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From Toddlers-in-Tiaras to Cougars-on-the-Prowl
by Melissa Ames, Sarah Burcon
This thought-provoking book examines how popular culture shapes the way girls and women see themselves at different life stages, from childhood through adulthood. Through analysis of movies, magazines, toys, and social media, the authors reveal the hidden messages and stereotypes women encounter—and celebrate the ways people resist and challenge these limiting roles. It's an eye-opening read for teens and adults curious about media literacy and gender equality.
Contemporary popular culture has created a slew of stereotypical roles for girls and women to (willingly or not) play throughout their lives: The Princess, the Nymphette, the Diva, the Single Girl, the Bridezilla, the Tiger Mother, the M.I.L.F, the Cougar, and more. In this book Ames and Burcon investigate the role of cultural texts in gender socialization at specific pre-scripted stages of a woman's life (from girls to the "golden girls") and how that instruction compounds over time. By studying various texts (toys, magazines, blogs, tweets, television shows, Hollywood films, novels, and self-help books) they argue that popular culture exists as a type of funhouse mirror constantly distorting the real world conditions that exist for women, magnifying the gendered expectations they face. Despite the many problematic, conflicting messages women receive throughout their lives, this book also showcases the ways such messages are resisted, allowing women to move past the blurry reality they broadcast and toward, hopefully, gender equality.
Springer
302
9781137566188
2016-03-15
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