Abstract
Three significant, prevailing and overlapping narratives of teenage girls have dominated North American popular consciousness since the early 1990s: the sad girl, victimized by male privilege and misogyny of adolescence and beyond; the mad grrrls who rejected this vulnerability through music and media; and the bad girls of much current popular debate, those girls who are bad because they are conniving and/or because they are violent. This article reviews these three discourses by locating them within their historical contexts, including conceptualizations of the ‘girl’ from feminist poststructuralist perspectives. Literature from the field of girlhood studies provides the basis from which the discourses of growing up female are explored.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
The Ophelia Projects can be found at www.opheliaproject.org; information on Camp Ashema can be found in Taft 2004.
References
Aapola, S., Gonick, M., & Harris, A. (2005). Young femininity: Girlhood, power, and social change. Houndmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Abrams, L. S., & Curran, L. (2000). Wayward girls and virtuous women: Social workers and female juvenile delinquency in the progressive era. AFFILIA, 15(1), 49–64.
Alder, C., & Worrall, A. (2004). A contemporary crisis? In C. Alder & A. Worrall (Eds.), Girls' violence: Myths and realities (pp. 1–20). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Bail, K. (1996). DIY feminism. Sydney, AU: Allen & Unwin.
Brabeck, M. (1993). Moral judgment: Theory and research on differences between males and females. In M. J. Larrabee (Ed.), An ethic of care: Feminist and interdisciplinary perspectives (pp. 33–48). New York: Routledge.
Broughton, J. M. (1993). Women’s rationality and men’s virtues: A critique of gender dualism in Gilligan’s theory of moral development. In M. J. Larrabee (Ed.), An ethic of care: Feminist and interdisciplinary perspectives (pp. 112–139). New York: Routledge.
Brown, L. M. (1998). Raising their voices: The politics of girls’ anger. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Brown, L. M. (2003). Girlfighting: Betrayal and rejection among girls. New York: New York University Press.
Brown, L. M., & Gilligan, C. (1992). Meeting at the crossroads: Women’s psychology and girls’ development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bussey, K., & Maughan, B. (1982). Gender differences in moral reasoning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42(4), 701–706.
Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge.
Chesney-Lind, M., & Irwin, K. (2004). From badness to meanness: Popular constructions of contemporary girlhood. In A. Harris (Ed.), All about the girl: Culture, power, and identity (pp. 45–56). Montreal: Routledge.
Chesney-Lind, M., & Irwin, K. (2008). Beyond bad girls: Gender, violence and hype. New York: Routledge.
Crick, N. R. (1999). Childhood aggression and gender: A new look at an old problem. In D. Bernstein (Ed.), Gender and motivation (pp. 5–28). Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.
Crick, N. R., & Grotpeter, J. K. (1995). Relational aggression, gender, and social-psychological adjustment. Child Development, 66, 710–722.
Davies, B., Dormer, S., Gannon, S., Laws, C., Rocco, S., Taguchi, H. L., et al. (2001). Becoming schoolgirls: The ambivalent project of subjectification. Gender & Education, 13(2), 167–182.
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1984/2004). Anti-oedipus: Capitalism and schizophrenia. London: Continuum.
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987/2004). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia (B. Massumi, ed. Trans.). London: Continuum.
Downe, P. J. (2006). Aboriginal girls in Canada: Living histories of dislocation, exploitation and strength. In Y. Jiwani, C. Steenbergen, & C. Mitchell (Eds.), Girlhood: Redefining the limits (pp. 1–14). Montreal: Black Rose Books.
Driscoll, C. (1999). Girl culture, revenge and global capitalism: Cybergrrls, riot grrls, spice girls. Australian Feminist Studies, 14(29), 173–193.
Eisenhauer, J. (2004). Mythic figures and lived identities: Locating the “girl” in feminist discourse. In A. Harris (Ed.), All about the girl: Culture, power, and identity (pp. 79–90). Montreal: Routledge.
Erikson, E. H. (1963). Childhood and society (2nd ed.). New York: Norton.
Erikson, E. H. (1980). Identity and the life cycle. New York: Norton.
Fine, M. (1988). Sexuality, schooling and adolescent females: The missing discourse of desire. Harvard Educational Review, 58(1), 29–53.
Flanagan, O., & Jackson, K. (1993). Justice, care, and gender: The Kohlberg-Gilligan debate revisited. In M. J. Larrabee (Ed.), An ethic of care: Feminist and interdisciplinary perspectives (pp. 69–86). New York: Routledge.
Foucault, M. (1972). The archaeology of knowledge (1st American ed.). New York: Pantheon Books.
Foucault, M. (1980). Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings, 1972–1977 (1st American ed.). New York: Random House of Canada.
Galotti, K. M. (1989). Gender differences in self-reported moral reasoning: A review and new evidence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 18(5), 475–488.
Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women’s development. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Gilligan, C., Lyons, N., Hanmer, T. J., & Emma Willard School. (1990). Making connections: The relational worlds of adolescent girls at Emma Willard school. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Godfrey, B. (2004). Rough girls, 1880–1930: The “recent” history of violent young women. In C. Alder & A. Worrall (Eds.), Girls’ violence: Myths and realities (pp. 21–40). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Gonick, M. (2006). Sugar and spice and something more than nice? Queer girls and transformations of social exclusion. In Y. Jiwani, C. Steenbergen, & C. Mitchell (Eds.), Girlhood: Redefining the limits (pp. 122–137). Montreal: Black Rose Books.
Griffin, C. (2004). Good girls, bad girls: Anglocentrism and diversity in the constitution of contemporary girlhood. In A. Harris (Ed.), All about the girl: Culture, power, and identity (pp. 29–44). New York: Routledge.
Harris, A. (2004). Introduction. In A. Harris (Ed.), All about the girl: Culture, power, and identity (pp. xvii–xxv). New York: Routledge.
Hesford, W. (1999). Framing identities: Autobiography and the politics of pedagogy. Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press.
Hey, V. (1997). The company she keeps: An ethnography of girls’ friendships. Philadelphia: Open University Press.
Jacques, A. (2001). You can run but you can’t hide: The incorporation of riot grrrl into mainstream culture. Canadian Women’s Studies, 21(1), 46–50.
Jiwani, Y., Steenbergen, C., & Mitchell, C. (2006). Girlhood: Surveying the terrain. In Y. Jiwani, C. Steenbergen, & C. Mitchell (Eds.), Girlhood: Redefining the limits (pp. ix–xvii). Montreal: Black Rose Books.
Kerber, L. K. (1993). Some cautionary words for historians. In M. J. Larrabee (Ed.), An ethic of care: Feminist and interdisciplinary perspectives (pp. 102–107). New York: Routledge.
Kohlberg, L. (1981). The philosophy of moral development: Moral stages and the idea of justice (1st ed.). San Francisco: Harper & Row.
Lamb, S. (2001). The secret lives of girls: What good girls really do—Sex play, aggression, and their guilt. New York: Free Press.
LeBlanc, L. (1999). Pretty in punk: Girls’ gender resistance in a boys’ subculture. London: Rutgers University Press.
Leschied, A. W., Cummings, A. L., Van Bunschot, M., Cunningham, A., & Saunders, A. (2001). Aggression in adolescent girls: Implications for policy, prevention, and treatment. Canadian Psychology, 42(3), 200–216.
Mackie, M. (1987). Constructing women and men: Gender socialization. Toronto: Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada.
McRobbie, A. (2004). Notes on postfeminism and popular culture: Bridget Jones and the new gender regime. In A. Harris (Ed.), All about the girl: Culture, power and identity (pp. 3–14). New York: Routledge.
Nicholson, L. J. (1993). Women, morality, and history. In M. J. Larrabee (Ed.), An ethic of care: Feminist and interdisciplinary perspectives (pp. 87–101). New York: Routledge.
Orenstein, P. (1994). Schoolgirls: Young women, self-esteem, and the confidence gap. New York: Doubleday.
Piaget, J. (1963). The origins of intelligence in children. New York: W.W. Norton.
Piaget, J. (1965). The moral judgement of the child. New York: Free Press.
Piaget, J. (1977). The development of thought: Equilibration of cognitive structures. New York: Viking Press.
Pipher, M. B. (1994). Reviving Ophelia: Saving the selves of adolescent girls. New York: Putnam.
Reitsma-Street, M. (2004). Connecting policies, girls and violence. In M. M. Moretti, C. L. Odgers, & M. A. Jackson (Eds.), Girls and aggression: Contributing factors and intervention principles (pp. 115–130). New York, NY: Kluwer/Plenum.
Ringrose, J., & Renold, E. (2008). Regulation and rupture: Mapping tween and teenage girls resistance to the heterosexual matrix. Feminist Theory, 9(3), 313–338.
Rothbart, M., Hanely, D., & Albert, M. (1986). Gender differences in moral reasoning. Sex Roles, 15(11/12), 645–653.
Simmons, R. (2002). Odd girl out: The hidden culture of aggression in girls. New York: Harcourt.
Taft, J. (2004). Girl Power Politics: Pop-culture Barriers and Organizational Resistance. In A. Harris (Ed.), All about the girl: Culture, power, and identity (pp. 69–78). Montreal: Routledge.
Taylor, J. M., Gilligan, C., & Sullivan, A. M. (1995). Between voice and silence: Women and girls, race and relationship. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Tronto, J. C. (1993). Moral boundaries: A political argument for an ethic of care. New York: Routledge.
Underwood, M. K. (2004). Girls and violence: The Neverending Story. In M. M. Moretti, C. L. Odgers, & M. A. Jackson (Eds.), Girls and Aggression: Contributing Factors and Intervention Principles (pp. 239–248). New York, NY: Kluwer/Plenum.
Vaillancourt, T., & Hymel, S. (2004). The social context of children’s aggression. In M. M. Moretti, C. L. Odgers, & M. A. Jackson (Eds.), Girls and aggression: Contributing factors and intervention principles (pp. 57–74). New York, NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
Walker, L. J. (1991). Sex differences in moral reasoning. In W. M. Kurtines & J. L. Gewirtz (Eds.), Handbook of moral behavior and development (pp. 333–364). Hillsdale, NJ, England: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Walkerdine, V., Lucey, H., & Melody, J. (2001). Growing up girl: Psychosocial explorations of gender and class. New York: New York University Press.
Ward, J. V., & Benjamin, B. C. (2004). Women, girls, and the unfinished work of connection: A critical review of american girls’ studies. In A. Harris (Ed.), All about the girl: Culture, power, and identity (pp. 15–28). New York: Routledge.
Wilson, E. (1977). Women and the welfare state. London: Tavistock Publications.
Wiseman, R. (2003). Queen bees and wannabes: Helping your daughter survive cliques, gossip, boyfriends & other realities of adolescence. California: Three Rivers Press.
Worrall, A. (2000). Governing bad girls: Changing constructions of adolescent female delinquency. In J. Bridgeman & D. Monk (Eds.), Feminist perspectives on child law. London: Cavendish Publishing.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Brown, M. The Sad, the Mad and the Bad: Co-Existing Discourses of Girlhood. Child Youth Care Forum 40, 107–120 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-010-9115-5
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-010-9115-5