Good girl or bad girl? I'm neither.
During my childhood, I always played outside all afternoon. I loved to bike, run, and swim in our pool with all of my friends. I did not have much experience with the internet, as far as blogging and social networks, until just recently. Walsh and Mitchell educated me on this idea of a “virtual bedroom” for girls. I don’t have a Myspace account, but I looked around at some Myspace pages for the wallpaper, stickers, and gadgets they discussed. Girls need places where they can express themselves, while also feeling somewhat protected and have control. Now we have websites packed with educational information and support that addresses girls' bodies, school, and friends. Just as the piece on Ghana girls shows, it is also empowering and liberating for girls to know that technology is not just for boys.
“In the good girl/bad girl dichotomy, the good girl next door isn't free; she's enmeshed in male conventions of perfection and the obligation to fulfill them. The bad girl isn't free either; she's labeled, used, and trashed” (Merskin). This is a lose-lose situation. And when I say lose, I mean girls lose their self-esteem either way. I remember sitting down in my room, right after staring middle school, and trying to figure out if I wanted to be the “good girl” or “bad girl”. I picked “good girl” by the way. Unfortunately, I did not come anywhere close to meeting the ideal body standard at the time. When puberty hit me, it hit me hard. I had way more curves than the other girls. Soon I found out that it was impossible to keep my good-girl status when my body looked like one of a grown woman’s at 14. I felt like crap about myself from that point on. So what do we do? Well, I saw on the websites listed in the Jammer Girls piece, and I visited all of them. I could not believe my eyes. These websites (Ad Busters, Adios Barbie, and About-Face) are awesome! It was so amazing to see letters and hear of phone calls made by young teenagers disgusted with fashion ads, and taking action against the people publishing them. We feminists need to find a way to make these websites and websites like them, more popular. All girls need to see them. As Merskin points out, girlhood is “a time characterized by intense self-consciousness and self-scrutiny, advertising that targets adolescent girls usually spotlights solutions to personal conflicts and challenges that are solvable by the purchase of the right clothes, cosmetics, hair ornaments, and other beauty products.” If girls never see these websites that go against mainstream, they will never know there is another option. You don’t have to be a “good girl” or a “bad girl”. You don’t have to be anorexic, a man’s possession, or buy everything in those magazines.
“In the good girl/bad girl dichotomy, the good girl next door isn't free; she's enmeshed in male conventions of perfection and the obligation to fulfill them. The bad girl isn't free either; she's labeled, used, and trashed” (Merskin). This is a lose-lose situation. And when I say lose, I mean girls lose their self-esteem either way. I remember sitting down in my room, right after staring middle school, and trying to figure out if I wanted to be the “good girl” or “bad girl”. I picked “good girl” by the way. Unfortunately, I did not come anywhere close to meeting the ideal body standard at the time. When puberty hit me, it hit me hard. I had way more curves than the other girls. Soon I found out that it was impossible to keep my good-girl status when my body looked like one of a grown woman’s at 14. I felt like crap about myself from that point on. So what do we do? Well, I saw on the websites listed in the Jammer Girls piece, and I visited all of them. I could not believe my eyes. These websites (Ad Busters, Adios Barbie, and About-Face) are awesome! It was so amazing to see letters and hear of phone calls made by young teenagers disgusted with fashion ads, and taking action against the people publishing them. We feminists need to find a way to make these websites and websites like them, more popular. All girls need to see them. As Merskin points out, girlhood is “a time characterized by intense self-consciousness and self-scrutiny, advertising that targets adolescent girls usually spotlights solutions to personal conflicts and challenges that are solvable by the purchase of the right clothes, cosmetics, hair ornaments, and other beauty products.” If girls never see these websites that go against mainstream, they will never know there is another option. You don’t have to be a “good girl” or a “bad girl”. You don’t have to be anorexic, a man’s possession, or buy everything in those magazines.
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