Feminism, Inc. : Coming of Age in Girl Power Media Culture

Drawing on extensive research with a diverse group of seventy teen girls, Zaslow offers a critical account of the girl power moment in which feminism and femininity are shrink-wrapped together in one market-friendly package. With a focus on pop-music and television, Zaslow skillfully explores the negotiative processes of teen girls as they make sense of girl power's new cultural narratives of femininity as well as its failure to offer strategies for real social change. Written in highly accessible language, this book charts new territory as it offers a rich account of the ways in which teen girls understand style, sexuality, motherhood, and feminism in girl power media culture, and how their desires, social experiences, and imaginings of the future are shaped in their relationship with a neoliberal girl power discourse. Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction A Decade After Spice: Girl Power Media Culture in The New Millennium....Pages 1-11 Growls And Whimpers: The Roots of Girl Power Discourse....Pages 13-32 When Asked to Talk: Qualitative Research With Teen Girls....Pages 33-55 Wanna Get Dirrty? Determining Authentic Sexual Subjectivity....Pages 57-82 The Clothed Body: Girls’ Social and Emotional Experiences of Style....Pages 83-104 “I Don’t Know What I’m Going to Do When It Happens”: Independence, Motherhood, Careers, and Imagining the Future....Pages 105-126 “If Feminism Is Believing That Women Are Humans, Then I Am a Feminist”: Girls Define Feminism and Feminist Practice....Pages 127-155 Conclusion Cultural Discordance: Neoliberal Girl Power Meets Social Reality....Pages 157-161 Back Matter....Pages 163-205 This book explores how girls growing up in girl power media culture understand gender, self, empowerment, and resistance. This book explores how girls growing up in girl power media culture understand gender, self, empowerment, and resistance