Feminism and the Inner Child

 Feminism and the Inner Child

 

            Psychologists have spent decades analyzing the concept of the inner child as established by Carl Jung and the way it impacts our daily lives. An inner child, as stated by Crystal Raypole on Healthline, is the expression of your child self and the life experiences of all your life stages. Connecting to your inner child comes more complex as the years pass and adulthood creeps into every aspect of one’s life. The inner child is noted as a significant part of who we are as people because of the experiences we have as children play an enormous role in our adult lives and our qualities. This topic is especially interesting when you apply it to the notion of girl’s studies and assess it from the feminist perspective.

 

            Feminist scholars who specialize in Girl Studies assess the dimensions of what it is to be a girl in modern cultural and social contexts. In my personal experience, I remember taking my first girl studies course and feeling powerfully moved by the idea that feminists, women specifically, need to assess their own inner child in some sense when approaching Girl’s Studies. Even though there may be some generational variations, there are common themes that girls tend to collectively experience that need to be regarded and reflected especially from a feminist scholar’s perspective. For instance, girls tend to experience hyper-sexualization from young ages and this can vary depending on race, community, and cultural background. It’s powerful to be able to trace one’s assessments on these topics back to their own experiences. When I was in middle school, and even before, uniforms were strictly set to restrict the ways students dressed but they were more heavily leaning towards girls. Many times, did I, or my friends, experience harassment by teachers due to “the color of our bras,” “visible bra straps,” the length of our shorts, the tightness of our jeans, etc. it seemed there was no adequate way to please the education systems incessant need to police our bodies. Girls who experience such this behavior from young ages are programmed to be hyperaware of their bodies and their clothing all throughout their lives, even unconsciously. 

 

            Growing up being constantly policed by parents and teachers, experiencing shame at our own developing bodies, and perpetually put down for our interests in just about anything takes a toll on the way that girls develop and grow into adults. Feminist scholars can attest to the way that common experiences can impact entire generations of women and even create hostile environments for women in the future. For instance, black girls are more sexualized more frequently than white girls in almost every setting from childhood to adulthood and therefore it expands the sexual violence that black women face. Being able to reflect on the way our inner child relates to certain situations and utilizing these experiences to enhance our perspective’s on girl studies can be crucial. Even if you are not a woman, being able to assess the experiences of other children’s bystander experiences is also extremely helpful.

 

 

Reference:

https://www.healthline.com/health/inner-child#look-to-children

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233628075_Girls_Today_-_Girls_Girl_Culture_and_Girl_Studies