WGSS 45 Global Girlhoods

From Greta Thunberg to girl dinner, from mean girls to Malala, girlhood and girls seem to be everywhere in global and online popular culture. This course investigates the changing meanings of girls and girlhood, attempting to track the meanings and importance of the figure of the girl in the period from the global anticolonial movements of the 1960s to the present. Alongside this, we will use memoirs, social media and other sources to think about how larger-than-life ‘girl’ tropes, memes, and cultural texts shape our lives and desires.

 

This course will take an interdisciplinary cultural studies approach, which means we will try to understand girlhood as a cultural phenomenon through the study of cultural texts, in combination with social theory and in historical context. Rather than definitively answering the question “Who/what is a girl?,” we will attempt to understand the disparate, historically contingent expectations and ideals of “girling” and girlhood, and study various historical actors who have attempted to exist within or against those norms and ideals. 

Degree Requirement Attributes

Dist:INT; WCult:CI

The Timetable of Class Meetings contains the most up-to-date information about a course. It includes not only the meeting time and instructor, but also its official distributive and/or world culture designation. This information supersedes any information you may see elsewhere, to include what may appear in this ORC/Catalog or on a department/program website. Note that course attributes may change term to term therefore those in effect are those (only) during the term in which you enroll in the course.

Department-Specific Course Categories

Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies