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Conclusion: Family, Media, and Locality

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Childhood and Tween Girl Culture

Part of the book series: Studies in Childhood and Youth ((SCY))

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Abstract

The mention of tween culture engenders concerns and ongoing debates of the premature sexualisation of young girls and inappropriate messages and images that have been designed to target this age group. As a result it is difficult to recognise the girls’ agentic subject position in the face of the potentially pernicious messages and images. Yet scholars argue that pre-teen girls are not necessarily seeking a self that is sexualised or commodified but are responding to a shift in the young, feminine girlness that is allowing them to more from passive roles as consumers to exercising their own agency (Harris 2005). In this book, I have introduced the everyday lives of 13 pre-teen girls to demonstrate their agentic subject position. Important social and cultural influences in the girls’ lives have been explored as i consider how inherently entwined the girls’ consumption activities are with their desire for acceptance and to belong in their own local, social worlds.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Fiona MacDonald

  2. Victoria University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Fiona MacDonald

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  1. Fiona MacDonald
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MacDonald, F. (2016). Conclusion: Family, Media, and Locality. In: Childhood and Tween Girl Culture. Studies in Childhood and Youth. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55130-6_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55130-6_8

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-55129-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-55130-6

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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