Girls, Feminism, and Grassroots Literacies

Mary P. Sheridan-Rabideau

Description

Winner of the 2010 Winifred Bryan Horner Outstanding Book Award presented by The Coalition of Women Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition

This book explores the rise and fall of a grassroots, girl-centered organization, GirlZone, which sought to make social change on a local level. Whether skateboarding or designing Web pages, celebrating in weekend "GrrrlFests" or producing a biweekly RadioGirl program, participants in GirlZone came to understand themselves as competent actors in a variety of activities they had previously thought were closed off to them. Drawing on six years of fieldwork examining GirlZone from its inception until its demise, Mary P. Sheridan-Rabideau offers insights on the current state of and study of literacy in the extracurriculum. She addresses how girls have become cultural flashpoints reflecting societal—and particularly feminist—anxieties and hopes about the present and the future. Sheridan-Rabideau does more than chronicle the pressure girls face; she offers advice on how feminists, cultural critics, and activists can effect social change on local levels, even in today's increasingly globalized contexts.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Part One  Setting the Scene

1. The Telling Case of GirlZone

2. Building a Youthquake

3. Representations of Girl Culture, Realities of Feminist Activism

Part Two  Literacy in Action: Complicating Feminist Designs

4. Founding Documents, Founding Feminisms

5. Circulations of a Feminist Pedagogy

6. Redesigning Girls’ Image Stores

7. The Economics of Activism

Coda  Success and Sustainability

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791479063
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Girls, Feminism, and Grassroots Literacies

SUNY series in Feminist Criticism and Theory Michelle A. Masse, editor

Girls, Feminism, and Grassroots Literacies

Activism in the GirlZone

Mary P. Sheridan-Rabideau

State University of New York Press

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2008 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher

For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu

Production by Kelli W. LeRoux Marketing by Michael Campochiaro

Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Sheridan-Rabideau, Mary P. Girls, feminism, and grassroots literacies : activism in the GirlZone / Mary P. Sheridan-Rabideau. p. cm. — (SUNY series in feminist criticism and theory) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7914-7297-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. GirlZone (Organization). 2. Feminist theory—United States. 3. Women’s rights—United States. 4. Teenage girls—United States. 5. Young women—United States. 6. Feminism—United States. 7. Women in community organization—United States. I. Title.

HQ1246.S44 2008 305.235'201—dc22

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2007013155

To Aimee, and the entire GirlZone community

This page intentionally left blank.

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Contents

Part One Setting the Scene 1 The Telling Case of GirlZone 2 Building a Youthquake 3 Representations of Girl Culture, Realities of Feminist Activism

Part Two

4 5 6 7

Literacy in Action: Feminist Designs

Complicating

Founding Documents, Founding Feminisms

Circulations of a Feminist Pedagogy

Redesigning Girls’ Image Stores

The Economics of Activism

Coda

Success and Sustainability

Notes Bibliography Index

vii

ix xi

1 13

37

55 79 103 127

149

155 183 197

This page intentionally left blank.

Illustrations

Figures 2.1 GrrrlFest Auto Mechanic Workshop 2.2 Off-air RadioGirl Workshop 2.3 Front page of GirlZoneGirl Zine 1.2 4.1 GirlZone Logo on a Promotional Flyer 6.1 GrrrlFest 2002 Logo 6.2 Sage’s Image of and Commentary on an Ice-Skater

Tables 2.1 Timeline of Key GirlZone Events 2.2 Core Girls, Estimated Age (1998), Schooling, Participation at GirlZone

ix

20 20 21 67 105 114

19 32