1 Girls; running the world or growing up too fast? - Institute of ...

Girls; running the world or growing up too fast?
Dr Julia Dane
Abstract
Popular female artists today perform a femininity which is ‘feminine and feminist at the same time,
merging notions of personal agency with the visual display of sexuality’ (Genz, 2010:106). Sexuality has
become linked to empowerment producing a pluralistic, paradoxical postfeminist position’ (ibid).
Jocelyn Vena of MTV News for example, described Beyoncé’s Run The World (Girls) (Nash et al, 2011) as
a "female empowerment/girl power type of song"( 12th April, 2011). This, I argue, is highly debatable.
In 2010, a Daily Mail headline read; ‘How raunchy Lady Gaga and Co make girls grow up too soon’
(Williams, 16th April), echoing their 2003 headline, ‘Raunchy pop stars accused of depriving girls of their
innocence’ (Harris, 30th July). The recent Bailey Review published by the Department of Education
(2011) recommended placing age restrictions on music videos and covering up sexualized images on
the front pages of magazines and newspapers. Framed this way, both perspectives position girls as
passive in their negotiation of music video. Noticeably absent in this debate is the voice of girls
themselves. This paper will draw on qualitative data collected through girls talking about music video,
to interrogate how girls understand and negotiate contemporary discourses of femininity. The girls’ talk
articulates their strategies of negotiation in terms of moral concerns for younger girls, the changing
expectations of boys, the loss of a ‘natural’ femininity, and the loss of female solidarity expressed
through their nostalgia for girl power.
Key words
girls, sexualization, innocence, music video, postfeminism
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Introduction
Beyoncé’s Run the World (Girls) is described as a "female empowerment/girl power type of
song“(Jocelyn Vena, MTV News 12.4.2011). Popular female artists today perform a femininity which is
‘feminine and feminist at the same time, merging notions of personal agency with the visual display of
sexuality’ with sexuality now ‘linked to empowerment producing a pluralistic, paradoxical postfeminist
position’ (Genz 2010:106)
The counter to this argument is provided by institutions such as government, media and parent groups
such as mumsnet. The following headlines are taken from the UK paper the Daily Mail.
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• ‘Raunchy pop stars accused of depriving girls of their innocence” (Harris, 30.7.2003)
• ‘How raunchy Lady Gaga and Co make girls grow up too soon’ (Williams, 16.4.2010)
• ‘Not family viewing: Raunchy music videos by the likes of Rihanna and Christina Aguilera set to
be banned before 9pm’ (Shipman 3.6.2011)
• 'Music videos are too sexual': X Factor judge Gary Barlow hits out at pop stars' explicit promos’
(Neville, 23.11.2011)
Government rhetoric is also informed by this perspective, with the UK Department of Education
publishing ‘Letting children be children; the report of an independent review of the commercialisation

and sexualisation of childhood’ (Bailey 6.6.2011). The expressed fears of ‘premature sexualization’ relate
to a perceived loss of innocence with the focus firmly on female sexual development. It is pertinent to
cite Walkerdine in this respect:
“It is the girl as erotic object that threatens the innocence of the rational child, for it is she who seems to
threaten the idea of childhood as separate from adulthood, who by her presence seems to be
contaminating the very idea of childhood, and must be kept at bay at all costs.” (Walkerdine, 1997, p.
18)
In this way a paradoxical position is produced which on the one hand presents sexuality and sexual
performance as empowerment, whilst on the other reproduces more traditional moral discourses
(panics) and regulatory practices regarding the sexuality of girls. No longer child, but not yet adult, girls
become the subject of regulatory practices which are particularly informed by the intersection of
discourses of childhood and of femininity. This paper interrogates the ways in which girls themselves
construct and negotiate these contradictory positions.
This paper draws upon qualitative data collected through girls talking about music video, to interrogate
how girls understand and negotiate contemporary discourses of femininity. The research is based on
my PhD thesis, entitled ‘Girls’ talk; new femininities; old moralities’. The term ‘new femininities,’ here
represents an academic construct of a shift from patriarchal femininities founded in traditional
moralities, to new discourses of femininity in terms of freedom and choice (McRobbie, 1999)
Method
To explore girls’ engagements with discourses of new femininities, a series of focus groups were
conducted with girls aged thirteen and fourteen. Nine focus groups were conducted with a total of fifty
four year nine girls interviewed. Five sessions were conducted at a coeducational school and four in an
all girls’ school. Focus groups can help to address power dynamics and encourage participants to talk to
each other as well as the interviewer. Meanings are brought to the discussion by the participants, who
are encouraged to elaborate, allowing conversations to develop between participants which are useful
in analysis. The aim of the focus group is to create an environment which allows “participants to
generate their own questions, frames and concepts, pursue their own priorities on their own terms, in
their own vocabulary” (Barbour and Kitzenger, 1999:5). Using music videos as a visual representation of
the research question prompted discussion in their own terms.
The focus groups each produced transcripts which include the voices of between five and seven girls,
with seven of the nine groups containing six participants. Coates’ (1996) study of conversation among
female friends produced transcripts which closely resemble those obtained here. Coates recorded and
transcribed female friends in conversation across a period of five years. Her transcripts showed how
female friends converse and build narratives through linguistic parallels, that is how they mirror each
other and collaborate in conversation. Where in conversation analysis, the linguistic devices of “turntaking”
and “story telling” are considered, Coates draws on the work of Carole Edelsky (1993:189) to
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argue that female talk is produced in terms of a collaborative floor. Within the collaborative floor,
through interruption and overlapping talk, discussions progress in a particular way to produce a group
voice. For Coates, the production of a collaborative floor is a linguistic device which constitutes and
maintains female friendship.
In 2004, when the initial research was conducted, artists such as Christina Aguilera and Beyoncé
epitomized the successful, independent and sexy post-feminist woman.
One video screened in the sessions was Beyoncé’s (2004) Naughty Girl.
With the aim to interrogate the girls’ construct and understanding of discourses of female
empowerment linked to sexualised performance, I ask if Beyoncé represents girl power to them. The
following is an excerpt from the girls’ talk in response to my question.
jd: Destiny’s Child sung the “Independent Woman” song would you say that was a kind of girl power?
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(some mms, 4 nods)
Katy: yeah
jd: do you think she still represents that?
(.1) (thoughtful pause)
Stacey: not on her own=
Katy: =no not on her own
(Ella shakes head)
Stacey: she’s got a load of blokes in her videos
The muted response tells me that my assumption of an association between female independence and
girl power is not shared by the girls. In this discussion, Ella challenges the idea that Beyoncé represents
girl power saying she is trying to make her self “look sexy for men”:
Helen: see how much shorter her skirts can be
(all laugh loudly)
Helen: on her video its more more legs out
Throughout all sessions, the girls talk about Beyoncé makes a distinction between her as solo artist and
as member of the three girl group, Destiny’s Child. In the above excerpts, the girls are producing a
collaborative floor to explain that Beyoncé does not represent girl power on her own, or with ‘loads of
blokes’. I therefore rephrase my question in terms of girl power, which produces a narrative of
friendship:
Katy: there’s not much girl power now cos em (.) not (.) many (.) like (.2) like the Spice Girls you don’t see
many friends like that now
jd: no?
Katy “even the Spice Girls aren’t even mates now”
Here the girls are expressing nostalgia for a loss of representation of female friendship and solidarity.
From this we can deduce that for these girls, girl power does not represent the right to female desire
and independence, but female friendship and solidarity, as a narrative of performance “for men” as not
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girl power emerges. This is further underpinned by the common narrative of OTT (over the top) as an
excessive feminine performance. The point of excess is founded in a distinction between performance
for self and performance for men. This is encapsulated in the following quote:
Roshan: “I think girls are selling their bodies really. They’re selling their bodies for fame and money.
That’s kind of disgusting if you think about it like that cos they are selling their body to male people all
over the place and everything and all that for money. I think it’s not worth it. Cos it’s selling your self
discipline, self respect”
Further, the girls produce hierarchies of innocence which are based upon sexual knowledge and
reproduce the premature sexualization discourse. This is expressed as the need to “protect” younger
girls. In this research, the 13 and 14 year old girls positioned themselves through discourses of morality,
with the understanding that sexual knowledge is corrupting to the sanitized space of childhood
(Walkerdine, 1997). As the following excerpt demonstrates, the girls demarcate a difference between
themselves and “little” girls through sexual knowledge.
Lana: I’m sorry but like my little cousin she’s in nursery and she’s got a boyfriend
(all laugh and smile)
Sarah: oh I think that’s [really sweet
Lana: [think that’s sweet like she runs up to him she runs up to him she (.) can I have a
kiss
Sarah: yeah (nodding and smiling)
Lana: he goes mwah (kissing sound) and then like my other cousin Tessy her name is yeah she goes erm
(laughs) my boyfriend
Sarah: oh I like that name
Lana: licked me today I went what
(all laugh)
Lana: and she goes he licked my cheek (points to face) I went oh that’s naughty Tess
(much laughing from all)
By telling this story Lana makes a distinction between the “innocence” of asexual childhood
relationships and more “knowing” physical sexual relationships. The distinction is emphasized through
the use of the terms “sweet” and “little” which invoke the concept of innocence. The story then
functions to differentiate these early teen girls from younger girls through sexual knowledge.
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The issue of age and moral policing is further highlighted in the following excerpt:
Georgina: “yeah like little kids and they’re like (.) Mum what’s that?”
Rachel: “like I think the JoJo video I think that’s a bit much because eh little girls are going to be watching
that and it’s gonna be like encouraging them to get boyfriends”
The discourse of naturalised male sexual behaviour (“boys will be boys”), informs how the girls
understand music video address to the audience. They make a distinction between videos for boys, and
videos for girls defining “dirty” music videos as produced for a male gaze which is identified through
female performance which draws on the codes of soft porn, videos where women are “wet and halfnaked”.
The girls identify the need to contain natural male discourse:
Helen: “I think girls tart up that’s why I don’t get hurt because I don’t tart up if girls tart up then men (.)
know that they’re easy”
In another session, Nicole complains that boys are always saying “really dirty” things to them.
Natalie: they’re trying to make us to be like them
Jd: do you think
Natalie: mm
Dina: and then they expect some more from us from us to be like that
In this way the girls express a disidentification with music video address which presents sexualized
performance as empowerment. Indeed they frame such videos as problematic.
Conclusion
Drawing on the girls’ talk, the question of how do girls negotiate contradictory positions in relation to
female sexuality and empowerment can be summed up as follows. Adult associations of sexualised
performance and empowerment are not necessarily shared by the girls who are the target audience of
music videos. For these girls, music videos now highlight an absence of girl power in terms of female
friendship and solidarity. Further, the girls rearticulate moral concerns for younger girls through a
potential loss of childhood innocence informed by a definition of OTT sexual performance for men.
Despite government and media concerns, they express a recognition of a demand to imitate and a
disidentification with the hypersexualised representations of music video address. To conclude, it is
clear that for these girls, sexualised female performance and empowerment represented by artists such
as Beyoncé are not evidence that girls rule the world. Rather, as sadly expressed by Roshan (age 13);
‘basically it’s a man’s world isn’t it’.
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Bibliography
Barbour, R.S. and Kitzenger, J. (eds) (1999) Developing Focus Group Research: Politics, Theory and
Practice Sage Publications Ltd. London
Coates, J. (1996) Women’s Talk Blackwell Publishers Ltd. UK
Edelsky, C. “Who’s Got the Floor?” in Tannen, D. (ed) (1993) Gender and Conversational Interaction.
Oxford University Press Inc. New York
Genz, S (2010) Singled Out: Postfeminism’s “New Woman” and the Dilemma of Having It All Journal of
Popular Culture Vol. 43 No.1
Harris, S. Raunchy pop stars accused of depriving girls of their innocence. Daily Mail (July 30th 2003)
McRobbie, A. (1999) In the Culture Society: Art, Fashion and Popular Music Routledge, London
Nash, Terrius, Knowles, Beyoncé, van de Wall, Nick, Pentz, Wesley, Taylor, David, Palmer, Adidja (2011)
Run the World (Girls) Sony Music Entertainment
Walkerdine, V. (1997) Daddy’s Girl Harvard University Press, Massachusetts.
Williams, R. Too much, too young? Retailers still selling over-sexualized clothing to kids Guardian (April
16th 2010)
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1661774/Beyoncé-roberto-cavalli-new-music-video.jhtml 12th April
2011
Department of Education Letting children be children; the report of an independent review of the
commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood’ (6.6.2011).
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