“Say It How It Is”: Urban Teenage Girls Challenge and Perpetuate Stereotypes Through Writing and Performing Theatre

Abstract

This article examines how urban teenage girls of color challenge and perpetuate stereotypes through writing and performing theatre. The girls in this study are participants in a performing arts education organization that offers free after school arts programs to teenage girls. In addition to researcher, I am also the cofounder and served as executive director of the organization and facilitated or codirected the theatre projects discussed in this study. I implemented a qualitative, arts-based methodology where I analyzed the creative writing and performances that the girls created, their rehearsal observations, as well as semistructured interviews and “slow motion interviews,” a new interviewing technique whereby I gave each participant a tape recorder and a list of questions and invited her to record her responses in her own time and space. I examined how girls are influenced by stereotypes about love, sexuality, and violence as they tell the stories of their own experiences both onstage and offstage. Findings suggest that when given the space to write and perform uncensored stories, girls will often reiterate and reinforce damaging stereotypes. This study challenges assumptions that uncensored creative expression is “empowering” for all youth and advocates for greater oversight and awareness on the part of educators who work with adolescents.

Notes

¹All names have been changed to pseudonyms invented by each individual girl.

The author thanks her fabulous dissertation committee: Philip Taylor (chair), Jan Cohen-Cruz, and Carol Gilligan; professor/mentor Niobe Way; readers and writing support group: Aimee, Amylia, Anna, Desiree, Helen, Kevin, Lizzy, and Ruth Nicole; viBe staff: Chandra, Katie, Ellen, and Sarah; and family: Miriam, Steven, Jane, and Erica. And finally, this study would never ever have been possible without the generosity, energy, passion, and creativity of the dozens of teenage girls who participated in viBe Theater Experience during the years I was collecting my data. Thank you, Alex, Amber, Arianne, Arlyn, Asa, Ashanti, Brittney, Desiree, Elaina, Ericka, Erika, Genna, Imani, Mawia, Monique, Rukiya, Sinead, Stephanie, Tahiris, Theresa, Tiffany, Tinaya, Unique, Veronica, Xera, Zaidy, and Zola.

²Because viBe Theatre Experience, in its eleventh year, is an established and unique nonprofit organization, I have chosen to refer to it by name. As the cofounder, former executive director, and current board member, my connection to viBe is highly visible in media and scholarly journals, and to give it a pseudonym or mask its mission would add layers of confusion to those familiar with my work or those seeking further information about the organization.

³In viBeSongMakers, girls compose, write, record, and perform original songs.