PLAYING WITH FIRE: On the domestication of the mobile phone among Palestinian teenage girls in Israel

This paper offers an analysis of mobile phone practices among Palestinian Israeli teenage girls, framed within a discussion about the domestication of communication technologies, women and the telephone, and Palestinian teenage girls in Israel. The paper constructs a detailed account of mobile phone use among Palestinian Israeli girls who, at the time of the fieldwork (2003-2006), used mobile phones given to them by their illicit boyfriends, unbeknownst to their parents. The analysis explores the ways in which the phone use dialectically reaffirmed and challenged intergenerational and cross-gender relationships; and reflects on the notion of 'domestication' as a framework for analysing mobile communication media.     

At the intersection of idealized youth and marginalized almost-adulthood: how girls negotiate young motherhood in London,Ontario

This article discusses how young mothers in London, a mid-size city in Canada, utilize a drop-in centre service while attending an alternative programme to acquire secondary school credits. The central arguments made here are informed by key concepts in the field of girlhood studies. With its attention to the interconnections between gender, age, and generation as well as other aspects of social identity, girlhood studies provides crucial insight into the lived experiences of young mothers who straddle the space between girlhood and adulthood. We interpret the experiences of the young mothers who participated in this study in light of shifting meanings and expectations of girls and girlhood in the neoliberal era. Drawing on the concept of the ideal neoliberal girl subject embodied in the ‘can do’ and ‘at risk’ girl, this paper highlights the tensions in accessing a drop-in centre, which functions as both a site of security and surveillance, for a group of young mothers receiving social services. The findings revealed how girls who are mothers struggle to live in the present to assert a legitimate maternal identity even as they are prepared for the future through neoliberal public policies and other disciplinary practices.     

Hashtagging girlhood: #IAmMalala, #BringBackOurGirls and gendering representations of global politics

This article explores how gendered, racial and youth-ed concepts of girlhood shape the way conflict, violence and the lived experiences of girls in conflict-affected environments are understood globally. In particular, it examines the broader context and effect of social media campaigns that specifically invoke a concept of “girlhood” in their responses to crisis or tragedy. It focuses on two hashtags and their associated social media campaigns: #IAmMalala, started in response to the attempted killing of Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai in 2012 by Taliban gunmen, and #BringBackOurGirls, started by Nigerians and adopted globally in response to the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls by terrorist group Boko Haram. In both instances, understandings of the broader political context are shaped by the focus on girls. Both hashtags also appropriate an experience: claiming to be Malala and claiming the Nigerian girls as ours. Through this exploration, I argue that particular ideals of girlhood are coded within these campaigns, and that these girls’ experiences are appropriated. I critique the limited representations of girlhood that circulate in these discussions, and how these limited representations demonstrate the problematic narrowness of dominant conceptions of girlhood.     

'Ladettes' and 'Modern Girls': 'troublesome' young femininities

‘Ladettes’ are argued to be a sign, and product, of contemporary development and change; their fortunes are presented as inextricably related to the conditions of late modernity. Using the past to shed light on the present, this paper considers whether fears and claims about the behaviour of some contemporary young women in Britain are exclusive to the present. Two data sets inform the discussion: first, representations of ladettes in national and local newspapers from 1995 to 2005; second, materials relating to the ‘modern girl’ published in the popular print media between 1918 and 1928. Although there have been important changes in the conditions of girlhood since the 1920s, this historical comparison highlights continuities in the representation of ‘troublesome’ youthful femininities. We explore similarities and differences in the characteristics attributed to the modern girls of the twenties and the ladettes of recent years, and the dominant discourses that underpin popular constructions of troublesome young women.     

Risk Factors and Life Processes Associated with Teenage Pregnancy: Results of a Prospective Study From Birth to 20 Years

Data gathered over the course of a 20‐year longitudinal study of 533 New Zealand women were used to (a) describe the extent and timing of pregnancies within the cohort up to age 20, and (b) examine the extent to which the risk of an early pregnancy was related to a range of social background, family, individual, and peer relationship factors measured over the course of childhood and adolescence. Results showed that by age 20, nearly a quarter of the sample had been pregnant at least once, with the majority of first pregnancies occurring between the ages of 17 and 20 years. The profile of those at greatest risk of a teenage pregnancy (<20 years) was that of an early‐maturing girl with conduct problems who had been reared in a family environment characterized by parental instability and maternal role models of young single motherhood. As young adolescents, these girls were characterized by high rates of sexual risk‐taking and deviant peer involvement. Exposure to social and individual adversity during both childhood and adolescence made independent contributions to an individual's risk of an early pregnancy. These findings were most consistent with a life course developmental model of the etiology of teenage pregnancy. Implications for teenage pregnancy prevention are discussed.     

Linking video chatting,phone calling,text messaging,and social media with peers to adolescent connectedness

For 14 days three times per day (6072 observations), adolescents (N = 207, M_age = 15.45 years) reported their digital (i.e., video chatting, texting, social media, and phone calling) communication with peers and their social connectedness. Controlling for in-person interactions, adolescents felt more connected in hours when they had communicated with peers by video chatting, texting, or social media, but not phone calling. Girls communicated with peers via text and social media more than boys, and boys talked on the phone more than girls. Boys who talked, texted, or video chatted more on average reported higher connectedness on average, whereas girls did not. As the links with connectedness were only found at the hourly- and not the daily level, results highlight that a sense of connectedness from digital media may be fleeting in nature.     

Constructing Girlhood: Abject Labour in Magazine Offices

Girls' magazines act as important texts through which meanings of childhood, girlhood and womanhood are mediated and constructed. However, previous research has focused on either the conditions of work practices or cultural production of the magazine as a product. Separately in each context women or girls have been described as abject. The paper will argue that employees working on girls' magazines experienced a simultaneous double abjection: in the gendered working practices and as an outcome of the construction of girlhood they produced. Two studies of all female teams producing teenage and pre‐teen magazines were used, including interviews and observations. Our approach engaged with the difficulty of examining abjectivity in working practices, as present but marginalized, silenced and othered. As a result of scrutinizing the gendered embodiment in these studies, the findings suggest there is a relation between the working practices and gendered cultural production, forming a process of abjection. This process was threefold: a marginalization of a particular gendered embodiment, the cracks or leaks where abjectivity became apparent and the silencing of those leaks. This study will be of value to scholars interested in gendered embodiment in workplaces, abjectivity and cultural production, noting the interrelation between these areas.     

‘My anorexia story’: girls constructing narratives of identity on YouTube

The phenomenon of pro-anorexia (‘pro-ana’) communities has attracted extensive academic attention over the last 15 years, with feminist scholars fascinated by the political complexities of such cultures. But the internet has also enabled a range of eating disorder recovery cultures to emerge – whether organized around blogs, Facebook, Instagram or YouTube – and such spaces have been largely ignored by feminist scholarship which has fetishized the apparently more resistant and controversial discourses of pro-ana. As such, this article explores a set of videos posted on YouTube under the title of ‘My anorexia story’ which present narratives of recovery, or efforts to recover, from anorexia. Primarily produced by white, Western, teenage girls, these videos are effectively slide shows made up of written text and photographs, with selfies of the body sitting at their core. The conceptual and political significance of self-representation has been seen as central to the construction of subjectivity within the digital media landscape, with particular attention paid to the ways in which such practices compare, speak back to, or challenge the existing representational discourses of ‘dominant’ media and wider relations of social power. In this regard, this article explores questions of agency in gendered self-representation, examining what kinds of self-narratives the girls are producing about anorexia. In doing so, it examines how the stories seek to ‘author’ and regulate the meanings of the anorexic body; how these constructions intersect with dominant constructions of anorexia (such as those offered by medical discourse and the media); as well as the implications of the aesthetic strategies they employ. In considering how the narratives visualize, display and ‘expose’ the anorexic body, I draw upon a growing area of work which examines the selfie in relation discourses of surveillance, visibility and selfhood.     

Mediating memory: Shōjo and war memory in classical narrative Japanese cinema

ABSTRACT

Considering the impact of the trope of the shōjo, or girl trope in post-war Japanese cinema, this paper argues for the repeated motif as a key factor in the creation of a particular affective economy around the memorialization of war in Japan. I trace the development of the shōjo motif from the post-defeat era through the anti-nuclear films and activist movements of the early 1950s to show how the affect generated by the repeated trope drew real-life events into a persuasive cycle of repetition. The tone of this repeated trope thereby came to dominate the practice of public memorialization of war in Japan. Today’s post-pacifist Japan is informed by these past moments in the memorializing process, which impact on contemporary anti-war and anti-nuclear protests.     

The Production of Erotica: Photobooks of Teenage Models in Hong Kong

This article examines the production of erotica in a Chinese cultural context. It takes the photo books featuring teenage models published in Hong Kong in 2010 as case studies in which a total of 2,205 photographs of teenage models were analyzed. In-depth interviews were conducted with six producers of these images. It was found that the set of erotic pictures was characterized by three distinctive features. First, they emphasized a look of innocence that suggested purity, fragility, and delicacy. Second, albeit being sexy and desirable, the girls were often presented as if they were unaware of their sexiness. The implication was that their sexiness was unintentional and, thus, the girls were not to blame. Finally, a sense of intimacy was purposefully built between the models and readers by constituting a direct gaze and presenting models as ordinary “girls next door.” All these echoed the emphasis of female chastity in Chinese culture. It appears that in Hong Kong, where sexuality issues often provoke debates, the producers of sexy images have benefited from media controversies. By heightening expectations of potential customers, they fuel the “erotic” imagination of the readers. The production of erotica is, hence, completed through a collaboration between teenage models, producers, marketers, and consumers.     

Tuning‐in to Teenagers! Using Radio Phone‐in Discussions in Research with Young People

Since the 1990s, research with children has witnessed epistemological changes which have challenged traditional research methods and have attempted to deconstruct notions of children as passive and incompetent. Such changes, epitomized by children‐centred research methods, aim to redress power imbalances by encouraging participants to select their own forms of communication. Participation and innovation are central to this approach. Simultaneously, but quite distinct from research methodology, community radio has become an important mechanism in promoting social inclusion. Globally, this means of community participation has been advocated by organizations that have utilized radio as an educational tool for promoting children’s rights. This paper suggests that the synthesis of radio phone‐in discussions with the ‘New Social Studies of Childhood’ forms a constructive basis for developing a participatory research method. Methodological issues arising from a teenage‐centred radio phone‐in will be explored. The paper concludes by discussing the viability of the radio phone‐in as a meaningful method for promoting teenagers’, often unheard, voices.     

Smart phone is a expectation-laden trophy: adolescent girls–adults’ mobile phone tensions and changing sexuality negotiation

This article is based on a study conducted in Nigerian Christian and Muslim neighborhoods on the intrigues that characterized adults-adolescent girls’ relations about how and when adolescent girls could use smart phones. Questionnaires, ethnographic interviews, school debates, observations, and focus group discussion methods were used to study the influence of smart phones on adolescent girls’ identity construction, adults-adolescent girls’ tension as regards ownership and use of smartphones, and new dynamics in adolescent girls-male friends’ relationship caused by smart phone uptake. For this population, smart phones display contextual symbolism that transcends their technological meaning, shifting girls’ social dependence from adults to peers and technology. Smart phone use has given adolescent girls a new way of identity construction, empowered them subtly in sexuality negotiation and assigned new roles to them. Adults’ concern about adolescent girls’ use of smart phones is rooted in their fears about the possible negative influences of smart phone use, which they see as entertainment driven and inimical to adolescent girls’ development. Findings of this study revealed that tensions between adults and adolescent girls over smart phone uptake originated from role reversal and expectation-laden nature of smart phones acquired by male friends, which effective mutual sharing of knowledge and resources could address. Adolescent girls should justify their craving for smart phones morally, socially, and psychologically. Adults and social institutions also need to rediscover their new roles in a world where digital innovations are necessities.     

Media variants,situation awareness,and protective public-health behaviors

This study investigates the effect of exposure to traditional and social media on protective behaviors during a public health emergency, mediated by situation awareness composed of perceived knowledge and perceived threat. Under the context of the worldwide spread of Ebola in 2014, a survey conducted in Hong Kong showed that, compared to exposure to social media regarding the emergency, exposure to traditional media produced a higher level of situation awareness, which further affected protective behaviors in a public health emergency. In addition, the effect of traditional media exposure on protective behaviors was significantly mediated by both perceived knowledge and perceived threat. However, the effect of social media exposure on protective behavior was only significantly mediated by perceived knowledge, but not by perceived threat.     

Tween girls' dressing: Shifts,implications, and future directions in Singapore

This article traces the changes in research on tween girls' dress. Traditionally, girls' adult‐like dressing has been predominantly understood through the discourse of sexualization. Girls are seen to be prematurely sexualized when they fashion themselves after adults. This is a cause for concern as the young girl subject is seen as an unknowing victim, who is vulnerable to a range of physical, sexual, and psychological harm when she fashions herself after adults. Recent scholarship, however, have begun to pay more attention to girls' agency and viewpoints when it comes to what they want to wear. Scholars have begun to work with (rather than on) girls, situating girls' perspectives at the center of their research. Such studies acknowledge that girls are not passive recipients of an adult culture or the types of messages that they receive about what to wear. Nonetheless, in outlining the shifts in research on girls' dressing, this article highlights how scholarship on girls' young femininities remains Western‐centric. There is a need for more research on girlhood and girls' cultural identities outside the West, and especially in the context of Singapore. Much of the research on youth within this region has focused on girls' roles and identities as students.     

The Sexual Debut of Girls in Early Adolescence: The Intersection of Race,Pubertal Timing,and Friendship Group Characteristics

Scholars who have studied the effects of early pubertal timing on girls' sexual debut contend that this association may result from the company they keep. Although this basic biosocial model of adolescent behavior has been applied to various outcomes with diverse samples of adolescent girls, less work has contextualized this microlevel developmental phenomenon within the larger macrolevel structures of race and ethnicity. Using a sample of White, African American, and Latina girls (N=1,299) drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study conducted within‐group multivariate analyses and found important differences in the linkages that make up this biosocial model by race and ethnicity, with the linkages strongest for Whites, followed by Latina, and African American girls. These differences in association may reflect differences in the social construction of girlhood across race and ethnicity.     

‘We took a bath with the chickens’: memories of childhood visits to the homeland by second‐generation Greek and Greek Cypriot ‘returnees’

Drawing on a wider study of 90 second‐generation Greeks and Greek Cypriots who have relocated to their ancestral homeland, in this article we focus on the significance of childhood visits to the homeland. Freedom – how children were allowed to roam free and stay up late – is the key trope of such memories, in contrast with the strict spatio‐temporal parenting they received in the host country. Different, sometimes less pleasant memories, however, emerge when the visits took place during later, teenage years. We explore the connections between childhood visits and adult relocation. Adult returnees find that settlement in the homeland produces a new set of challenges and reactions that differ markedly from childhood experiences and memories. They engage a second narrative trope, nostalgia, reflecting on the loss of the ‘authentic’ nature of the homeland and its customs and values. Instead, they highlight the materialism and xenophobia of Greek and Cypriot society nowadays. However, they see the ‘homeland’ as a safer place in which to raise their own children.     

The Haitian orphanage crisis: Exporting neoliberal family ideals in the debate on vulnerable childhoods in Haiti

In light of recent global debates over the dangers of institutionalised orphan care, a new model of family care premised on the trope of family reunification has emerged among Haitian and US faith-based actors as the best alternative for ensuring vulnerable children's well-being. This article offers a critical cultural reading of narratives on family reunification in Haiti in social media and advocacy discourse, revealing how this approach privileges Northern assumptions about proper parenting and family life. Not only are these ideas a mismatch with realities in Haiti, they evoke deficit constructions of family and childhood that facilitate the nation's further positioning as a subject of transnational neoliberal governmentality.     

Queer like me: black girlhood sexuality on the playground, under the covers, and in the halls of academia

Using Laura Alexandra Harris' conception of a queer Black feminism, I evaluate stories from my girlhood to learn what lessons can be learned about young female sexuality when the researcher works from a position of pleasure. I contend that my secret quests to satisfy my same-sex sexual desires led me to begin the process of cultivating self-awareness, or subjectivity, and personal agency at an early age.     

‘The Girl About Town’: discussions of modernity and female youth in Drum magazine, 1951–1970

This article examines the trope of the ‘modern miss’ in Drum magazine 1951–1970 as a locus for debate over South African urban modernity. At the centre of Drum’s African urbanity was a debate between a progressive, positively ‘modern’ existence and an attendant fear of moral and social ‘breakdown’ in the apartheid city. The trope of the ‘modern miss’ drew upon both discourses. Drum’s fascination with the ‘modern miss’ reached a peak in the years 1957–1963, during which time she appeared prominently in the magazine as a symbolic pioneer of changing gender and generational relationships. However, this portrayal continued to coexist alongside the image of young women as the victims of moral degeneration. The ‘modern miss’ was increasingly differentiated from adult women within Drum’s pages, which distanced her from the new space won by political activists. By examining constructions of young womanhood, this article points to the gendering of ‘youth’ at the intersection of commercial print culture and shifting social relations in mid‐twentieth‐century South Africa. It is also suggested that understanding the social configurations of Drum’s modernity illuminates the gendered and generational responses of formal political movements as they conducted their own concurrent debates.     

The Political Lives of Girls

Girls are increasingly being publically celebrated as community leaders, models for ideal citizenship, and central to economic development. Contemporary girlhood is rich with political implications and significance. In this essay, I outline some of the scholarship on the public discourses that idealize girls as model neoliberal citizens and address important findings and contributions from empirical research on the political lives of girls: girls' political beliefs, political socialization, political identities, and their practices of political and civic engagement. There is a growing body of scholarship that suggests that studying the political lives of girls enables and requires a re‐thinking of some key concepts in political sociology, including the meaning of politics, of engagement, and of citizenship for different populations.