Lecture 5-Learning gender: girlhood/womanhood, boyhood/manhood, intimate partner violence

what, or who is a girl?

• something that is different than a boy (Swindle, 2011)

• girlhood is shaped through what we see in the media

• targe audience of the Rookie magazine: girls who are no linger teens, women who feel like girls, or women who feel like women but in some way participate in girl culture

• is girlhood understood through binary opposition?

  • ruler-breaker vs goody-two-shoes

  • loner vs party girl

girls and girlhood

• It is not possible for girlhood to be represented wholly – girlhood is too vast and too individual an experience. We can only try to represent girlhood in ways that are varied and recognizable” (Gay, 2014, p. 53)

• there is no authentic girl (Hujack, 2022)

• there is no single monolithic understanding of what girlhood encompasses in canada

• must consider modernity, capitalism, colonialism and race 

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expectations of gendered behaviour of girlhood

• quiet voice, feel shame for voicing opinions or become physically smaller

• passively dereference to men, importance of beauty and youth

• taking up space to express their boundary of body, voice and expression to the world

girls resistance to violence

• individual coping mechanisms or sel-defence as a prevention strategy

• have to learn how to deal with it and defend yourself against hegemonic masculinity

• ingrained in women to take care of themselves

  • ex. maybe you shouldn’t wear that, protect your drink, keeping a pretty girl narrative and protecting yourself to be viewed as a girl

• few exceptions that explore action aimed at shifting culture to spaces fro older women/women’s organization

quote from lecture 

• never tell a little girl that when a boy is mean or rude to her its beause he has a crush on her don’t teach her that abuse is a sign of love 

• does this resonate with girlhood and what we have been taught