The different faces of a girl: discursive constructs of female adolescence

Abstract

This thesis examined how girls talked about issues relating to adolescent femininity. The three objectives of the research were to firstly, examine the discursive resources available to adolescent girls. Secondly, to explore how the girls positioned themselves within these discourses and lastly, to highlight areas of conventional femininity that the girls resisted, challenged or accepted. The thirty female volunteers (ages 17-18), were invited to write about two memories - one about encouragement and one about discouragement. Then, in a series of semi-structured group discussions, the girls were asked to talk about issues generated from the memories and other related issues of adolescent femininity. The topics were discussed using feminist memory work and discourse approaches and included body image, gender differences and future life expectations. Often the girls reported being caught between conflicting discourses related to traditional and contemporary womanhood. Also, the girls appeared frustrated with the limits of traditional femininity that reproduced asymmetrical gender relations. The research highlighted the conflicting and inconsistent discourses of adolescent femininity which re-create wider patterns of gender inequalities.