The Girling of America: Critical Reflections on Gender and Popular Communication

The upsurge in media vehicles aimed at adolescent girl audiences has given birth to a "new breed" of teenage heroine, one whose embodiment of nontraditional gender roles has drawn widespread acclaim. This essay offers critical perspectives on this new genre, situating the figures of the new girl heroines in their sociopolitical contexts and examining them through the lens of critical feminist theory. The essay concludes that the oppositional gestures offered by these new girl heroes are swiftly recuperated within larger, conventional discourses of race, class, beauty, desire, and embodiment.