This Is Not Another Girl-Power Story: Reading Emma González as a Public Feminist Intellectual

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

“…Similarly, Bent argues that González is able to intentionally wield her exceptional status to share an authentically challenging voice.“Reading González as a public feminist intellectual makes plain the desires, political commitments, and risks girl activists take as active participants in public life. Her visibility illustrates not only the tenuous relationship girl activists have to girl-power feminism but also girl activists’ struggles to maintain authentic voices and visions as their own” (Bent, 2020, p. 799).…”

Constructs of childhood, generation and heroism in editorials on young people's climate change activism: Their mobilisation and effects

“…The focus on individual, activist girl heroes also negates the centrality of connection and community that are integral to most activism, including peer-to-peer activist education (Bent, 2020;Keller, 2020;Taft & Gordon, 2011). Activist girls themselves have pointed to the value of collective action (Taft & Gordon, 2011).…”

“…The activism of working class, racialised, Indigenous and disabled young people is frequently overlooked in favour of young, white, middle class activists (e.g. Bent, 2020;Evelyn, 2020, and see section on individual heroism below). Ironically, younger and more marginalised young activists also run the risk of being dismissed when they look too competent or adult-like and are thus seen as either precocious or as pawns of adults.…”

“…It may nonetheless be exciting to see recognition of young women like Thunberg in prominent positions of activist leadership. Yet we must be cautious about such focus on individual girl heroes (Bent, 2020). Some of the challenges of this framing are evident if we look at the editorial representations of Thunberg.…”

Emergent self-mediating classes in the digital semiosphere: Covid-19 conspiracies and the climate justice movement

“…Attempts to forecast cultural trends must be weighed against the effects of data appropriation and use, aiming to maximise "public value" (Benington & Moore, 2011) by sharing knowledge among all creative parties. Cultural forecasting in the interests of good governance recognises that cultural dynamics are driven by difference and multiplicity, and that difference is a productive component of complex systems, not a win/lose binary opposition.…”