Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Modern girlhood can hardly be understood without attention to the influence of commodities and practices of consumption over modern constructions of self. For a large number of girls in modern America, participating in the consumer realm is a defining feature of life as a girl. Yet, the meaning of girls’ consumption has changed considerably over time. The explosion of the Internet, the emergence of segmented marketing as an alternative to mass marketing, the arrival of an organized feminist movement, and demands for external regulation by consumer advocacy groups all come to bear upon the distinct historical relationship between girls and consumption. The role of the consumer market in girls’ lives has sparked much popular debate, often reflecting anxieties about the changing roles of girls in American society. Debates over the perils of excess consumption by girls are hardly new. Girls’ participation in the realm of consumption in the last century has generated concern about their appropriate place in society, their sexuality, their self-esteem, and even their likelihood toward delinquency, though rarely calling into question their roles in supporting consumer capitalism itself. Early studies of youth culture and consumption among sociologists and others failed to examine the distinct relationship between girls and consumption, reflecting an unwillingness to recognize the social ... log in or subscribe to read full text