Growing Up Girls: Popular Culture and the Construction of Identity

by Sharon R. Mazzarella (Editor)

In today’s society, more and more mass media and popular culture is being produced for, about, and by pre-adolescent and adolescent girls than ever before. The intent of this book is to help us better understand the complex relationship between girls and their culture. Informed by a broad range of theoretical perspectives and employing a variety of methodologies, the essays in this collection address the ways that mainstream culture «instructs» girls on how to become a woman – the ways in which the culture approves of «growing up girls.» Specifically, these essays examine the messages mainstream culture gives girls about romance, sexuality, life experiences, body image, gender and culture identity, and the way girls themselves negotiate these messages.

Genres: Nonfiction, Gender

240 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1999

Reviews

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were two chapters in particular that are relevant to my research and were super interesting. This book clearly needs updating, because the references were really dated! But overall, really fascinating look at girls and identity.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuing the work of scholars in re-framing the study of adolescent development away from development in terms exclusive to male adolescent experiences, Mazzarella and Pecora present a collection of essays to illuminate the ways “mainstream culture ‘instructs’ girls on how to become women – the ways in which the culture approves of growing up girls – and the ways some girls negotiate those messages” (Mazzarella and Pecora 1999:3). The authors in this edited volume examine pop culture through dolls (Barbie and American Girl), literature and popular reading, consumption, media images, and their collective impact on the way girls experience rites of passage, body image, sexual expression, and their interests as shaped by all of these factors.

A unique feature, this collection includes essays written jointly by feminist scholar mothers and their young adolescent daughters that demonstrate the dialogue between generations. While certainly not representatives of mainstream girlhood at large in the United States, they do give a glimpse into the ways that contemporary cultures affects even girls who are raised to be more aware of these messages and controlling images of mainstream femininity than girls who do not have such critical influences in their lives.

[pinotage]

I think I found it too critical of Nancy Drew, if I remember correctly