Living Life... Seventeen Style

As a former Seventeen Magazine intern, reseracher of girls media, and all-around magazine addict I am super excited that I found The Seventeen Magazine Project, the rather savvy experiment by 18-year-old Pennsylvanian teen, Jamie Keiles.

Jamie's take on the "playful pigtails" recommended by Seventeen

Jamie is dutifully living her life for the next month according to the "tips and tricks" found in the June/July 2010 issue of the biggest teen magazine in the world, Seventeen Magazine. But best of all, she is documenting her endeavor on her blog and letting readers in on her attempts at being, what she calls, a "Normal Teen" (or at least normal according to Hearst editors).

Turns out that Jamie's experiment has created a unique blend of media criticism, feminist musings, and witty remarks that is a fresh and fun read. While teen magazines have been a longstanding object of analysis for feminist researchers fow awhile now, Jamie's perspective as both a teen and a self-decribed "fan of magazines" means that her appraoch manages to avoid the blatant dismissal of teen magazines as a solely "bad object" not to be taken seriously.

Instead, she seems to recognize teen magazines as rather complex cultural texts that are certainly problematic, yet worthy of our analysis and recognition as an integral part of American teen culture.

I'm personally really interested in her discussion of the magazine as a "manual for boosting teengae self-esteem" and I'm hoping that she elaborates on this in further posts. Yesterday's discussion of the lack of activity suggestions in Seventeen ("In offering suggestions for improving my lifestyle, though, I've found the publication to be a little light on the life and a little heavy on the style.") provided an important critique of the kind of content the magazine regularly promotes, hinting at the problems with viewing girls through the traditional lens of girls as passive consumers.

Jamie's project is barely a week old, which means there's still at least three more weeks of sexy swimsuits, cute boys, and critique of it all. Check it out here.

My *Love* for Ms. Love...or: Why Courtney Love Still Matters in 2010

Today marks the release of Nobody's Daughter, Hole's first studio release in twelve years. While the album and Hole's accompaning U.S. tour has garnered quite a bit of media attention, I've noticed that an overarching question has dominated much of the fanfare: does Courtney Love, frontwoman of Hole and grunge goddess of the 90s, matter anymore?

Courtney Love, March 19, 2010, Austin, Texas

I'm here to answer an enthusiastic yes - perhaps now more than ever, Courtney Love is not only relevant, but a necessary force, in pop culture.

First, my own recent encounter with Ms. Love: Last month I saw Courtney Love return to the stage at the much hyped Spin Magazine SXSW party here in Austin, Texas.  Like many other “girls of the 90s”, I had been long-awaiting Courtney’s emergence back into the music scene with intense anticipation. The last time I had seen Courtney perform I was 16-years-old, and it was at the height of Hole’s Celebrity Skin tour – an occasion that now feels like a lifetime ago. (On a side note: I also went to her 2006 book signing in New York City – and yes, I may have been wearing a black tutu…indicative of my resistance to giving up the Courtney-esque fashion that plaugued most of my teen years). So seeing Courtney weild her guitar again was a dream that I couldn't believe was actually happening.

Needless to say the show was a success – Courtney reclaimed her rock-goddess tiara (admittedly replaced with more of a sparkly headband this time around) and blasted out songs as if little had changed since 1995. But of course, things have changed. We've had "Girl Power" and Britney, Beyonce and Amy Winehouse. And while there's always been those who have hated Courtney, online banter has been dismissive, and sometimes outright hostile, of her return.

But whether you’re a Courtney fan or not, it’s impossible to deny that she’s a rock star. Her importance lies in her rock star status... And to put in bluntly, we desperately need more female rock stars in today's pop culture.

I'm not going to lament about the good old days of Riot Grrl, where female musicians were angry, fierce (and not in the Tyra Banks sense) and yes, admitted to being feminist. I am going to suggest though that, despite there being an array of talented, feminist musicians today, few (if any?) have become rock stars in the way that Courtney has.

Courtney Love, March 19, 2010, Austin, TexasRock stars must be rude, loud, and occasionally obnoxious. Unpredictable, uncontrollable, and unruly. And they have staying power. In other words, you’re a record label’s worst nightmare – but there’s something about you that fans love. Rock stars aren't underground -- they don't want to be -- but they also don't necessarily pander to commercial interests (to wit: Coutney's refusal to promote her rather disasterous 2004 solo studio album America's Sweetheart). Kurt Cobain didn't want to be a rock star, but Courtney always did.

The male rock star has been more easily accepted into mainstream popular culture because many of the rock stars antics are seen as masculine traits, and the boys will be boys attitude prevails. Women who dare step too much out of line, on the other hand, are seen as unruly women – potentially dangerous and upsetting gender dynamics in a way that makes people uncomfortable. Courtney’s positioning as an unruly woman in the media began almost at the same time as she began to become recognized for her bleached bedhead and torn babydolls. From being lambasted by journalists for being a bad mother back in 1992 to accusations about relying on male talent to make Celebrity Skin in 1998, to recent musings about her sanity, Courtney has always pissed some people off. But while male rock stars are often excused from their behaviour (John Mayor's recent onstage breakdown to cite the latest example) and go on to extended careers and reunion tours (The Rolling Stones, again?), Courtney continues to be criticized for her antics, and now for her return to the stage.

The cover of Nobody's DaughterMany men that I’ve spoken to about Courtney find her despicable. I’ve heard then call her awful, horrible, misogynistic names that I won't repeat here. I'd like to suggest though that these responses are because of her ability to upset notions of femininity, feminism, and music culture itself. She blurs the lines between public and private and between femininity and masculinity. And while some may not like this, that's not a bad thing for women.

Female rock stars can be role models for girls – not necessarily as direct behavior models, of course – but as forces that show women it's possible to be angry, loud, and opinionated. By no means am I suggesting that Courtney doesn't have any problems, its apparent she does, but she wears them on her sleeve and breaks down the restricting notion that girls must not only be perfect in the appearance, but also perfect in life.

We need someone to be unruly… if only to show us that we can.

xo, jessalynn

Fiercly Real... (Just not on Vanity Fair)

Last year Tyra Banks announced that she was leaving her talk show to pursue her mission of bringing "positive images of women to the big screen" where she can, apparently, "reach more women and young girls to help us all feel as fierce as we truly are." And her first mission -- perhaps unsurprisingly -- is, yes, another model search. Dubbed the "Fiercely Real Model Search" Tyra is scouting teen girls between the ages of 13-17 and "plus-sized" (while she tries to avoid the term it pops out now and again...) for the competition, which will commence on one of the final episodes of her talk show with a showdown between the six finalists.

Tyra Banks being Fierce

While Tyra no doubt feels smug about her charitable good works directed to those girls denied an opportunity to experience the joys of modeling in the mainstream market, her initiative -- part of her broader "Global B.I.O. Campaign" (which stands for Beauty Inside Out and seems eerily similar to Dove's corporate drawn self-esteem ads) -- leads to many questions about media representation, diversity, and definitions of beauty. Is Tyra just jumping on what some have called the "plus-sized trend", an embracing of larger, curvier models by some in the fashion industry? Why do many "plus-size" models still conform to traditional norms of feminine (white) beauty? What about "plus-size" women of color -- will they ever exist on the catwalk...or on the cover of a mainstream magazine?

And if you've heard about the recently released, annual Young Hollywood issue of Vanity Fair, you'll know that the answer to that last question is probably...no. Out of the nine young actresses that grace the cover all are white, thin, and conventionally beautiful (no breakouts or double chins here). While there have been some notable performances by young women of color this year, including Gabourey Sibibe's role of Precious in the movie of the same name, they are conspiciously absent.

Some scholars, like Angela McRobbie, have even argued that media culture has is experiencing a nostalgia for whiteness, embodied in the trendiness of retro-style. In last year's The Aftermath of Feminism, she writes,

"There is a subtle provacation factor in all of these [magazine] genres, as though to suggest that they are ebulliently refuting the now old-fashioned, or no longer relevant multi-culturalist demands or anti-discriminatory requirements for equal representation, indeed for simple visibility, by adopting the style for flagrant anti-political correctness... The retro, nostalgia for this kind  [white Hollywood glamour] of whiteness ensures that the new masquerade, if not unavailable to black or Asian women, is then only available at the cost of negating modes of style and beauty associated with blackness, with cultural diversity and ethnic difference."   

And perhaps most importantly we need to ask why empowerment and self-esteem of girls is consistently being tied to physical appearance in pop culture. Why are we encouraging girls to set their sights on modelling, an industry notorious for destroying girls and where a woman's worth is about her looks rather than her personality, intelligence, or talents? Depsite Tyra's talk of "empowering" women, her encouraging words to girls still center on the outside, physical appearance of girls, with little regard for actually changing the the political implications of feminine beauty.

I encourage you to check out this video clip from Tyra's B.I.O. "conference" that took place last December in New Zealand... a facsinating look at this discourse of empowerment through physical beauty.

xo, jessalynn

The Power in Girls' Blogging (and why it scares journalists)

For many girl studies scholars the ability for girls to go online and use the web to create their own media -- expressing their opinions, controlling their own representations, and networking with one another -- is one of the more inspiring and exciting opportunities presented by digital culture.

Apparently, though, not everyone thinks so. In his article, "Teen Takeover: From the Blogs of Babes", Dave McGinn lashes out a teen bloggers and their apparently "infantile" ways. He writes that,

"Beyond the Web, it's the degree to which mainstream authorities such as magazines and fashion houses are taking kid commentators seriously that signals a shift in media discourse."

And he cites a so-called "expert" (apparently in a different realm than these "kid commentators") Hal Niedzviecki who wrote 2004's Hello, I'm Special: How Individuality Became the New Conformity, saying that, "

“The extent to which we have an infantile culture makes it really rather perfect for teenagers to jump in and fit in... And what is more infantile than the blogosphere and chat rooms and YouTube?”

Why is it okay for middle-aged men to slag on young bloggers who have achieved success through talent and innovation? Dissmissing the opinion of these "kids" reinforces a dangerous, elitist, top-down media approach, where a strict line (often influenced by such social factors as gender, class, and race) is drawn between who has the power and access to publicaly speak (the expert) and those that are marginalized from being media producers (historically, this includes girls and teen girls).  

 Style Rookie's Tavi Gevinson, Image Credit: Tavi Gevinson

Seeing bloggers like thirteen-year-old Tavi Gevinson -- who publishes Style Rookie and has become a go-to style critic for such fashion bibles as Harpers Bazaar (she started her blog two years ago when she was eleven!) -- get recognition is exciting and indicates that new media has the potential to challenge our ingrained ideas about authority and power in relation to media producing.

McGinn's beef about the superficial nature of teen's blogging is not only petty, but it's actually completely untrue. Gevinson's blogging on fashion is sophisticated and witty, recognizing fashion as the art form it is, while still having fun. And politics are not off the map for teen bloggers either. I've written about teens - most notably the fbomb's Julie Zeilinger - who blend their writing about poltiics and social inequality with an activist stance that hardly warrents McGinn's arrogant and sour tone.

My advice to McGinn and Niedzviecki? Perhaps set your own insecurities about losing your expert status (and job) aside and check out the inspiring blogs being published by young people - you might actually learn something. 

From Disney's Gomez to Banks' "blackface" photoshoot: any true diversity?

Diversity amongst girls in pop culture has arguably - and perhaps ironically - become more complex as it's become more prominent.

Mary Beltran's responds to some of this confusion over representation in her great blog entry, "Smells Like an Ethnically Divided Teen Star System." Looking at Disney's lastest crop of teen stars, including Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, and Demi Lovato, Beltran unpacks the way these "Ethnically Ambiguous" stars are positioned as distinct from - and as Beltran argues, in opposition to - their white counterparts (like Miley Cyrus), yet remaining safely within the bounds of corporate marketability.

Fitting this discussion into the larger framework of race in media, Disney's corporate strategy seems to enforce the larger trend of the exoticization and promotion of the "E-A" celebrity as being representative of a "post-race" sensibility. While ignoring the political implications behind the representations of racial diversity, these "post-race" pop culture discourses market race as a malleable commodity that can boost one's market value, depending on the context.

Top Model's controversial photoshoot, Oct. 2009I can't help but to think of Tyra Bank's "blackface" photoshoot in last season's Top Model, or the promotion of particular contestants as being able to "play" different races (remember season six's Jade, the self-described "bi-racial buttefly"?) as manifestations with current fascinations with bi-racial girls, examples of "post-race" discourse at work, and barriers to really talking about racial representations in media.