Women S, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 2306
Girlhood
Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 2306
Journalism Building 371
MWF 12:40 – 1:35pm
Prof. M Thomas
1124 Derby Hall
247-8222
Office hours: Mondays 2:00-3:00pm and by appointment
Course Description: In current girlhood studies, the teenage girl presents a conundrum. Many scholars show the overwhelming ills of girls vexed by low self-esteem, growing violent or ‘mean girl’ behaviors, eating disorders, and bad sexual decision-making. But, in light of these many problems, scholars have also taken up the popular mantra of ‘girl power’ to celebrate the agency of girls and their ability to combat normative femininity, misogyny, racism, and sexism. In this class we will consider these approaches to girlhood by focusing specifically on American girlhood. We will also explore the class, race, ethnic, and sexual differences of adolescent girls. Is there even a coherency to the category of “a teenage girl”?
Disability Services
Students with disabilities that have been certified by the Office for Disability Services will be appropriately accommodated and should inform the instructor as soon as possible of their needs. The Office for Disability Services is located in 150 Pomerene Hall, 1760 Neil Avenue; telephone 292-3307, TDD 292-0901; http://www.ods.ohio-state.edu/.
Plagiarism: As defined by University Rule 3335-31-02, plagiarism is the representation of another’s works or ideas as one’s own; it includes the unacknowledged word for word use and/or paraphrasing of another person’s work, and/or the inappropriate unacknowledged use of another person’s ideas. Plagiarism is one of the most serious offenses that can be committed in an academic community; as such, it is the obligation of this department and its instructors to report all cases of suspected plagiarism to the Committee on Academic Misconduct. After the report is filed, a hearing takes place and if the student is found guilty, the possible punishment ranges from failing the class to suspension or expulsion from the university. DO NOT PLAGIARIZE!
Course Requirements
In Girlhood, you have six grade components. You will write five papers, and class participation is the other major component of your grade. This means you will need to be in every class, prepared to actively discuss class readings and material. Small group and full class discussion will be important aspects of the success of our class. Please do the assigned readings before class and come with questions and comments.
Paper 1: 15%
Paper 2: 15%
Paper 3: 15%
Paper 4: 20%
Paper 5: 10%
Participation: 25%
Paper instructions will be discussed in class and posted on Carmen. Papers 1-3 should be 1000-1200 words (typically 3 ½ - 4 pages double spaced depending on font). Paper 4 should be slightly longer at 1500 words. Paper 5 will be no more than 800 words. All assignments are due at the beginning of class and lose a value of 5% every day they are late (including if they arrive to me later than 12:40pm on their due date).
Your participation grade will be determined by your attendance, your engagement in class discussions, the preparation you give to class discussion, and in-class response papers that will unassigned (ie, you won’t know when these will happen). Just showing up and talking in class is not sufficient for an A participation grade – you have to discuss course material! So come prepared and be willing to engage with your classmates.
Readings
There are several books that you need to order yourselves immediately. I did NOT order these ahead of time so please order them at whatever bookstore (online or not) you choose.
They are:
1. Alison Bechdel, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
2. Terry Galloway, Mean Little Deaf Queer: A Memoir
3. Tanya Erzen, Fanpire: the Twilight saga and the women who love it (Beacon, 2012) [this is available as preorder only; it is released in October. Please pre-order it so it arrives as soon as it’s released! Plus it’s discounted now since it’s a pre-order.]
Course Schedule
Wed Aug 22: Introduction to the course
Fri Aug 24: Who/what is a girl?
Catherine Driscoll, Introduction: Towards a Genealogy of Girlhood, in her Girls: Feminine Adolescence in Popular Culture and Cultural Theory (Columbia U Press, 2002). 12 pps.
Mon Aug 27: The impact of psychology on girlhood studies/Pipher’s legacy
Mary Pipher, Chapters 1-3 from Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls (Ballantine Books, 1994). These are Pipher I (chapters 1-2) and II (chapter 3) on CARMEN.
Wed Aug 29: Thinking about authenticity and self in Pipher
Pipher, Chapter 11. This is Pipher III on CARMEN.
Fri Aug 31: Reviving Ophelia in-class discussion
Mon Sept 3: Labor Day, no class
Wed Sept 5: The invention of girl power
Aapola, Gonick and Harris, Girl Power: Representations of the ‘new’ girl, in their Young Femininity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).
Fri Sept 7: Thinking through girlhood agency
Mon Sept 10: At risk or can do?
Anita Harris, The ‘Can-Do’ Girl Versus the ‘At-Risk’ Girl, in her Future Girl (Routledge, 2004).
Wed Sept 12: Marketing childhood
In class video: Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood (2008, 67 mins)
Fri Sept 14: Consuming Kids finished and discussed
Paper 1 due
Mon Sept 17: Growing up with girl power on screen
Rebecca Hains, Girl power on screen: the rise of the girl hero, in her Growing up with girl power (Peter Lang, 2012)
Wed Sept 19: American Girl: selling identity, selling dolls
Elizabeth Marshall, 2009. Consuming Girlhood: Young Women, Femininities and American Girl. Girlhood Studies 2(1): 94-111.
Fri Sept 21: Racialization through consumption
Elizabeth Chin, Hemmed in and Shut Out, in her Purchasing Power: Black Kids and American Consumer Culture (University of Minnesota Press, 2001).
Mon Sept 24: Puberty and consumption
Sharon Mazzarella, 2008. Coming of age with Proctor and Gamble: beinggirl.com and the commodification of puberty. Girlhood Studies 1(2): 29-50.
Wed Sept 26: Mean girls
Meda Chesney-Lind and Katharine Irwin, From badness to meanness: popular constructions of contemporary girlhood. In All about the girl: culture, power, and identity (Anita Harris, ed; Routledge Press, 2004).
Fri Sept 28: Are girls becoming more violent?
Nikki Jones, 2004. ‘It’s not where you live, it’s how you live’: how young women negotiate conflict and violence in the inner city. The ANNALS of the AAPSS 595(1): 49-62.
Mon Oct 1: Incarcerated girlhoods
In class video: Girlhood (2003, 83 minutes)
Paper 2 due
Wed Oct 3: Finish Girlhood and discuss
Fri Oct 5: No class, I’m off to Colorado to give a research presentation
Mon Oct 8: Queer girlhoods: representing sexuality and girlhood
Alison Bechdel, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (start reading)
Wed Oct 10: Remembering adolescence / queer girlhood
Fun Home (be finished with first half)
Fri Oct 12
Finish Fun Home
Mon Oct 15: Sexy, sexualized young girls
Susan Douglas, Sex ‘R’ Us, in her Enlightened sexism: the seductive message that feminism’s work is done (Times Books, 2010)
Wed Oct 17: Guest lecture by Amanda Rossie
Reading TBD.
Fri Oct 19: Sexuality and desire
New York Times story on “High tech flirting”
In class video TBD.
Paper 3 due.
Mon Oct 22: Youth in empire
Excerpt from Sunaina Maira, Missing: youth, citizenship and empire after 9/11 (Duke U Press, 2009)
Wed Oct 24: Youth racism in a color blind society
Mary Thomas. 2008. The paradoxes of personhood: banal multiculturalism and racial-ethnic identification among Latina and Armenian girls at a Los Angeles high school. Environment and Planning A 40 (12):2864-2878.
Fri Oct 26: Migration and mobility: Mexican-American girls
Lilia Soto, 2010. The preludes to migration: anticipation and imaginings of Mexican immigrant adolescent girls. Girlhood Studies 3(2): 30-48.
Mon Oct 29: Dis/ability
Terry Galloway, Mean Little Deaf Queer: A Memoir (read Part I)
Wed Oct 31:
Galloway, Part II
Fri Nov 2: Thinking about “girl” agency with Mean Little
Finish Galloway
Mon Nov 5: Girls’ rock camps: a guest lecture by Lindsay Bernhagen
Giffort, “Show or Tell”
Wed Nov 7: No class, I’m off to Berkeley to give a research presentation
Fri Nov 9: No class, NWSA conference
Mon Nov 12: No class, Veteran’s Day
Wed Nov 14: What’s a girlhood class without a little bit of Twilight?
Tanya Erzen, Fanpire: the Twilight saga and the women who love it (Beacon, 2012)
Paper 4 due.
Fri Nov 16: Fanpire
Mon Nov 19 – Fri Nov 23: No class, Thanksgiving
Mon Nov 26: Wrap up Fanpire
In class discussion
Wed Nov 28: Post-feminist times
Angela McRobbie, Introduction to The aftermath of feminism.
Fri Nov 30: Back to girl power: its relationship to feminism
Should we watch a video?? Let’s decide.
Mon Dec 3: Feminism and girls
Paper 5 due.