What is Girls Studies? Why Girls Studies?
Girls Studies. It seems easy to define at first…until I think about it, and what it's like to be a girl. It’s a complex definition because we live a complex society. Everywhere that we turn we are told to be something different. The media, the government, our parents, our communities, our girlfriends, our boyfriends, and our teachers are all telling us different things. That barely leaves room for what we tell ourselves. It can be a confusing world, especially if we aren’t old enough to understand that we live in a world full of cultural, social, institutional, and political pressures.
So I suppose that Girls Studies attempts to dissect the types of pressure and oppression that young women face, how they deal with these adversities, and how we can create a society that does not face girls with these hardships. A friend of mine asked me how Girls Studies is different than Womens Studies. The only thing I could think to tell them was that girls face a whole different set of issues than grown women face. Not only do they live in a world where they are marginalized because of their gender, but they are also faced with the added pressure of being in a socially constructed demographic that is heavily targeted as consumers and at the same time labeled as drowning Ophelias in a crisis.
Chapter 2 of All About the Girl explains that there are several problems with the field of Girls Studies. The scrutiny of the field reminded me of the way that Second Wave Feminism is scrutinized and how the Third Wave is an attempt to ratify the problems of the Second Wave. For example, early research in the field of girls studies focused on white, straight, able-bodied, middle-class girls. This was also a complaint for the Second Wave. The Third Wave, along with newer research in girls studies, attempts include women of all races, classes, and sexual orientations. Considering intersectionality and the web of oppression is important in this field.
After completing the reading I realize that an important aspect of Girls Studies is not only to study others, but also to look within myself, learn from the experiences of my own adolescence, and connect my history with the experiences of a younger generation of women.
So I suppose that Girls Studies attempts to dissect the types of pressure and oppression that young women face, how they deal with these adversities, and how we can create a society that does not face girls with these hardships. A friend of mine asked me how Girls Studies is different than Womens Studies. The only thing I could think to tell them was that girls face a whole different set of issues than grown women face. Not only do they live in a world where they are marginalized because of their gender, but they are also faced with the added pressure of being in a socially constructed demographic that is heavily targeted as consumers and at the same time labeled as drowning Ophelias in a crisis.
Chapter 2 of All About the Girl explains that there are several problems with the field of Girls Studies. The scrutiny of the field reminded me of the way that Second Wave Feminism is scrutinized and how the Third Wave is an attempt to ratify the problems of the Second Wave. For example, early research in the field of girls studies focused on white, straight, able-bodied, middle-class girls. This was also a complaint for the Second Wave. The Third Wave, along with newer research in girls studies, attempts include women of all races, classes, and sexual orientations. Considering intersectionality and the web of oppression is important in this field.
After completing the reading I realize that an important aspect of Girls Studies is not only to study others, but also to look within myself, learn from the experiences of my own adolescence, and connect my history with the experiences of a younger generation of women.
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