‘Having It All’? : Pre-Teen Girls Negotiate Successful Femininity

<p>Depictions of girls and young women as powerful, unconstrained and outshining boys and men characterise the modern postfeminist cultural climate and imbue femininity with wide reaching success. However, research into postfeminist discourse reveals a far more complicated picture than this straightforward ode to success. Previously the focus has been on successful femininity within education or employment, or on the future aspirations of girls and young women. Yet considering the grandiose postfeminist claims of successful femininity it is important to examine specifically what success means to those who are expected to hold it. The current research has done so from the perspective of ethnically diverse pre-adolescent girls, addressing the lack of research with this age group and with girls from minority ethnic backgrounds. Incorporating the latter enabled the thesis to examine how ethnic identities may intersect with understandings of successful femininity. Focus groups and photo-narrative books were used to explore the ways 32 girls between 11- and 13-years old made sense of successful girl/womanhood, including media representations of successful femininity. Participants were recruited from two urban schools within New Zealand. The study used a feminist poststructuralist framework and employed thematic and Foucauldian discourse analysis to analyse the data. Two overarching themes were identified: ‘Success as Individual Qualities’ and ‘Spheres of Success.’ Across these themes the girls’ drew heavily on postfeminist and neoliberal discourses and constructed success through the competing and contradictory discourses of girl power and traditional femininity. Successful femininity was constructed as a highly individualised endeavour, predicated on the individual qualities of hard work, constant striving towards goals and overcoming adversity. These qualities were required to accomplishing success within three mandatory spheres of success; education, employment and motherhood. The successful female subject was expected to move linearly through these three spheres, engaging in higher education to earn a successful career in order to financially sustain motherhood. Discussions of employment success oscillated between constructions of unbounded possibility for young women in the workforce and recognition of the barriers facing young women and especially Māori women who work. Motherhood, described as the apex of successful femininity, was also shot through with complexity. The girls constructed a narrow scope for success through motherhood: those who had children without planning, had many children or who gave birth while young or single were positioned outside of this successfulness. The ultimate form of successful femininity required a delicate balancing of the three spheres of success in order for women to achieve the contradictory and unobtainable task of ‘having it all.’ Findings demonstrate girls’ lack of access to a language with which to articulate oppression and inequality and emphasise the problematic entanglement of ‘new’ discourses of equality, empowerment and success with the enduring presence of powerful and regulatory traditional discourses of femininity.</p>

‘Having It All’? : Pre-Teen Girls Negotiate Successful Femininity

<p>Depictions of girls and young women as powerful, unconstrained and outshining boys and men characterise the modern postfeminist cultural climate and imbue femininity with wide reaching success. However, research into postfeminist discourse reveals a far more complicated picture than this straightforward ode to success. Previously the focus has been on successful femininity within education or employment, or on the future aspirations of girls and young women. Yet considering the grandiose postfeminist claims of successful femininity it is important to examine specifically what success means to those who are expected to hold it. The current research has done so from the perspective of ethnically diverse pre-adolescent girls, addressing the lack of research with this age group and with girls from minority ethnic backgrounds. Incorporating the latter enabled the thesis to examine how ethnic identities may intersect with understandings of successful femininity. Focus groups and photo-narrative books were used to explore the ways 32 girls between 11- and 13-years old made sense of successful girl/womanhood, including media representations of successful femininity. Participants were recruited from two urban schools within New Zealand. The study used a feminist poststructuralist framework and employed thematic and Foucauldian discourse analysis to analyse the data. Two overarching themes were identified: ‘Success as Individual Qualities’ and ‘Spheres of Success.’ Across these themes the girls’ drew heavily on postfeminist and neoliberal discourses and constructed success through the competing and contradictory discourses of girl power and traditional femininity. Successful femininity was constructed as a highly individualised endeavour, predicated on the individual qualities of hard work, constant striving towards goals and overcoming adversity. These qualities were required to accomplishing success within three mandatory spheres of success; education, employment and motherhood. The successful female subject was expected to move linearly through these three spheres, engaging in higher education to earn a successful career in order to financially sustain motherhood. Discussions of employment success oscillated between constructions of unbounded possibility for young women in the workforce and recognition of the barriers facing young women and especially Māori women who work. Motherhood, described as the apex of successful femininity, was also shot through with complexity. The girls constructed a narrow scope for success through motherhood: those who had children without planning, had many children or who gave birth while young or single were positioned outside of this successfulness. The ultimate form of successful femininity required a delicate balancing of the three spheres of success in order for women to achieve the contradictory and unobtainable task of ‘having it all.’ Findings demonstrate girls’ lack of access to a language with which to articulate oppression and inequality and emphasise the problematic entanglement of ‘new’ discourses of equality, empowerment and success with the enduring presence of powerful and regulatory traditional discourses of femininity.</p>

“But I am still a girl after all”: A Discourse Analysis of Femininities in Popular Japanese Manga Comics

<p>Where progression towards gender equality is concerned, Japan lags behind most other developed countries with its culture which heavily values tradition. However, its traditional gender roles may be changing as the birth-rate declines and women take up the increasing opportunities opening up for them in the workplace. Within the contexts of these tensions between traditionalism and change, this study investigated the constructions of femininity in popular Japanese manga, one of the most consumed forms of media in Japan which also enjoys global popularity. As such, this study approached manga as a potentially important resource for identifying the available meanings of being a young Japanese woman in contemporary Japanese society. To date, little research has examined manga, and much of the available literature has used content analysis or focused solely on superheroine characters and the romantic interest. As a point of difference, this research implemented discursive analyses and sought to identify a range of femininities made available to readers in manga. It examined four titles within two genres of manga: the shounen genre targeted to male audiences and the shoujo manga, targeted at a female audience. The research employed a feminist, poststructuralist framework to identify the ways in which constructions of femininity in manga drew on dominant Japanese discourses of femininity as well as more globally produced postfeminist discourses associated with popular culture. The study found that manga overall produced femininities within both traditional and contemporary postfeminist discourses. Analyses also highlighted the limited meanings of femininity made available to young female audiences of shoujo manga through dominant postfeminist, empty representations of ‘empowerment’ whilst also underlining the problematic dominance of sexist portrayals of young women in shounen manga. Further, the storylines of shoujo manga were found to be replete with romantic narratives, prioritising romance and marriage as a means to happiness. These findings may identify the implications of such femininities on how young Japanese women view themselves, and are viewed by others globally.</p>

"I just find it awkward": Girls' negotiations of sexualised pop music media

<p>This thesis examines girls’ relationship with and consumption of female pop stars’ music media. It is contextualised within a period of extensive academic and media debate about girls’ engagement with what has been termed the sexualisation of culture. Much of the alarm concerning girls’ premature sexualisation is underpinned by the presumption of girls as passive media consumers who are uniformly influenced by sexually saturated female pop music, particularly its ubiquitous representation of hyper (hetero) sexually desiring femininity. The notion of girls as precociously sexualised by hypersexual female pop music media has gained homogenous status within mainstream media and popular psychology texts. Girls’ pleasurable consumption and negotiation of a sexually laden media landscape is approached in this research as complicated by their contradictory positioning as savvy consumers within the postfeminist girlhood consumer market and simultaneously as victims within mainstream media and academic literature. Grounded in feminist poststructuralist understandings of girls’ subjectivity, the thesis explores the possibilities of self that representations within female pop music media enable and constrain for girls. Furthermore, the thesis explores ways in which girls make sense of these discourses while carefully managing their positioning as consumers. The research upon which this thesis is based has two parts. Part one of the research involved focus groups within which 30 pre-teen girls, identifying as ‘Kiwis’ or ‘New Zealanders’ discussed their engagement with female popular music media. The second part comprises a thematic discursive and semiotic analysis of girls’ self-recorded group video performances to a favourite pop song by a female artist. Discursive analysis of the professional music videos on which girls’ performances were based accompanied analyses of girls’ videos. The thesis contributes to a growing body of critical feminist research which responds to sexualisation claims that underpin hegemonic understandings of contemporary girlhood. The analyses presented in the research challenge moralistic notions of girls as uniformly influenced by pop music media by highlighting their navigation of this media as a contradictory process of appropriation and rejection. This complex negotiation, while seen in previous feminist literature, is uniquely captured within this thesis through the innovative employment of a performance method that extends feminist theorisations which problematise binary assumptions of girls’ engagement with sexualised media. This research identifies girls’ meaning making as a contradictory and plural process and provides novel insights about girls’ negotiation of postfeminist femininities in their own self-making in relation to self. Crucially, the thesis highlights the way in which girls’ navigation of sexualised media can be understood as occurring through both rejection and reproduction of postfeminist femininity ideals. Contextualised in New Zealand, the research extends knowledge about girls’ navigation of sexualised media beyond a US/UK social context. It also advances the small body of New Zealand literature about girls’ media engagement broadly and about the ways they experience sexualised media in particular.</p>

"I just find it awkward": Girls' negotiations of sexualised pop music media

<p>This thesis examines girls’ relationship with and consumption of female pop stars’ music media. It is contextualised within a period of extensive academic and media debate about girls’ engagement with what has been termed the sexualisation of culture. Much of the alarm concerning girls’ premature sexualisation is underpinned by the presumption of girls as passive media consumers who are uniformly influenced by sexually saturated female pop music, particularly its ubiquitous representation of hyper (hetero) sexually desiring femininity. The notion of girls as precociously sexualised by hypersexual female pop music media has gained homogenous status within mainstream media and popular psychology texts. Girls’ pleasurable consumption and negotiation of a sexually laden media landscape is approached in this research as complicated by their contradictory positioning as savvy consumers within the postfeminist girlhood consumer market and simultaneously as victims within mainstream media and academic literature. Grounded in feminist poststructuralist understandings of girls’ subjectivity, the thesis explores the possibilities of self that representations within female pop music media enable and constrain for girls. Furthermore, the thesis explores ways in which girls make sense of these discourses while carefully managing their positioning as consumers. The research upon which this thesis is based has two parts. Part one of the research involved focus groups within which 30 pre-teen girls, identifying as ‘Kiwis’ or ‘New Zealanders’ discussed their engagement with female popular music media. The second part comprises a thematic discursive and semiotic analysis of girls’ self-recorded group video performances to a favourite pop song by a female artist. Discursive analysis of the professional music videos on which girls’ performances were based accompanied analyses of girls’ videos. The thesis contributes to a growing body of critical feminist research which responds to sexualisation claims that underpin hegemonic understandings of contemporary girlhood. The analyses presented in the research challenge moralistic notions of girls as uniformly influenced by pop music media by highlighting their navigation of this media as a contradictory process of appropriation and rejection. This complex negotiation, while seen in previous feminist literature, is uniquely captured within this thesis through the innovative employment of a performance method that extends feminist theorisations which problematise binary assumptions of girls’ engagement with sexualised media. This research identifies girls’ meaning making as a contradictory and plural process and provides novel insights about girls’ negotiation of postfeminist femininities in their own self-making in relation to self. Crucially, the thesis highlights the way in which girls’ navigation of sexualised media can be understood as occurring through both rejection and reproduction of postfeminist femininity ideals. Contextualised in New Zealand, the research extends knowledge about girls’ navigation of sexualised media beyond a US/UK social context. It also advances the small body of New Zealand literature about girls’ media engagement broadly and about the ways they experience sexualised media in particular.</p>

“But I am still a girl after all”: A Discourse Analysis of Femininities in Popular Japanese Manga Comics

<p>Where progression towards gender equality is concerned, Japan lags behind most other developed countries with its culture which heavily values tradition. However, its traditional gender roles may be changing as the birth-rate declines and women take up the increasing opportunities opening up for them in the workplace. Within the contexts of these tensions between traditionalism and change, this study investigated the constructions of femininity in popular Japanese manga, one of the most consumed forms of media in Japan which also enjoys global popularity. As such, this study approached manga as a potentially important resource for identifying the available meanings of being a young Japanese woman in contemporary Japanese society. To date, little research has examined manga, and much of the available literature has used content analysis or focused solely on superheroine characters and the romantic interest. As a point of difference, this research implemented discursive analyses and sought to identify a range of femininities made available to readers in manga. It examined four titles within two genres of manga: the shounen genre targeted to male audiences and the shoujo manga, targeted at a female audience. The research employed a feminist, poststructuralist framework to identify the ways in which constructions of femininity in manga drew on dominant Japanese discourses of femininity as well as more globally produced postfeminist discourses associated with popular culture. The study found that manga overall produced femininities within both traditional and contemporary postfeminist discourses. Analyses also highlighted the limited meanings of femininity made available to young female audiences of shoujo manga through dominant postfeminist, empty representations of ‘empowerment’ whilst also underlining the problematic dominance of sexist portrayals of young women in shounen manga. Further, the storylines of shoujo manga were found to be replete with romantic narratives, prioritising romance and marriage as a means to happiness. These findings may identify the implications of such femininities on how young Japanese women view themselves, and are viewed by others globally.</p>

Yummy Mummy?: (Re) Appearance of the Maternal Body in Popular Women's Magazines in New Zealand

<p>Images and detailed descriptions of the postnatal maternal body have become more common in popular women's magazines than they have in the past. Although researchers generally accept that popular media's representations of the female body contribute to body image concerns among some women, there has been little research that has focused on the recent media constructions of the maternal body or the effects of this increased visibility. This is an important area of research as there are indications that media representations of the postnatal body, in particular body size, are beginning to have negative affects on women's wellbeing in pregnancy and after childbirth. This thesis examines how women's bodies are being represented in popular culture when they become mothers, and what discourses these representations make available to new mothers. The research involved analysing references to the maternal body found in a convenience sample of popular NZ women's magazines. The research, framed within feminist poststructuralist theories, used thematic analysis and discursive analytic tools to explore textual and visual representations of the maternal body found in the magazines. Three major constructions of mothers emerged from the analysis; these were 'sexy', 'healthy' and 'labouring' mothers. Women who, through 'body work' such as diet and exercise, had lost weight and dressed glamorously were depicted as sexy, healthy and praised for their efforts. Mothers who regained a slender, glamorous appearance were often referred to as 'yummy mummies'. Women who lost 'too much weight' were considered to be ill and were individually pathologised as having psychological problems. Mothers were encouraged to diet and exercise as soon as possible after childbirth, with scant reference to possible health concerns for mother or baby, and were targeted by the diet industry. Postfeminist and neoliberal discourses of empowerment, choice and self-care were used to promote and justify these images of mothers. Findings suggest appearance of new mothers was emphasised wherein the 'undisciplined' normal maternal body was denigrated as dull, unattractive and unworthy. Analysis indicated that a new cultural imperative for women to return to slenderness as soon as possible is being evoked. Given the new media pressures being imposed there is a clear need for research with new mothers themselves. Such research will illuminate a period in womens lives that had previously slipped below the radar of culturally prescribed strict beauty standards, but is now under the glare of the media spotlight.</p>

Fairy Tale Femininities: A Discourse Analysis of Snow White Films 1916-2012

<p>Fairy tales are enduring cultural texts that have enjoyed wide appeal and the continuing popularity of the fairy tale can be seen in the recent proliferation of media employing fairy tale narratives. Fairy tales provide a site of meaning about femininity and masculinity and examining them over time identifies versions of gender that are prized or denigrated within specific social, historical moments. This project was interested in the continuities and divergences in these gendered discourses across time. Although there has been considerable academic interest in fairy tales and gender, few studies have approached the topic from a genealogical perspective. This research extends the current literature through a genealogical analysis of five Snow White films from 1916 to 2012 in addition to incorporating an analysis in relation to a contemporary postfeminist, neoliberal social climate. The research employed a feminist poststructuralist framework and utilised thematic and genealogical Foucauldian discourse analysis to analyse the data. Discursive analyses found enduring discourses of traditional femininity across the films which centrally organised around a binary construction of femininity as ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ A moral discourse worked to construct ‘good’ femininity as prized and bad femininity as punished. Alongside persistent discourses of femininity, however, a newer postfeminist femininity was evident in recent versions of the fairy tale. Consistent with a postfeminist, neoliberal discourse that highlights the importance of the body, analyses found an increased emphasis on beauty and the vast effort required to maintain it. Another postfeminist shift in the tale was the invoking of a girl power discourse to construct Snow as a competent fighter and leader. However, the complex entanglement of discourses of femininity in contemporary society is highlighted by the co-existence of these newer versions of femininity with traditional goals such as achieving a ‘happily ever after.’ From the perspective of possibilities for subjectivity, these shifts in representation appear to offer a young female audience more empowered possibilities of femininity but such power is simultaneously constrained by a complex amalgamation with traditional ‘niceness’ and beauty.</p>

Fairy Tale Femininities: A Discourse Analysis of Snow White Films 1916-2012

<p>Fairy tales are enduring cultural texts that have enjoyed wide appeal and the continuing popularity of the fairy tale can be seen in the recent proliferation of media employing fairy tale narratives. Fairy tales provide a site of meaning about femininity and masculinity and examining them over time identifies versions of gender that are prized or denigrated within specific social, historical moments. This project was interested in the continuities and divergences in these gendered discourses across time. Although there has been considerable academic interest in fairy tales and gender, few studies have approached the topic from a genealogical perspective. This research extends the current literature through a genealogical analysis of five Snow White films from 1916 to 2012 in addition to incorporating an analysis in relation to a contemporary postfeminist, neoliberal social climate. The research employed a feminist poststructuralist framework and utilised thematic and genealogical Foucauldian discourse analysis to analyse the data. Discursive analyses found enduring discourses of traditional femininity across the films which centrally organised around a binary construction of femininity as ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ A moral discourse worked to construct ‘good’ femininity as prized and bad femininity as punished. Alongside persistent discourses of femininity, however, a newer postfeminist femininity was evident in recent versions of the fairy tale. Consistent with a postfeminist, neoliberal discourse that highlights the importance of the body, analyses found an increased emphasis on beauty and the vast effort required to maintain it. Another postfeminist shift in the tale was the invoking of a girl power discourse to construct Snow as a competent fighter and leader. However, the complex entanglement of discourses of femininity in contemporary society is highlighted by the co-existence of these newer versions of femininity with traditional goals such as achieving a ‘happily ever after.’ From the perspective of possibilities for subjectivity, these shifts in representation appear to offer a young female audience more empowered possibilities of femininity but such power is simultaneously constrained by a complex amalgamation with traditional ‘niceness’ and beauty.</p>

Yummy Mummy?: (Re) Appearance of the Maternal Body in Popular Women's Magazines in New Zealand

<p>Images and detailed descriptions of the postnatal maternal body have become more common in popular women's magazines than they have in the past. Although researchers generally accept that popular media's representations of the female body contribute to body image concerns among some women, there has been little research that has focused on the recent media constructions of the maternal body or the effects of this increased visibility. This is an important area of research as there are indications that media representations of the postnatal body, in particular body size, are beginning to have negative affects on women's wellbeing in pregnancy and after childbirth. This thesis examines how women's bodies are being represented in popular culture when they become mothers, and what discourses these representations make available to new mothers. The research involved analysing references to the maternal body found in a convenience sample of popular NZ women's magazines. The research, framed within feminist poststructuralist theories, used thematic analysis and discursive analytic tools to explore textual and visual representations of the maternal body found in the magazines. Three major constructions of mothers emerged from the analysis; these were 'sexy', 'healthy' and 'labouring' mothers. Women who, through 'body work' such as diet and exercise, had lost weight and dressed glamorously were depicted as sexy, healthy and praised for their efforts. Mothers who regained a slender, glamorous appearance were often referred to as 'yummy mummies'. Women who lost 'too much weight' were considered to be ill and were individually pathologised as having psychological problems. Mothers were encouraged to diet and exercise as soon as possible after childbirth, with scant reference to possible health concerns for mother or baby, and were targeted by the diet industry. Postfeminist and neoliberal discourses of empowerment, choice and self-care were used to promote and justify these images of mothers. Findings suggest appearance of new mothers was emphasised wherein the 'undisciplined' normal maternal body was denigrated as dull, unattractive and unworthy. Analysis indicated that a new cultural imperative for women to return to slenderness as soon as possible is being evoked. Given the new media pressures being imposed there is a clear need for research with new mothers themselves. Such research will illuminate a period in womens lives that had previously slipped below the radar of culturally prescribed strict beauty standards, but is now under the glare of the media spotlight.</p>