| This dissertation examines the lived experiences of urban teen girls who are growing up in the girl power era. Girl power, a central organizing discourse since the early 1990s, represents an expansive commerical media culture that encourages girls and women to identify both as traditionally feminine objects and as powerful agents of feminism. Through focus groups and in-depth interviews with seventy diverse teen girls from New York City, this project investigates girls' perceptions of what it means to be female, feminine, and feminist in girl power media culture. As the girls speak about contemporary media---with a distinct focus on television and music---their articulations on gender identity, class, sexuality, womanhood, and feminism are analyzed. The disjuncture between the how girls talk about their own lives and specific media, how media scholars have talked about girls' lives and media for girls, and how popular media talks to and about girls is discussed. Girl power is a watered-down feminist position available as a stylish accessory, but it is also a meaningful and widespread embodiment of some feminist positions that girls draw upon as they create their gender identities. In girl power media culture, girls engage with counter-normative discourses about female expression, sexual desire, and self-determination; as they make sense of what it means to be female and feminist; they draw upon these mediated discourses of individualism, independence, and self-sufficiency that are at the root of girl power. At the same time, as the girls discuss the experiences of class, race, and gender that limit their ability to embody girl powers' empowerment discourses, the fragile nature of the discourse is elucidated. The stories told by these girls suggest that the individualized, neo-liberal approach of girl power offers girls a surface change that creates shifts in notions of gender but not a transformative change that would also create shifts in the material realities of gender. While they employ the language of choice, many of the girls in my study, particularly those from low income communities of color, describe feeling confined, in their style, voice, sexuality, and imaginings of the future. |
