Girls’ Perspectives on (Mis)Representations of Girlhood in Hegemonic Media Texts

Abstract

Films, television series, music videos, computer games, social media networks, web pages, newspapers, magazine covers, digital signage, and other pervasive media texts are constantly projecting a barrage of conflicting and influential messages about who girls are, what they should be, and how they should act. In this article, I discuss my work with 10 girl coresearchers (aged between 10 and 13) to analyze media as texts with taken-for-granted meanings that need to be under-stood, questioned, interrupted, and transformed. I report on how the coresearchers produced a Public Service Announcement (PSA) to represent how girls and girlhood are (mis)represented in well-established and hegemonic media discourses. Findings underscore the importance of providing opportunities for girls to be media creators (not merely consumers or child users) so that the girl in the text can be heard and can express herself in her own ways, on her own terms, and for her own purposes. To what extent can girls identify, analyze, and communicate their lived experiences and expressions of media culture? Who will listen to girls’ evocative stories and media scripts that deconstruct gender stereotypes? How will our research at 101 Technology Fun be valued and interpreted? Will our research generate more equitable and progressive possibilities for girls to examine their media relationships with a critical eye towards empowered trans-formation beyond preconceived notions of girls as apolitical, conformists, or consumers?