Feminism, Young Women, and Cultural Studies: Birmingham Essays from 1975 Onwards

Feminism, Young Women, and Cultural Studies collects together essays dating back to the mid-1970s to provide both a feminist analysis of young women and popular culture (including magazines, dance, and fashion) as well as a forceful critique of male domination in youth culture and the ways in which an ideology of adolescent femininity functioned so as to subdue and restrain young women in passive and subordinate gender unequal positions. The collection also shines a light on the kinds of methodologies being developed at Birmingham University CCCS as cultural studies was emerging as a distinct field of study. These essays when first published found their way onto the university undergraduate curriculum across the world and were translated into various languages. The author in this new edition provides a lively up-to-date introductory essay to each chapter as well as an engaging full introduction to the book as a whole that draws attention to race and ethnicity and intersectionality in studies of girlhood. It also considers the category of girl from queer perspectives and reflects on new inflections of teen femininity in popular fiction.