Page 133 - Šolsko polje, XXXI, 2020, 5-6: Teaching Feminism, ed. Valerija Vendramin
P. 133
m. hrženjak ■ sporty boys and fashion girls ...
to the norms of hegemonic masculinity. This image posteriori influences
the behaviour, actions and identity processes of both the immigrant teen-
agers and those from the dominant culture. For the latter, the imitation
of the clothing practices (the tracksuit), style, behaviour and even the lin-
guistic accent represents the strategy of engendering through the “ready-
made” symbolic elements of ethnicised masculinity that are the closest
possible approximation of the specifically contextual normative image
of hegemonic masculinity. The tracksuit in this context is a sign indicat-
ing the position of hegemonic masculinity at the intersection of ethnici-
ty, gender and class.
Normative and Alternative Models of Femininity
McRobbie (2009) in her analysis of the embeddedness of modern teenage
girls in the mechanisms of “consumer citizenship” and “postfeminist mas-
querade” examines modern normative modes of femininity, placing them
in the “new sexual contract”, which behind the apparent emancipation of
women establishes new structures of their subordination to modern cap-
italism. “Fashion girls” construct their femininity under the influence of
the dictate of cosmetic and fashion industries that through the postfem-
inist discourse of advertising and mass media establish girls as empow-
ered and emancipated to take control over their lives as a result of the con-
sumerist “empowerment” and “freedom” of individual consumer choice.
Interviews with the eighth-grade girls corroborate the vast presence of
this model of girliness and can be perceived in girls’ admiration of fash-
ion icons, either famous singers or models. If boys, when asked who they
would like to resemble and why, generally answered with the name of a
famous sportsman, evoking his sports skills and achievements, girls typi-
cally gave the names of famous singers and models due to their looks and
outfit.
The construction of the category of popular girls that points to the
implicit norms of femininity in relation to which girls must generate their
girliness is ambivalent. On one hand, popular girls are defined as those
who are popular mainly among teachers at school because they follow the
dominant values of the school culture, such as good behaviour, achieve-
ment, responsibility, social skills, diligence, orderliness etc. One could say
these features symbolically define the traditional image of femininity as
subordinate, disciplined and passive, in binary opposition to the mascu-
linised features of rebelliousness, lack of discipline and active attitude. On
the other hand, girls who were also defined as popular, or rather, domi-
nant by teenagers, were girls who dressed “conspicuously”, with the “con-
spicuous” dressing being defined as a sexualised dressing by both boys
131
to the norms of hegemonic masculinity. This image posteriori influences
the behaviour, actions and identity processes of both the immigrant teen-
agers and those from the dominant culture. For the latter, the imitation
of the clothing practices (the tracksuit), style, behaviour and even the lin-
guistic accent represents the strategy of engendering through the “ready-
made” symbolic elements of ethnicised masculinity that are the closest
possible approximation of the specifically contextual normative image
of hegemonic masculinity. The tracksuit in this context is a sign indicat-
ing the position of hegemonic masculinity at the intersection of ethnici-
ty, gender and class.
Normative and Alternative Models of Femininity
McRobbie (2009) in her analysis of the embeddedness of modern teenage
girls in the mechanisms of “consumer citizenship” and “postfeminist mas-
querade” examines modern normative modes of femininity, placing them
in the “new sexual contract”, which behind the apparent emancipation of
women establishes new structures of their subordination to modern cap-
italism. “Fashion girls” construct their femininity under the influence of
the dictate of cosmetic and fashion industries that through the postfem-
inist discourse of advertising and mass media establish girls as empow-
ered and emancipated to take control over their lives as a result of the con-
sumerist “empowerment” and “freedom” of individual consumer choice.
Interviews with the eighth-grade girls corroborate the vast presence of
this model of girliness and can be perceived in girls’ admiration of fash-
ion icons, either famous singers or models. If boys, when asked who they
would like to resemble and why, generally answered with the name of a
famous sportsman, evoking his sports skills and achievements, girls typi-
cally gave the names of famous singers and models due to their looks and
outfit.
The construction of the category of popular girls that points to the
implicit norms of femininity in relation to which girls must generate their
girliness is ambivalent. On one hand, popular girls are defined as those
who are popular mainly among teachers at school because they follow the
dominant values of the school culture, such as good behaviour, achieve-
ment, responsibility, social skills, diligence, orderliness etc. One could say
these features symbolically define the traditional image of femininity as
subordinate, disciplined and passive, in binary opposition to the mascu-
linised features of rebelliousness, lack of discipline and active attitude. On
the other hand, girls who were also defined as popular, or rather, domi-
nant by teenagers, were girls who dressed “conspicuously”, with the “con-
spicuous” dressing being defined as a sexualised dressing by both boys
131
