The Simpsons are Cool but Barbie's a Minger - Professor Agnes Nairn

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Cool is Fashionable – and Fashion is Recycled
The children mobilised the notion of fashion to explain why some items were or were not
cool. This discussion on Action Man is a typical example:
Interviewer Ok. Well, what would boys in your year think? Would they think Action Man
is cool?
Girl 1 No.
Girl 2 No. They’d think it’s like uncool.
Girl 3 They’d think, no, it’s just so out of fashion.
Year 6, State School, Girls Group
Thus cool equals in fashion. However, the children – even by year 3 – also understood that
nothing can remain popular for long stretches of time. This discourse was explored
particularly in relation to the celebrities.
Interviewer Ok, great. Ok we’ll move onto the next one then. Britney Spears.
Boy 1 Not cool.
Girl 1 Not cool.
Interviewer Ok so one at a time, Leanne. You tell us why.
Girl 2 Um it’s a bit like David Beckham, sort of thing.
Interviewer Ok.
Girl 2 Like trying to get like, she was cool when she first started but as the year’s
gone on she just got like really sort of desperate. And always advertises,
she tries to bring herself back up but she just can’t do it.
Year 6, State School, Mixed Group
Here the children are describing the ineluctable downward spiral of Britney (and Beckham).
They seem to see her demise as controlled by some outside force which she has to battle
with (“she just got like really sort of desperate”) but which ultimately she cannot defeat
(“but she just can’t do it”).