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.