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Abstract
The relationship between idealised femininity images in the media and girls' experiences of self and body has long been of interest to feminist scholars. Over recent years, this interest has organised around sexualised post-feminist media in which the female body must be worked upon towards norms of perfection, slimness and also ‘sexiness’. Approaches to researching relationships between girls' embodiment and media images within this post-feminist sexualised context have been dominated by (harmful) effects and psychologising frameworks which obscure the complexity of the relationship between girls' embodied identities and media images. This paper contributes an understanding of this complex relationship through an analysis of media video diary narratives drawn from a project with 71 pre-teen girls about popular culture in everyday life. Our analysis indicates that girls experienced media images through affective registers and that their relationship with images was complex; desire pulled girls to conform with post-feminist beauty practices and product consumption but they also pushed away from the beauty mandate through critiques of dubious product claims, ‘faked’ perfection and unrealistic bodies. These findings importantly emphasise that the relationship between girls' embodied self-understandings and post-feminist media bodies is multi-layered and cannot be reduced to linear effects.
Notes
1. We enclose the terms sexualised and sexualisation in smart quotes to denote that meanings are contested and slippery.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Sue Jackson
Sue Jackson is a senior lecturer in the School of Psychology at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Much of her previous research and publication work stems from a long-standing interest in ways that young women and girls negotiate sexuality particularly, in more recent years, in relation to post-feminist popular culture and ‘sexualisation’. Currently, her research centres on a project examining pre-teen girls' engagement with popular culture in their everyday lives, supported by the NZ Royal Society Marsden Fund.
Tiina Vares
Tiina Vares is a senior lecturer in Sociology at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. Her research interests lie in the areas of gender, sexualities, the body and popular culture with a focus on the reception of popular cultural texts. She is currently working on the research project: Girls, ‘Tween’ Popular Culture and Everyday Life, supported by the New Zealand Royal Society Marsden Fund.