Girls’ Sexualities and the Media

Description

This anthology provides exciting, innovative research focused on the construction of adolescent girls’ sexuality in the media. The volume includes a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives from the humanities and the social sciences, addressing how girls and others respond to, work with, and even resist prevailing media representations of girls’ sexualities and how they use contemporary media as a form of sexual expression. The authors consider a wide array of sexual attitudes, behaviors, and expressions not commonly seen in the sexualities literature, including the voices of «other» girls whose voices are often ignored, particularly racial/ethnic minority and indigenous girls, sexual minorities, and girls from non-U.S. settings. The use of ethnographic data, in conjunction with media analysis techniques, provides a unique approach to the media studies genre, which tends to highlight an analysis of media content, as opposed to the ways in which media is used in everyday life. Cover Contents Acknowledgments Foreword (Catherine Driscoll) Notes Works Cited Girls’ Sexualities and the Media: The Power of the Media (Yasmina Katsulis, Vera Lopez, Kate Harper, and Georganne Scheiner Gillis) Sexual Subjectivity and Empowerment Sexualization Media Use Media Literacy Overall Structure of This Volume Chapter Outlines Section One: Historical and Contemporary Media Representations Section Two: Media Use and Self-Representation Section Three: Media Campaigns and Literacy Projects Notes Works Cited Part One: Historical and Contemporary Media 1. The Girls of Carvel: Adolescent Desire in Andy Hardy Films (Georganne Scheiner Gillis) Notes Works Cited 2. “Sensible Safety Rules”: Class, Race, and Girls’ Sexual Vulnerability in the U.S. Print Media, 1950–1970 (Jennifer Helgren) Notes Works Cited 3. Snogging, Stereotypes, and Subversion: Girls’ Sexuality in the Harry Potter Series (Kate Harper) Literature Review Why Intersectionality? Is There Sex in Harry Potter? Who is Sexual, and Why Does it Matter? Concluding Thoughts and Implications Notes Works Cited 4. The Pleasures of Danger and the Dangers of Pleasure: The Inversion of Gender Relations in the Twilight Series (Suzan Walters and Michael Kimmel) Introduction Traditional Tropes The Desexualization of Bella The Sexualization of Jacob and Edward “Team Edward” and “Team Jacob” Spell Team/Teen Lust The De-Erotics of Male Sexualization Conclusion Notes Works Cited 5. “She’s All That”: Girl Sexuality and Teen Film (Catherine Driscoll) Sex in Teen Film Visible Articulations; Articulating Visibility Conclusion Notes Works Cited 6. Wrecked and Redeemed: Religio-Political Pedagogy and MTV’s 16 and Pregnant (Amanda Rossie) Introduction Attentive Aesthetics, Savvy Structure Peering” Into the Politics of Fear: Abortion, Adoption, and Fetal Citizenship Wrecked and Redeemed Conclusions: Political Religion, Pop Culture Pedagogy, and “Productive Perversity” Notes Works Cited 7. Just Say Me? (Mis)representing Female Adolescent Sexual Agency on The Secret Life of the American Teenager (Elena Frank) Literature Review Methodology Results Abortion Birth Control Masturbation Discussion Conclusion Notes Works Cited 8. Producing Girl Citizens as Agents of Health: An Analysis of HPV Media Campaigns in the United States (Kellie Burns and Cristyn Davies) Introduction Mediating Healthy Citizenship Risk, Choice, and Discourses of New Public Health Girlhood, Citizenship, and Sexual Health Gardasil®, Cervical Cancer, and HPV HPV Boredom Conclusion Notes Works Cited Part Two: Media Use and Self-Representation 9. “Hyperfeminine” Subcultures: Rethinking Gender Subjectivity and the Discourse of Sexuality Among Adolescent Girls in Contemporary Japan (Isaac Gagné) Introduction The Path to Lolita Lolita Vis-a-Vis Shifting Dominant Media Representations of Young Girls in Japan The Hyperfemininity of “Cuteness” Adolescence and Sexuality in Contemporary Japan Conclusion Notes Works Cited 10. Favela Models: Sexual Virtue and Hopeful Narratives of Beauty in Brazil (Alvaro Jarrin) Learning to Dream The Value of Beauty Recognizing the Good Girls Scouting for Sameness Short-Circuiting Hope Notes Works Cited 11. “Chongas” in the Media: The Ethno-Sexual Politics of Latina Girls’ Hypervisibility (Jillian Hernandez) Excessive Presence: Latina Bodies in Visual Culture “You Could See Me, You Could Read Me”: YouTube and the Branding of the Chonga Body The Chonga as Ethnic Spectacle The Meaning(s) of “Chonga” Conclusion Notes Works Cited 12. Heteroflexibility: Female Performance and Pleasure (Jennifer Apple) Methods Literature Review Analysis Media: Heteroflexibility as Performative Interviews: Public Performance and Private Pleasures Public vs. Private Distinction: Performance vs. “Authentic” Attraction Disrupting Heteronormative Scripts Discussion Conclusions Notes Works Cited Part Three: Media Campaigns and Literacy Projects 13. “Hey Media, Back Off and Get Off My Body”: SPARK is Taking Sexy Back (Deborah L. Tolman, Lyn Mikel Brown, and Christin P. Bowman) SPARKing History Sowing the Seeds of a Movement: Spark Summit Deep Background: Motivation for Sparking a (Media) Movement Leveraging Research: Building a Bridge From Academia to Activism SPARK: The Movement The SPARKTeam The SPARKits SPARKing the Future Notes Works Cited 14. From Media Propaganda to De-Stigmatizing Sex: Exploring a Teen Magazine By, For, and About Girls (Linda Charmaraman and Brittany Low) Literature Review Media Sexualization of Women and Girls Sexual Content in Teen Girl Magazines Resisting Sexualization Through Alternative Media Programs Current Study Methods Results: Content Analysis of Teen Voices magazine Behind the Scenes: Reflections From the Teen Editors Discussion and Implications Future Directions Notes Works Cited 15. “We’re All Straight Here”: Using Girls’ Groups and Critical Media Literacy to Explore Identity with Middle School Girls (Amy Rutstein-Riley, Jenn Walker, Alice Diamond, Bonnie Bryant, and Marie LaFlamme) Introduction Why a Focus on the Media? Girlhood, Identity, and Girl Culture Project Participants Data Collection Data Analysis Findings Discussion Notes Works Cited Contributors Index