AmWasIsGirl?
I've noticed that when I think of Girls Studies, I tend to acknowledge that I know very little about girlhood outside of my wmc 'white middle class' experience, and that I want to and need to learn about what girlhood is like for everyone who isn't part of my tiny subsection of girls. Really though, even though I acknowledge that I'm in a hyper privileged minority, my real tendency is to define everything in Girls Studies according to my experience. Having a space to reflect on and analyze my experience of girlhood is almost too tempting. My memories and stories of growing up and how my culture and family and friends and institutions influenced me, and how I influenced them, is a realm inside my head that I can explore and share for long chunks of time because it's personal...and who doesn't want to hear how I got to be the fab person I am? ; ).
So first I noticed that I tend to define Girls Studies along my experience of girlhood, and perhaps moreso than other women because girlhood was so recent for me. I considered myself a girl up to somewhere in my 18-19year-old-ness. And it's always dangerous to study a group of people from the outside, right? The dangers of assumptions and generalizations are everywhere. The authors of Young Feminity include the "feminist disclaimers" in their introduction: Our research is limited and in some ways limiting, When we include girls' voices "[w]e do not contend that...we are presenting the 'authentic voices' of girls of attempting to capture the truth from girls themselves" (16).
So here I am at age 19. My girlhood is recent and yet I, a woman--or at least an adult, have somehow distanced myself from that section of my life. I don't consider myself a girl, and I am studying girls.
And then something clicks. Who says I ever was a girl? How could I be a girl at 18 and a woman at 19? Why do I have to discard my girl self and distance myself from her to become a woman? Why can't I just be a person from the time I'm born to the time I die...who is defining me as girl child and woman adult...and WHY? And why do I accept these outside definitions to the point that I think of my life as broken into two chunks?
So it turns out girlhood is a construction, eh? It's funny how I think about the genders man and woman as "constructions"--categories people in societies have cooked up and attached values and rules to--but I haven't thought of age categories as society's constructions.
I have lots of ideas about how adults benefited from me considering myself a girl, who was less than a woman, as I was "growing up". I wonder how I treat girls as less than women now, now that I've graduated to the real-person-grown-up-adult-woman category. Even though I try not to.
And what do you know? It's so easy to relate girls studies to my life. I feel like I should mention that I also wonder what girls in other parts of the world (or girls who aren't white and middle class in the U.S., or girls who are white and middle class but aren't me) think about being part of the fuzzy, made-up category 'girl'.
So first I noticed that I tend to define Girls Studies along my experience of girlhood, and perhaps moreso than other women because girlhood was so recent for me. I considered myself a girl up to somewhere in my 18-19year-old-ness. And it's always dangerous to study a group of people from the outside, right? The dangers of assumptions and generalizations are everywhere. The authors of Young Feminity include the "feminist disclaimers" in their introduction: Our research is limited and in some ways limiting, When we include girls' voices "[w]e do not contend that...we are presenting the 'authentic voices' of girls of attempting to capture the truth from girls themselves" (16).
So here I am at age 19. My girlhood is recent and yet I, a woman--or at least an adult, have somehow distanced myself from that section of my life. I don't consider myself a girl, and I am studying girls.
And then something clicks. Who says I ever was a girl? How could I be a girl at 18 and a woman at 19? Why do I have to discard my girl self and distance myself from her to become a woman? Why can't I just be a person from the time I'm born to the time I die...who is defining me as girl child and woman adult...and WHY? And why do I accept these outside definitions to the point that I think of my life as broken into two chunks?
So it turns out girlhood is a construction, eh? It's funny how I think about the genders man and woman as "constructions"--categories people in societies have cooked up and attached values and rules to--but I haven't thought of age categories as society's constructions.
I have lots of ideas about how adults benefited from me considering myself a girl, who was less than a woman, as I was "growing up". I wonder how I treat girls as less than women now, now that I've graduated to the real-person-grown-up-adult-woman category. Even though I try not to.
And what do you know? It's so easy to relate girls studies to my life. I feel like I should mention that I also wonder what girls in other parts of the world (or girls who aren't white and middle class in the U.S., or girls who are white and middle class but aren't me) think about being part of the fuzzy, made-up category 'girl'.
Comments
I believe every girl becomes a "woman" at different times, and I think it is something very personal. It annoys me how parents tend to say "you're a woman now!" when you get your period for the first time or buy your first bra. What if a girl can't get her period for medical reasons? Does she never become a woman?!
Anyway, my point is that being a woman isn't about growing boobs or getting your period. Becoming a woman, for me at least, is becoming fully aware of the barriers that hold you back and knowing that you can overcome them.