Education 397
GIRLS, POPULAR CULTURE, AND SCHOOLING
COURSE WEB PAGE:
Fall 2007
Lyn Mikel Brown
Professor of Education and Human Development
Office: Diamond 105
Phone: 859-4422
Email:
Office Hours: by appointment
COURSE DESCRIPTION
How does investment in popular culture shape girls' identities, their relationships, and their school experiences? What does popular culture suggest to girls about the nature of power, voice, control, and agency? In what ways do schools respond and not respond to such issues as the increase in sexualization of girls in media and the commercialization of gender? Attuned to the social and material diversity of girls' lives, students interrogate these questions in class and reflect on their significance while facilitating "girls coalition groups" in local middle schools.
BOOKS
Aspola, Sinikka, Harris, Anita, & Gonic, Marnina. 2005. Young Femininity: Girlhood, Power and Social Change. Palgrave Macmillan.
Kearney, Mary Celeste. 2006. Girls Make Media. Taylor & Francis.
Lamb, Sharon & Brown, Lyn Mikel. 2007. Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters From Marketer’s Schemes. St. Martin’s Press.
Levy, Ariel. 2005. Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture. Free Press.
Pohl-Weary, Emily. 2004. Girls Who Bite Back: Witches, Mutants, Slayers, and Freaks. Sumach Press.
Sharpley-Whiting, T. Denean. 2007. Pimps Up, Hos Down: Hip Hops Hold on Young Black Women. New York University Press.
COURSE EXPECTATIONS
Regular attendance and active participation in all class activities is required. This includes coming to class fully prepared to lead or engage in discussion and critique of the readings and participate in the service-learning component of the course. While I will lecture occasionally, this is a student-centered course and depends on your activeinvolvement.
I expect to be notified if you must be absent from class, and you will be responsible for any work missed. Failure to attend class may lead to a warning, grading penalty, and/or dismissal from the course with a failing grade.
Discussion is our collective responsibility, and at times your personal responsibility, and it’s important that we create a safe space for honest, open dialogue. Safe does not always mean comfortable and I encourage social critique and a healthy suspicion of course readings. But challenging ideas is different from disrespecting the person who expresses those ideas, and we need to appreciate this difference. Let’s allow for the likelihood that we will be confronted in class with new concepts and some politically charged issues and that our responses and our questions may not yet be fully formulated. It’s okay to struggle with ideas in class, but hurtful speech that diminishes individuals or groups of people is unacceptable.
I expect that written assignments will be handed in on time; if they are you can expect me to return your work promptly; if they are not, you may forfeit the opportunity to receive detailed feedback on your writing.
This course includes a substantial community-based civic engagement component: For one hour per week, as a member of a two- or three-person team, you will use a curriculum, From Adversaries to Allies, tofacilitate a coalition group for middle school girls in one of five area school systems. This civic engagement experience is designed to: 1) contribute to the well being of girls in the local community, 2) introduce you to the realities of contemporary girls’ lives, and 3) provide you with an opportunity to reflect on the relationship between theory and practice.
I expect that you will take your civic engagement role and responsibilitiesvery seriously—if you do not, you will be dropped from the course. The school and the girls with whom you work will be counting on you to follow through on all of your commitments. While the girls coalition groups will meet for approximately one hour per week, you will need to meet as facilitators before each group session to familiarize yourself with and prepare for that week’s topic/activities. You will have a good deal of support. We will read about girls’ healthy development and resilience in class, as well as discuss facilitation skills and group process. I also encourage you to attend twice-monthly dinner meetings with Jackie Dupont, Hardy Girls Healthy Women’s Programs Coordinator and long-time girls group facilitator. This is an opportunity for you to talk with Jackie and other facilitators about how your group is going and a place to discuss any concerns (and share successes) you might have.
Needless to say, there is a significant amount of work required for this course--reading, facilitating class discussions, and writing assignments, as well as the work at your civic engagement site--so please manage your time wisely.
ASSIGNMENTS/GRADING
See course web page for more details and guidelines
1. Tracking Girl Culture Due Oct. 9, 2006 (30% of final grade)
This assignment requires you to track and critically analyze girl culture: the cultural artifacts and messages directed at girls--their needs, interests, and desires. You will need to: 1. Choose a cultural artifact or medium that girls engage with or are likely to see on a regular basis. 2. Observe and, if possible, research patterns with regard to the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, class, and sexual identity. 3. Write up (~8 pp.) an analysis of what you’ve found that includes your understanding of the messages girls receive and the potential (or desired) effects on girls’ psychological and social development, drawing from course readings and discussions.
2. Facilitating Discussions (20% of final grade)
Working in pairs, you are expected to co-facilitate one class discussion over the course of the semester. I will provide guidelines for facilitation, but generally this is an opportunity for you to creatively initiate thoughtful conversation about that day’s readings, as well as to invite considered reflection on the relationship between your girls’ group interactions and the issues we are addressing. I encourage you to bring in examples of media to enhance your facilitations.
3. Girls Make Media Project and Reflection Due Dec. 14, 2007 (50% of final grade)
Project: Much of the writing about girls and media has to do with the messages girls are consuming about sexuality, body, appearance, identity, and relationships. This project is designed to give girls the power to create their own media. After working through the first two units of From Adversaries to Allies (“We’re In This Together” and “Media Madness”) with your girls group, discuss with your group the importance of expressing their own views and opinions and develop a plan to produce your own media in a format of your choosing, e.g., a zine, webpage, short film, etc. I encourage you to be creative and to consider media in the broadest sense—everything from art projects like t-shirts or poster designs to rap music to ads or PSAs (Public Service Announcements).
Presentation: Each pair or group of facilitators will present the girls’ project to the class. The presentation should be ~20-30 minutes and should include a description of how the girls decided on a topic, how they developed their project together, and what, if any plans they have for distributing or making the project public.
Reflection: Drawing from course readings, class discussions, and your work with the girls, you will write a final reflection (~8-10 pp.) about your girls coalition group experience and this project specifically. This paper is a chance for you to reflect on the relationship between your interaction with the girls in your groups and course readings and class discussions about girls, popular culture, and schooling.
COURSE OUTLINE
*Electronic reserve readings
PART 1: Beyond Risk and Resilience
Sept 11Introduction and overview
Sept. 18 *Debold, E., Brown, L., Weseen, S. & Brookins, G.K. 1999. Cultivating
Hardiness Zones for Adolescent Girls
*Reagon, B.J. 1981. Coalition Politics
*Sullivan, A. 1996. From Mentor to Muse
*Bay-Cheng, L.Y. & Lewis, A. 2004. Our Ideal Girl”: Prescriptions of Female
Adolescent Sexuality in a Feminist Mentorship Program
PART 2: Representing ‘New Girl’ Culture
Sept. 25Young Femininity
Intro, Ch 1: Girl Power: Representations of the ‘New’ Girl
Ch 2: Reviving Ophelia: Girlhood as Crisis
Ch 5: Re/sisters: Girls Cultures and Friendships
*Brown, L. 2003. Girlfighting, Ch 4: Dancing Through The Minefield
Oct. 2Young Femininity
Ch 6: Sexuality and the Body: Old Binaries and New
Possibilities
*Firminger, K. 2006. Is He Boyfriend Material? Representation of Males
in Teenage Girls’ Magazines
Oct. 9Packaging Girlhood
Tracking Girl Culture Assignment Due
PART 3: Voice, Power, and Media: Re-Presenting Girlhood
Oct. 16Girls Make Media
Ch 3: Girls Media Education: Critical Viewing or Control of
the Image
Ch 4: Grrrl Zines: Exploring Identity, Transforming Girls’ Written
Culture
Girls Who Bite Back
Ahlers, S. …And The Myth That Things Have Progressed
Blackett, M. & Crump, M. The Parkdale 3
Oct. 23FALL BREAK
Oct 30Girls Make Media
Ch 5: Developing the Girls’ Gaze: Female Youth and Film Production
Girls Who Bite Back
Rundle, L. Cinematic Superbabes Are Breakin’ My Heart
Villegas, H. Bond, Jane Bond
Vincent, E. When I Was A Girl, I Was A Boy
Nov. 6Girls Make Media
Ch 6: Cybergurls: Female Youth, Digital Influences, and Web Design
Conclusion: No Small Thing
*Stokes, C. 2007. Representin’ in Cyberspace: Sexual Scripts, Self-
Definition, and Hip Hop Culture in Black American Girls’ Homepages
*Girl Wide Web: Ch 10: Thiel, S.M. 2005. “IM Me”: Identity Construction
and Gender Negotiation in the World of Adolescent Girls and Instant
Messaging.
Nov. 13Female Chauvinist Pigs
Nov. 20 Pimps Up, Ho’s Down
Nov. 27Young Femininity
Ch 7: Politics, Citizenship, and Young Women
Ch 8: Feminism, Power, and Social Change
Girls Media Projects: Re-presentations
Dec. 4Girls Media Projects: Re-presentations