Feminism, Inc: Coming of Age in Girl Power Media Culture »

Emilie Zaslow is Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Pace University.

Drawing on extensive research with a diverse group of seventy teen girls, Zaslow offers a critical account of the girl power moment in which feminism and femininity are shrink-wrapped together in one market-friendly package. With a focus on pop music and television, she skillfully explores the negotiative processes of teen girls as they make sense of girl power’s new cultural narratives of femininity as well as its failure to offer strategies for real social change. Written in highly accessible language, this book charts new territory as it offers a rich account of the ways in which teen girls understand style, sexuality, motherhood, and feminism in girl power media culture, and how their desires, social experiences, and imaginings of the future are shaped in their relationship with a neoliberal girl power discourse.

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction A Decade after Spice: Girl Power Media Culture in the New Millennium 1

1 Growls and Whimpers: The Roots of Girl Power Discourse 13

2 When Asked to Talk: Qualitative Research with Teen Girls 33

3 Wanna Get Dirrty? Determining Authentic Sexual Subjectivity 57

4 The Clothed Body: Girls' Social and Emotional Experiences of Style 83

5 "I Don't Know What I'm Going to Do When It Happens": Independence, Motherhood, Careers, and Imagining the Future 105

6 "If Feminism Is Believing that Women Are Humans, Then I Am a Feminist": Girls Define Feminism and Feminist Practice 127

Conclusion Cultural Discordance: Neoliberal Girl Power Meets Social Reality 157

Appendix: Participants 163

Notes 165

Bibliography 183

Index 201