By Ms. Erica Lyons
ET 630
Dr. David Marcovitz
Girl Wide Web: Girls, the Internet, and the Negotiation of Identity
Edited by Sharon Mazzarella
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Girl Wide Web is a compilation of essays written to focus on girls' use of the internet and how this use affects their development of identity. Identity issues pertaining to gender, race, age, ability, sexuality, etc. are covered within the chapters of this book. While each chapter has a different author and focus, a common theme throughout the book is that the internet creates a haven for girls to express themselves, interact with their peers, and develop a sense of self. The first chapter, "Victims, Villains, and Vixens; Teen Girls and Internet Crime" by Lynne Y. Edwards, focuses on the different ways that girls and the internet are portrayed in the media. Edwards argues that the media frames the news, so as to sway the perceptions of the problems and solutions presented in the media for the audience (p. 16). An example of the media framing the news is, blaming the technology when girls use it inappropriately, i.e. using an online recipe to make illegal drugs. This situation is presented to the public as if the internet is the problem, not the girl who used the technology inappropriately. The reaction of the public is to find solutions that will inhibit the rights of others. This chapter is riddled with other examples of how girls are seen in the media. Most of the articles presented in this chapter do not represent the girl’s point-of-view. In the situation outlined above, the girl was not interviewed for the article. Her voice was covered by those of the police. Edwards stresses that if this practice of ignoring the voice of girls continues, they (girls) will be come invisible (p. 27). Chapter two is called "What are gURLs Talking About? Adolescent Girls' Construction of Sexual Identity on gURL.com" by Ashley D. Grisso and David Weiss. gURL.com is a website where girls can go to ask and get answers to questions from experts and peers. Girls can also play games, post and read original poetry and comics, and participate in polls and quizzes. All of these activities are focused on helping girls develop a sense of individual identity. The article by Grisso and Weiss focuses on how girls really open up and talk frankly about sexual issues online. There are many excerpts from the gURL.com discussion boards in this article that demonstrate the different types of conversations that are taking place. Many of the girls who use the discussion boards on gURL.com are honest and factual with the information that they share. Many have genuine questions or issues that need to be discussed and worked out. gURL.com is essentially a “community” for girls online (p. 45). A place where a young girl who is getting mixed messages from the media, her parents, and the boys she is interested in can go to clear her head, get answers from other girls or experts, and work out the issues that she is facing. The next article, titled "Making an About-Face; Jammer Girls and the World Wide Web," is written by Debra Meskin. This article focuses on the Web site About-Face.org as a place for girls to overcome the pressures and messages of the media. Young, developing girls are full of questions- “Do I look fat? Am I worthy? Does he want me? What will other people think?” (p. 53-54). The television, magazines, advertisements, etc. attempt to give girls the answers to these questions. “Jammer-girls” are girls who do not accept the media images of beauty (p. 52). About-face.org is a place where Jammer-girls can post letters, leave comments, access links to other information sites, and become pro-active in the battle against subliminal media messages. Girls using this site can develop a sense of identity that is not based on the cultural norm. Chapter four, written by Susan F. Walsh, is called "Gender, Power, and Social Interaction; How Blue Jean Online Constructs Adolescent Girlhood." Blue Jean Online is an online magazine written by girls, for girls. This magazine is an alternative to traditional magazines for girls. Blue Jean Online does not contain the typical articles about how to win a hot guy or the best hair styles for you. Blue Jean Online is a place where girls can see what their peers are thinking, saying, and doing. Girls can openly discuss stereotypes, body images, and other pressing issues of today. Girls write pieces on female role models and heroes. Blue Jean Online creates a place where girls can really understand one another and openly discuss the issues facing them everyday. The fifth chapter, "Exploring Dora; Re-embodied Latinidad on the Web" by Susan J. Harewood and Angharad N. Valdivia, focuses on the use of the discussion boards on the Dora the Explorer Web site. Dora the Explorer is a children’s television show that is broadcast on Nick Jr. and CBS. The discussion board on the official site is primarily used by older siblings and parents of the toddlers who watch the show. On the cartoon, Dora is from Latin America. Her nationality is never revealed. This opens the door for many discussions about the importance of nationality and why the creators avoid this topic. Dora also teaches children Spanish through the show. The Online discussion boards are full of conversations about this issue. Participants have questions about why American children should learn Spanish and whether or not the correct pronunciation is used in the show. Another major issue that is discussed online is why a Caucasian-American woman was used in the Dora Live! show. All of these issues that are discussed online have the underlying question: how does the Dora the Explorer television show affect the identity of young Latin-American girls. The participants seek to find the answer to this question. Chapter six is titled "You're Sixteen, You're Dutiful, You're Online; 'Fangirls' and the Negotiation of Age and/or Gender Subjectivities in TV Newsgroups" and written by Christine Scodari. The study presented in this article focuses on female fans of certain television shows and their contributions to online fan discussion boards. The study then compares their postings to McRobbie’s analysis of Jackie, a British magazine for teen girls, and the four codes of romantic individualism: romance, beauty and fashion, personal and emotional life, and pop stars and music (p. 106). The study found that girls often are fans of shows that are not directed to their age group or gender. Girls also do not appreciate many of the storylines and plots that are directed at them, i.e. romantic relationships between characters. These fans also expressed extreme devotion to the shows, characters, and/or actors (p. 115). Many girls feel free to openly express their romantic individuality through the internet’s anonymity (p. 119). The seventh chapter, "What if the Lead Character Looks Like Me? Girl Fans of Shoujo Anime and Their Web Sites" by Kimberly S. Gregson, focuses on girls’ creation of anime Web sites. Shoujo anime is “Japanimation” that is created by women for female audiences (p. 122). Many girl fans of Shoujo anime are creating and interacting on original Web sites. These Web sites include original anime, pictures, and discussions. Interestingly, the girls put themselves into the role of the main character and they discuss their crushes on the male characters. These Web sites become places where girls can openly discuss their developing identity. As the popularity of anime has increased in the U.S., so has the number of Web sites created by girls about it. While anime is not yet mainstream, female fans of anime can interact with their peers across the world. This creates a strong sense of identity within the group for the girls involved. Chapter nine is called "Teen Crossings; Emerging Cyberpublics in India" and written by Divya C. McMillin. This article studies 60 students from India who had at some point in their lifetime accessed the Internet. Many of these students had other technologies in their homes and were from upper- and upper-middle class families. The Internet was still a new and exciting technology for the girls in this study. The girls used the Internet for email, research, and getting information on the latest styles, music, and comedies. This new technology opened them up to a variety of alternatives to traditional Indian life styles. Chapter ten is titled "IM Me; Identity Construction and Gender Negotiation in the World of Adolescent Girls and Instant Messaging." The author, Shayla Marie Thiel, states the Instant Messaging (IM) is used by girls as another form of communication. This type of communication is not as easily overheard by a parent as a traditional phone conversation is. It also allows girls to say things without requiring face-to-face contact. Girls are freer to openly discuss difficult topics with their peers. IM also allows its users to print out the conversation, thus creating a hard copy. This new realm of conversation allows girls to liberally develop their own unique sense of identity. The final chapter of this book is called "The Constant Contact Generation; Exploring Teen Friendship Networks Online" and is written by Lynn Schofield Park. This essay discusses a case study of a teenage girl and her use if Instant Message (IM) technology to develop a sense of social identity. The topics discussed on IM vary from school work to latest crushes. Girls (and boys) are constantly able to be in communication with their peers. Popularity is judged by the number of buddies on the IM list and the number of people one can talk to at one time. Teens using this technology can openly discuss difficult topics without immediate repercussion. Users can also maintain relationships over long distances without difficulty. This technology can be easily done at home and monitored by concerned parents. |
| Each of the essays in this book
warrants its own individual discussion; however, for sake of redundancy,
I will discuss them as a group. The majority of the essays in Girl
Wide Web mention the fact that little research has been done on the
adolescent girl. Most psychologists who have studied adolescence have
studied the development of boys and applied what they found to girls.
Recently, it has been found that girls develop a sense of identity in
different ways than do boys. Mazzarella et. al have focused this book
on how girls develop and how the Internet plays a role in this
development.
Through the studies presented in this book, the authors have found that the Internet can be a very positive tool for young, developing girls. There are informational sites where girls can go to openly discuss the issues facing them. There are online magazines for girls to post original work and relate to their peers (It should be known that Blue Jean Online, the online magazine created for girls by girls, is no longer published. The link that I included for www.bluejeanonline.com reroutes you to www.bluejeanpublishing.com.). Girls can create original Web sites that can be used to meet peers with similar interests. They can also be continuously connected with their peers via IM. The authors of "Teen Crossings; Emerging Cyberpublics in India” go so far as to say that the use of the Internet will allow girls to overcome stereotypes and traditional roles of women in Indian society. Being a young woman of the digital era, I can relate to the topics presented in this book. I remember school nights staying up late talking on IM to a friend that I would see in a few hours at school. I could have conversations without my parents eavesdropping. I was able to find ways to tell people things via IM that I would have never said to their face. I was able to openly criticize my friends for their actions. I could have been one of the case studies for this book. I only wish that I had known about gURL.com and Blue Jean Online as a teenager. I had so many questions and no where to comfortably ask them. I had strong feminist feelings and no where to comfortably express them. For an adolescent girl today, it is so important to know about and be able to access the information presented in this book. Adolescent girls often feel that no one understands them, that they are alone. The sources and studies in this book prove otherwise and are a valuable resource for a teen girl or a parent of one. Even though I feel that the information presented in this book is very valuable, it is not appropriate for a school setting. Many of the resources contain sexual content or school-inappropriate material. I could never point a young female student with a question to gURL.com. I could also not allow my students to view original fan-based Web sites in school. I cannot think of any way that using them could be substantiated through the curriculum. The only way that I can see using the information that I gathered from this book would be to share with a young friend or eventually my own daughter and to help me understand where my female students are coming from. I cannot professionally disperse this information. |
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This book has managed to bring to light many new aspects of the Internet. I had always believed the bad stigma around Internet chat rooms. I did not see the value of them pertaining to the development of a young girl’s identity. Chat rooms, answers from experts, and original work that is found on the Internet can help a girl navigate through adolescence. This can be a rough time in a girl’s life and having resources available is very important. Girl Wide Web made me realize that what I was doing on the computer that I had in my room and what other teen girls are doing is developing a sense of self. This is so important to creating a level-headed productive citizen. Most of the articles in the book clearly presented how the Internet helps girls develop a sense of identity. A few of the articles were a stretch as to their relevance to the book’s topic- girls negotiating identity through the Internet. The first essay discusses how girls and the Internet are presented in the media. It is very difficult see how this topic is relevant. It also only studies 125 newspaper articles from 5 newspapers. This is not a very broad sample and it is difficult to make assumptions based on this study. I also had an issue with the article about Dora the Explorer. This article really focuses on parents’ use of the internet. The girls that are being discussed are merely watching the television show, not doing the online posting. While this is a very interesting article and a valid topic to pursue, it does not fit with the objective of this book- describing how girls use the Internet to negotiate identity. Because of the Internet’s fluid nature, one of the sites discussed in this book is no longer a functioning Web site. Since the publishing of this book, Blue Jean Online had disbanded. The idea of this site- an online magazine for girls by girls- is a very important one and worthy of being recreated. This type of feministic site would be valuable to young girls. Overall, reading this book has allowed me to see the importance of young girls using the Internet as a tool to find their own unique individuality. Many of the Web sites and ideas presented in Girl Wide Web are critical to an adolescent girl making sense of the world around her. |
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Last updated 8/1/2006