girls and girls studies

Girls Studies.  When asked by others what this course was about, I replied simply: “It’s about girlhood in the United States.”  Then of course, people gave me quizzical looks and left it at that.  Confronting this complex idea about girls and the study of their metamorphosis in society, was difficult for me to deconstruct.  I suppose to some extent, it was challenging in that I could only reconcile the definition of “Girls Studies” by understanding its definition in relation to my own girlhood- not necessarily a place I liked revisiting.  Reaching into my personal past, and connecting those buried oppressions with the pressures that plague girls today, allows for a deeper understanding of these pressures, and thus the movement to reshape the society in which we raise our girls.  Upon further reflection, I decided that girlhood is a sliding term, capable of being shaped and redefined by the person or entity claiming its definition.  Whether it be shaped by our own personal experiences (as was my case), or molded by the tv shows we grow up on, the films we indulge in or the books we escape to, or even, the ideals our parents hold us to, girlhood and consequently its study is not something easily defined.

I hope that this course broadens my understanding of the multiple issues that face girls in America today.  If I had been aware of such an area of study growing up, I would like to think I would have been more privy to the social constructions and pressures that govern the way we think about ourselves as women.  For the young women facing these pressures today, it is a confusing world when you can’t identify that the feeling weighing you down every morning when you see yourself in the mirror and realize that you’re not quite at pretty as the girls on the WB (rather, the CW) as pressures.  With these overwhelming influences feeding our minds and flooding our perceptions of ourselves, it’s not wonder why self esteem is plummeting during a time when you are “supposed” to be discovering (and enjoying) what it is that makes you different from everyone else.

In light of these issues, Girls Studies appears to be the deconstruction of the pressures, influenced by the media, politics, advertisements, parents, that force girls to place themselves under a label and in a box in order to “find themselves.”  Girls Studies is the attempt to recognize these pressures as issues that obstruct the ability of girls to be themselves, whoever that may be, and create an environment where young girls don’t feel obligated to be someone they are not.  If they don’t like pink, why should they be lesbian?  If they play soccer, but like ballet, why should that make them weird?  It shouldn’t.  Girls should be allowed to be girls, whatever they may be.  In Chapter 2 (Women, Girls, and the Unfinished Work of Connection: A Critical Review of American Girls’ Studies) in “All About the Girl,” Jane Victoria and Beth Cooper Benjamin map the shifts and fissures in the study of the development of girls in America since the 1990s.  Bringing to light such issues as the predominant focus of oppression in middle class white girls, the current state of Girls Studies seeks to broaden its focus and study to encompass girls of various backgrounds, orientations and situations.