Oppositional Girlhoods and the Challenge of Relational Politics

Bent, Emily; Switzer, Heather

doi:10.1007/s12147-016-9161-x

Cited by 21 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Framing themselves as becoming activists also gives girls a chance to acknowledge some of the things that they have done and achieved, while still maintaining humility. This is a distinctly gendered process; 'good girls' are modest and humble, while those who speak too forcefully about their accomplishments are often considered arrogant (Bent & Switzer, 2016;Brown, 2016). Such gendered expectations push girls to dismiss and downplay their accomplishments out of fear of appearing too bold, too proud, too self-assured.…”

Section: The Teenage Activist Self-in-formationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teenage girls’ narratives of becoming activists

Taft¹

2019

Political Activism Across the Life Course

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In March of 2003, hundreds of thousands of high school students all over the world took to the streets to protest the impending U.S.-led war in Iraq. Emily, from the San Francisco Bay Area, was 13 at the time. When I interviewed her several years later, a senior in high school, she told me that the main thing she remembers about 8 th grade was all the anti-war protests. She went to every possible rally, student walkout, and march. But these anti-war protests were not the end of her teenage activism; over the next five years she coordinated an organization for women's rights at her high school, worked to oppose California ballot measures that would restrict the reproductive rights of teenage girls, and continued to go to protests and rallies on a variety of national issues. Similarly, Celia, an Italian exchange student who I met while she was living in Venezuela described the lead-up to war as the spark that led her and many of her peers to become activists. She was fourteen at the time. 'I began to educate myself more about this issue because I wanted to oppose what was being done. And many other youth were also doing this, like me, so a lot of spontaneous protests were born almost without organization at the beginning.And afterward we began to discuss and decide how to organize ourselves in order to continue with other activities and other projects.' Like Emily, Celia didn't stop there. In fact, she was so interested in social movements that she convinced her parents to let her spend a year living in Venezuela where she'd be able to see the unfolding political changes.What leads girls like Emily and Celia to become involved in social movements? How do they understand this involvement? And how do they narrate their developing identities as teenage activists? This article analyses girls' stories about their entry into activism, examining how they talk about the process of 'becoming an activist.' In particular, I show how girl activists' constructions of their activist identities replicate many of the narrative conventions of coming of age tales as well as popular discourses of adolescence as a time of self-development. After describing some of the narrative themes found in these activist coming of age tales, I argue that girl activists' emphasis on themselves as still 'becoming' rather than 'being' activists enables a valuable political flexibility, openness, and the mobilization of their peers but also has the unintended consequence of contributing to their own invisibility and to the widespread dismissal of young people's politics as merely practice for the future.

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Section: The Teenage Activist Self-in-formationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teenage girls’ narratives of becoming activists

Taft¹

2019

Political Activism Across the Life Course

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This is a distinctly gendered process; 'good girls' are modest and humble, while those who speak too forcefully about their accomplishments are often considered arrogant (Bent & Switzer, 2016;Brown, 2016). Such gendered expectations push girls to dismiss and downplay their accomplishments out of fear of appearing too bold, too proud, and too self-assured.…”

Section: The Teenage Activist Self-in-formationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teenage girls’ narratives of becoming activists

Taft

2017

Contemporary Social Science

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“…Bobel contends that identity and action need not align in order for people to contribute to social movements, so to some extent ordinary girls may follow in the footsteps of celebrity girl activists - marching, protesting - but not fully adopting the seemingly unattainable identity of activist for themselves. Bent and Switzer (2016) report on findings from interviews with girl-delegates to the United Nations that the fixation on girls as idealized citizens in Western media narratives “relies on an image of empowered girlhood that corresponds with notions of postfeminist neoliberalism and adolescent female exceptionalism” (p. 33). The necessity of creating stories that lift girl activists up as singular belies the extent to which youth undercuts their ability to make sustained and substantive social change because “In the hallways of power, age and generation deter political representatives from taking genuine, intentional interest in young people or their concerns” (Bent, 2019, p. 62).…”

Section: Girls “Becoming” Activistsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Becoming Celebrity Girl Activists: The Cultural Politics and Celebrification of Emma González, Marley Dias, and Greta Thunberg

Duvall

2022

Journal of Communication Inquiry

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Young girls have historically been symbols to be conjured by social movements to garner sympathy for social causes, but are frequently silenced as political agents. This study addresses the celebrification of non-celebrity girls such as Emma González, Greta Thunberg, and Marley Dias and analyzes how backlash politics promote their fame. Some ordinary girls become celebrity activists in part because the trolling and negative media coverage helps propel their visibility, while others enjoy relatively positive experiences with fame. Both of these types of representations of celebrity girl activists - whether fueled by backlash or not -can serve as cautionary tales or as inspiration for girls who wish to engage in activism. Through an intersectional feminist lens, I address the complex social media narratives that emerge about girl empowerment and negotiation of risk - emphasis on self-care and struggle - when girls are famous activists.

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Oppositional Girlhoods and the Challenge of Relational Politics

Cited by 21 publications

References 34 publications

Teenage girls’ narratives of becoming activists

Teenage girls’ narratives of becoming activists

Teenage girls’ narratives of becoming activists

Becoming Celebrity Girl Activists: The Cultural Politics and Celebrification of Emma González, Marley Dias, and Greta Thunberg

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