Girlhood and the Plastic Image

by Heather Warren-Crow

You are girlish, our images tell us. You are plastic. Girlhood and the Plastic Image explains how, revealing the increasing girlishness of contemporary media. The figure of the girl has long been prized for its mutability, for the assumed instability and flexibility of the not-yet-woman. The plasticity of girlish identity has met its match in the plastic world of digital art and cinema. A richly satisfying interdisciplinary study showing girlish transformation to be a widespread condition of mediation, Girlhood and the Plastic Image explores how and why our images promise us the adaptability of youth. This original and engaging study will appeal to a broad interdisciplinary audience including scholars of media studies, film studies, art history, and women’s studies.

Genres: Feminism, Theory, Art

234 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Nicole Killian · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Only a plastic girl can save us. She can face up to the screen because her face is a screen; she can shift power because she is a shape shifter; she can produce change because she is change." Really into this book and the media that Warren-Crow decided to focus on. I hadn't given much thought to Alice in Wonderland and Alice as a figure of plasticity/change. Super into this.

[Em · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jargon-filled academic-speak is an anathema to me -- it obfuscates, rather than elucidates, the discourse... Cough.

In other words, I don't want to spend my time translating what I'm reading into plain English.

[CL Chu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a book about the production of anime girls (though their influence looms large throughout the book), not a book about fan culture (though its the definitive feature of internet "plastic image" culture), and above all not a book bout "real" (however defined) girls.

This is a media theory book, and frequently inundating its materials with excessive theory. But it's still likable for the 2000s examples (when web 2.0 is still new) it used. Yes, they are pretty arty & snobbish, but they mark an era (and their girlish characters) that shall not be forgotten.

[mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

👩🏽‍💻