Growing Up With Girl Power (Mediated Youth) [Paperback]

Rebecca C. Hains (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 31, 2012 | ISBN-10: 1433111381 | ISBN-13: 978-1433111389 | Edition: First printing

For more than a decade, girl power has been a cultural barometer, reflecting girlhood's ever-changing meanings. How did girl power evolve from a subcultural rallying cry to a mainstream catchphrase, and what meaning did young girls find in its pop culture forms? From the Riot grrrls to the Spice Girls to The Powerpuff Girls, and influenced by books like Reviving Ophelia and movements like Take Our Daughters to Work Day, Growing Up With Girl Power charts this history. It considers how real girls who grew up with girl power interpreted its messages about empowerment, girlhood, strength, femininity, race, and more, and suggests that for young girls, commercialized girl power had real strengths and limitations—sometimes in fascinating, unexpected ways. Encompassing issues of pre-adolescent body image, gender identity, sexism, and racism, Growing Up With Girl Power underscores the importance of talking with young girls—a compelling addition to the literature on girls, media, and culture. Supplemental resources are available online at GrowingUpWithGirlPower.com.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Hains has written a fascinating, scholarly, readable history of the use and abuse of the term 'girl power.' This book is absolutely essential for anyone interested in girlhood, feminism or media.
--Peggy Orenstein, author ofCinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture

Rebecca Hains's insightful new book,Growing up with Girl Power: Girlhood on Screen and in Everyday Life, offers a critical engagement with a significant aspect of the cultural history of Girlhood Studies. Feminist studies more broadly and girl-method in particular will benefit from the careful recent history analysis of girl power provided by Hains. As such, the book will be a welcome addition to the curriculum of Girlhood Studies courses, serving as it does, as a model for methodologies for working with girls, for carrying out textual readings, and for theorizing from the ground up. For scholars in the area of Girlhood Studies, the book stands out as one that is well researched and thoughtfully presented. --
Claudia Mitchell, James McGill Professor, McGill University, and editor ofGirlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal

Rebecca Hains's insightful new book, Growing up with Girl Power: Girlhood on Screen and in Everyday Life, offers a critical engagement with a significant aspect of the cultural history of Girlhood Studies. Feminist studies more broadly, and and girl-method in particular will benefit from the careful recent history analysis of girl power provided by Hains. As such the book will be a welcome addition to the curriculum of Girlhood Studies courses, serving as it does, as a model for methodologies for working with girls, for carrying out textual readings, and for theorizing from the ground up. For scholars in the area of Girlhood Studies, the book stands out as one that is well researched and thoughtfully presented. --Claudia Mitchell, James McGill Professor, McGill University, and editor of Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal

About the Author

Rebecca C. Hains received her Ph.D. in Mass Media and Communication and a graduate certificate in Women's Studies from Temple University. She is an Assistant Professor of Communications at Salem State University in Salem, Massachusetts.

Product Details

• Paperback: 315 pages
• Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing; First printing edition (January 31, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1433111381
• ISBN-13: 978-1433111389
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,574,689 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars How girls interpret the "girl power" media February 12, 2012

By Tucker Lieberman

Format:Paperback

An in-depth examination of how "girl power" has been interpreted, not only by the riot grrrls who launched its punk movement, but by girls born in the 1980s and 1990s who grew up with the idea of "girl power" mass-marketed to them particularly through the Spice Girls and certain cartoons. Careful attention is given to race-based differences in girls' reactions to the media.

Hains details the ambiguities inherent in popularized, commercialized "girl power": in some forms it indeed promotes self-esteem, assertiveness, recognition of inner beauty and the importance of girls' friendships with other girls, while in other cases it is nothing more than reverse sexism against boys, image-based stereotyping of girls, and the mindless pabulum of cosmetic makeovers and nonsensical song lyrics.

The group interview transcripts with young girls are entertaining as well as illuminating. It only makes sense that they were consulted, and this makes the book stand out from other feminist texts that limit themselves to the opinions of adults. With the assumption that the reader has basic knowledge of and sympathy with feminism and anti-racism, this is a quite pleasurable read as an introductory text on the subject of girl power.