite surprised, then, when a female student wanted to speak to this relic of gendered legal battles, and what's more, she was sincerely invested in its repeal.

It turned out that this student's interest in Title IX sprung from a funding issue with her brother's high school sports team (I believe it was track), and she argued that her brother's championship team deserved the monies that allegedly went instead to a women's sports team in their high school. The boys, she insisted, were victims of reverse discrimination.

A female student opposes Title IX. I certainly do not want to implicate this student (or others - I once had an African American student who fervently opposed affirmative action policies) as ignorant or apathetic, nor would I want to squash the possibilities for radical activism. However, I must wonder aloud when the multiple crises of boyhood and masculinity will begin to tone down a bit? I just cannot buy into these concerns, as someone who finds the death grip on traditional gender roles materially comprehensible, but realistically in need of lightening up.

I'll end with this: what did my student actually find in her research on Title IX? It's difficult to say, as most of the argument revolved around this case study of her brother's experience. What should we know about this law that has serious implications for the way girls get to participate in all educational programs (that's right - it's not just about sports!)? This info page from the Women's Sports Foundation is a good place to start.

Photo from the blog friedbrains.com (not an endorsement of the blogger's politics, but the perspective on this issue is worth checking out)

Barbie Lives...On the Runway

Those Bratz really must be giving Barbie a run for her money. Although the global economic climate led numerous designers and fashion houses to scale down their New York Fashion Week events, Mattel saw fit to engineer "a lavish runway show that attracted more than 1,400 to the largest fashion tent in Bryant Park on Saturday" ("Barbie Wouldn't Wear That!" So, maybe Barbie's iconic status affords the doll and its maker a bit more salience in contemporary "girls'" toy markets than the recent Bratz boom might lead us to think? Whether it's the novelty of a real-life Barbie fashion show or its glamorous association with the Bryant Park runway that made the event successful, what's clear is the exploitation of the relationships between fashion, spectacle, girl culture, and capital.

Perhaps the images I'm including here communicate more than yet another critical analysis of 'Barbie as model for gendered expectations' ever could. I will, however, say this: what I think is visually most telling is that only the white model is clearly 'fashioned' in the classic, iconic Barbie image.

Reference: Kensler, Chris. "Barbie Wouldn't Wear That!" FOXNews.com (February 16. 2009). http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,493664,00.html (accessed February 18, 2009).

Images from FOXNews

Girls Publishing Online(?)

Whatever happened to the zine? More specifically, is the era of the grrrlzine over? These might be the inquiries of a co/counter-cultural outsider, but I do pose them in earnest. Schilt and Zobl argue that "the ethos of the Riot Grrrl movement continues today through the production of grrrl zines" (171). The grrl zine network is still accessible, but how recently has it been "up and running?" The emphasis on zines in girl and grrrl culture may have been easy to spot in the early 2000s, but the proliferation of new media formats online (blogging, social networking) have perhaps contributed to even more localized activist communities where girls can publish posts, status, and comments, rather than articles, interviews, and editorials. The most visible girls' websites that might be categorized as "zines" are not necessarily authored by girls - gurl.com, for example, is "a property of" Alloy Media + Marketing - so it's important to consider these outlets critically and perhaps trouble the zine concept (or, dare I say, the co-option of the zine concept). I don't mean to suggest that either methodology (zine V. blog) is more rhetorically and/or materially effective - I think there may be a nostalgic tone to my search for the long-lost zine - but I do think there is a need to re-survey the world of online publishing by and for girls and consider the implications of those modes for girl culture broadly.

Reference: Schilt, Kristen, and Elke Zobl. "Connecting the Dots: Riot Grrrls, Ladyfests, and the International Grrrl Zine Network." In Next Wave Cultures: Feminism, Subcultures, Activism, edited by Anita Harris, 171-192. NY: Routledge, 2008.

Image from grrrlzines.net

Girls Get Schooled

"Girls and education" was a recent seminar topic, and it got me thinking about our roles as feminist activists and academics who value access to education on a global scale. What might it mean to preach the secular education gospel and champion the right for girls to learn in classroom settings?

I didn't have to look much further than the UN for some insight as to the current status of global education implementation, especially as it relates to girls. The United Nations Girls Education Initiative (UNGEI) is a program that touts the following in its mission statement: "UNGEI partners mobilize resources for targeted project interventions, country programmes and large-scale systematic interventions designed to affect the education system as a whole." The rhetoric of intervention is simultaneously telling of the urgency with which the UN wants to attend to the educational needs of girls worldwide and reminiscent of Western imperialist tendencies. The UNGEI is not necessarily a feminist project, yet it names gender as a central tenet that shapes and drives its objectives. If we were to agree on meanings for "education" and "feminism(s)," how might we conceptualize and implement a more thoroughgoing feminist approach to global education for girls? Especially considering that the UNGEI works in conjunction with the UN's Millennium Development Goals, what qualifies as "development," who benefits from that development, and how are girls affected in particular?

Beyond the Cookies (But Not Necessarily the Cookie Sales)

While reflecting on my own girlhood and consuming a little bit of reality TV, I began thinking about a little organization known as the Girl Scouts of America. Scouting and diversity aren't necessarily concepts that go hand in hand in my memory of Girl Scouts, but multimedia marketing efforts by the GSA appear to be working hard to mend that disconnect. A recent news release on the GSA website included the following statement:

"Diversity has been a Girl Scouts core value since the organization's inception in 1912," said Laurel Richie, GSUSA SVP/Chief Marketing Officer. "Our founder, Juliette Low, strove to include girls from a variety of racial and socioeconomic backgrounds and her legacy lives on today. Girl Scouts of the USA is committed to ensuring that its membership reflects the world we live in, and is dedicated to reaching out to African-American, Asian and Latina girls and volunteers. "

One of the means by which the Girl Scouts are attempting to "reach out" is through spokeswomen Vanessa and Angela Simmons (daughters of Run DMC's Rev Run & nieces to Russell Simmons). The interesting bent on Vanessa and Angela inhabiting the Girl Scouts' 'role model' role is that they are positioned as savvy businesswomen and successful entrepreneurs in conjunction with the organization's "Financial Literacy" program. There's a beneficial tie-in for the Girls Scouts, who gain exposure via Vanessa and Angela's MTV reality show Daddy's Girls, and for the Simmons' shoe and apparel line Pastry. I wonder about the benefits/complexities/implications that might arise out of the relationships among scouting, capitalism, and the 'diversification' of girl culture.

Image from nataliedee.com

Iconic Girlhood - Beanie Babies Version

Unsurprisingly, we're already on to the next installment of the narrative that is the Obama girls' first girlhood. The Associated Press reported that the folks who bring you Beanie Babies (apparently they're still making/selling them - is a mid-nineties revival in the air?), Ty Inc., have put out a couple of dolls named "Marvelous Malia" and "Sweet Sasha." The company denies that the dolls are in any way made in the first daughters' likenesses, but I wonder how many Beanie Babies of color have come before? Read the story here.

Image from Huffington Post.

'Diary of a Pakistani Schoolgirl'

Map from BBC News.

While I was clicking here and there on BBC News online yesterday, I happened upon the headline, "Diary of a Pakistani Schoolgirl." The first set of diary entries are prefaced with the following:

"Private schools in Pakistan's troubled north-western Swat district have been ordered to close in a Taleban edict banning girls' education. Militants seeking to impose their austere interpretation of Sharia law have destroyed about 150 schools in the past year. Five more were blown up despite a government pledge to safeguard education, it was reported on Monday. Here a seventh grade schoolgirl from Swat chronicles how the ban has affected her and her classmates. The diary first appeared on BBC Urdu online."

The girl reports in a 15 January entry that she is publishing her writing under the pen name 'Gul Makai.' The diary format is a traditionally feminized form of writing and demonstrates explicitly the overlap of private/public, personal/political.

Iconic Girlhood - The Office of the First Daughter

It seems as though the presidency would be one of the furthest cultural institutions from girlhood studies, but the presidential inauguration is a timely way into the topic area of this commonplace blog. During and immediately following the inaugural ceremonies and the 44th president's speech last Tuesday, Barack and Michelle Obama's daughters were in the media spotlight for their fashion savvy (along with their mother) and their meeting with the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus at The Kids Inaugural. So far, the first daughters' places in the realm of U.S. iconic girlhood can be plotted at the nexus of 'wearing cool clothes' and 'rubbing elbows with tween pop stars.'

Amidst the clamor of the Obama girls' newfound and intense celebrity, the Wall Street Journal published an open letter addressed to Malia and Sasha from the former first daughters (and if I may go 20th century on you, also the former first granddaughters), Jenna and Barbara Bush. The letter ran under the headline, "Playing House in the White House;" the Bush twins provide advice on how to inhabit the first daughter role with heavy emphasis on the place where the Obama girls will mostly be expected to play that role - in the White House. I am deeply interested in how the first African American first daughters' experiences will compare to those who have come before them (mainly the most recent first daughters, including Jenna and Barbara Bush, Chelsea Clinton, and Patti Davis), as well as how their girlhoods are and will continue to be portrayed in multi-media outlets.

Above image from eonline.

Girl Studies & What I/We Might Be Doing Here...

I've initiated this blog in part to work through a semester-long graduate seminar assignment, as well as a means to sharing thoughts (my own and others) on personal/public experiences and expressions of girl culture. The structure of the blog is that of a "commonplace book," so I'll be posting as I encounter media, have interpersonal interactions, and at times, just need to work through thoughts on the subject matter and its relationships with theories of gender and feminisms.

Wow, that sounds kind of academic-y and boring, but that's not necessarily a 'bad' thing. Entries will (hopefully) become increasingly more interesting as I figure out what's doing here. Thanks for perusing.