‘What you wear tells a lot about you’: girls dress up online

Abstract

This article reports findings from a study in which 26 girls aged 12‐ to 13‐years‐old took part in workshops at a specialist ICT centre connected to a school in inner‐city London. The girls explored and discussed fashion as presented online, and they produced their own interactive fashion design webpages, making decisions about body shapes, types of clothing and audience. The article analyses interview data, looking at statements girls made in the context of discursive practices around body image, pleasures of play and self‐confidence. The analysis examines the role of structure and agency in girls’ discussions about fashion media and argues that the agency offered to girls is structured by neoliberal discourses. As girls draw on these discourses, they enter into complex and often conflicting negotiations, rendering themselves as seemingly active agents who are making politicised arguments, and at the same time restricting their possible subject positions.

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