Between Femininities

Marnina Gonick

Description

Arguing for a recognition of the contradictory and ambivalent identifications that both attract and repel those who live the social category "girl," Marnina Gonick analyzes the discourses and practices defining female sexuality, embodiment, relationship to self and other, material culture, use of social space, and cultural-political agency and power. Based on a school-community project involving collaborative production of a video which tells the stories of several fictional girl characters, Gonick examines the contradictory and textured structure of the discourses available to girls through which their identities are negotiated. Woven throughout the book is the integral concern with the way in which ethnographic writing as a discursive practice is also implicated in the production and signification of social identities for girls.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

What Is the "Problem" with These Girls?: School Discourses of Teenage Femininity
The Itinerary of an Idea
Itinerant Writings/Readings/Pedagogies

CHAPTER 2

Points of Departure and Disrupted Arrivals: Negotiating the Research Terrain

Knowing "Us" and "Them": Ethnographic Knowledge, and the End of Innocence
Researching Experience/Experiencing Research: Crisis in Research Epistemology and Representation
Research Geographies
Text, Talk, and Videotape: Research Methodology as Feminist Pedagogy
Notes towards a Politics of Arrival: New Ethnographic Stories

CHAPTER 3

Crystal's Story: The Bad Girl Within

Crystal's Story: Narrating the Self through Romance
Scenes of Desire: The Bad Girl Within
Scene 1: Subjectivity and Femininity
Scene 2: Bodies in Trouble: The Bad Girl Made Visible
Scene 3: Necessary Failures: Disrupting the Good Girl Story
Scene 4: Good Girls and the Disavowal of Self

CHAPTER 4

Tori's Story: Becoming Somebody

Narrating the Self from the Inside Out
Scenes of Transformation
Scene 1: From the Outside In: (Re)Dressing Social Difference
Scene 2: (Re) Situating the Self in Social Space

CONCLUSION

The Good, the Bad, the Smart, and the Popular: Living Ambivalence

Mixed Subjects: Disruptive Figures?
I. Intersections: The Bad Girl Within: Transformations beyond the Ending
II. Intersections: Becoming Somebody: Romancing the Self
Mixed Subjects, New Subjectivites, and Feminist Cultural Pedagogies

REPRISE

NOTES

REFERENCES

INDEX

Sujets

• Student life
• Education

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791486344
• Langue: English

Extrait

Between Femininities

SUNY series, Second Thoughts: New Theoretical Foundations Deborah P. Britzman, editor

Books published in the series:

Sharon Todd,Learning from the Other: Levinas, Psychoanalysis, and Ethical Possibilities in Education

Marnina Gonick,Between Femininities: Ambivalence, Identity, and the Education of Girls

Between Femininities

Ambivalence, Identit y, and the Education of Girls

M ARNINA G ONICK

S t a t e Un i v e r s i t y o f N e w Yo r k P r e s s

Cover image: Thinkstock

Published by State Universit y of New York Press, Albany

© 2003 State Universit y of New York

All rights reserved

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gonick, Marnina. Bet ween femininities : ambivalence, identit y, and the education of girls / Marnina Gonick. p. cm. — (SUNY series, second thoughts) Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 0-7914-5829-6 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914-5830-X (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Girls—Psychology. 2. Mat uration (Psychology) 3. Feminist psychology. I. Title. II. Series.

HQ777 .G65 2003 305.23—dc21

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2002042634

To the girls, past and present

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

C o n t e n t s

C H A P T E R 1

Introduction What Is the “Problem” with These Girls? School Discourses of Teenage Femininit y The Itinerar y of an Idea Itinerant Writings/Readings/Pedagogies

C H A P T E R 2 Points of Departure and Disrupted Arrivals: Negotiating the Research Terrain Knowing “Us” and “Them”: Ethnographic Knowledge and the End of Innocence Researching Experience/Experiencing Research: Crisis in Research Epistemology and Representation Research Geographies Text, Talk, and Videotape: Research Methodology as Feminist Pedagogy Notes towards a Politics of Arrival: New Ethnographic Stories

C H A P T E R 3 Crystal’s Story: The Bad Girl Within Cr ystal’s Stor y: Narrating the Self through Romance Scenes of Desire: The Bad Girl Within

vii

ix

1

2 9 17

21

2

2

28 32

48 55

61 62 68

viii

Scene 1. Scene 2. Scene 3. Scene 4.

CONTENTS

Subjectivit y and Femininit y Bodies in Trouble: The Bad Girl Made Visible Necessar y Failures: Disrupting the Good Girl Stor y Good Girls and the Disavowal of Self

C H A P T E R 4 Tori’s Story: Becoming Somebody Narrating the Self from the Inside Out Scenes of Transformation Scene 1. From the Outside In: (Re)Dressing Social Difference Scene 2. (Re)Sit uating the Self in Social Space

C O N C L U S I O N The Good, the Bad, the Smart, and the Popular: Living Ambivalence Mixed Subjects: Disruptive Figures? I. Intersections. The Bad Girl Within: Transformations beyond the Ending II. Intersections. Becoming Somebody: Romancing the Self Mixed Subjects, New Subjectivities, and Feminist Cult ural Pedagogies

REPRISE NOTES REFERENCES INDEX

70 76 92 99

105 113 115 118 128

161 163

165 170

179

187 189 195 215

A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s

This book owes a great deal to both the place and the people who supported its first inception, as a doctoral dissertation. At the time I was a st udent there, The Ontario Instit ute for St udies in Education was a site of intense, exciting, and pro- found intellect ual debate. And while hindsight may have furnished something of a rosy lens, my horizons were most definitely crucially expanded there. I continue to appreciate my committee members’ practical and intellect ual support. It was in Kari’s Dehli’s classes that I first heard about the research opport unit y that be- came the thesis and then the book, first encountered many of the questions and theoretical works that underlay this project, and was first encouraged to think about how academic writing might be done differently. To Roger Simon, I remain deeply grateful, for the ways in which he pushed at the boundaries of the ques- tions I knew how to ask and for ver y generously being there to help me think through them. The book (and I) are richer by far for his respect ful, critically engaged reading. I am also grateful to Monica Heller, Tara Goldstein, and Michelle Fine. Sincere thanks to Deborah Britzman for includingBetween Femininitiesin her series, Second Thoughts: New Theoretical Formations. Her particular combi- nation of brilliance and generosit y is all too rare, and I have benefitted hugely from both. My thanks also to State Universit y of New York Press for all their as- sistance. I thank my colleagues at The Pennsylvania State Universit y in the Lan- guage and Literacy Program in the College of Education and in the Women’s St udies Program. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada funded this research, and I am ver y appreciative of the support. Paul Rabinow speaks of friendship as a “primar y site of thinking” and cites Aristotle’sNicomachean Ethicsin affirming that friendship is essential to the good life, socially and intellect ually. Ester Reiter, Paula Moser, Ellie Goldenberg, Janice Hladki, Linda Cullum, Liza McCoy, Holloway Sparks, Debra Freedman, and

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