Girlosophy Reads: GIRL CULTURE
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Posted by Anthea Paul on Thu 3 November 2011
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Lauren Greenfield’s visually splendid GIRL CULTURE is a worthy contender for anyone’s personal library. A highly accomplished photojournalistic essay accompanied by first person narrative from a variety of girls and young women, GIRL CULTURE was first published in 2002.
Nearing its tenth anniversary, it is nonetheless a book that should be compulsory reading for all of us. Indeed Greenfield has continued her exploration of the subject of aspects of female culture with an exhibition Beauty CULTure, recently on display at the Annenberg Space for Photography (until November 27, 2011).
In GIRL CULTURE, a wide-ranging introduction by Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Professor Emeritus of the Womens’ Studies Program at Cornell University and the author of The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls (1998), sets the bar high:
‘The message in this collection is about the interaction between the garish commercial aculture … and the psyches of ordinary girls.’ Greenfield’s images meet that bar.
GIRL CULTURE can be viewed as a clarion call for the epoch of reality television and the new post-modern exhibitionism, so much in vogue today. Brumberg neatly extrapolates the position many girls subconsciously understand, but which, in the antithesis of what the early feminists envisaged for women, ultimately railroad them and limit their choices:
‘… Before they even abandon their teddy bears, contemporary girls embrace the erotic. They also understand that their power will come from their beauty, and that beauty in American culture is defined, increasingly, by a certain body type displayed in particular ways.’
With its images of mother-daughter dress-ups, fat camp attendees, debutante balls, high school preening and pageant life, GIRL CULTURE presents us with a panorama of the culture of narcissism, layered with both artifice and the harsh hyperbolic reality of its application and impact in the daily lives of girls.
The interviews are narrated often by the subjects in the images, although not always, but when they are aligned, they are powerful. As one of the subjects, ‘Erin’ says, ‘Society pits girls against each other, saying “You’re not beautiful unless you have this [perfection]”. And it manifests itself in the separation of girls. We haven’t learned that being united would make us stronger.’
Words to live by.
5 stars.
Learn more...
The Body Project
Lauren Greenfield Photography
Beauty Culture Exhibition
