Who are they to judge?: (re)conceptualizing voice and resistance in girls' lives through girls' perspectives

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  • March 22, 2019
Creator
  • Bodey, Katrina Renae
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Communication
Abstract
  • This dissertation explores what the concepts of voice and resistance mean to girls. I conduced 18 online interviews with 18- and 19-year-old girls. The girls in this study suggested that voice can be viewed (a) as fully internal, (b) as internal thoughts made public, and (c) as internal thoughts made public and taken seriously by others. Some of girls' definitions challenge the idea that one's perspective must be accepted and approved by others in order to count. Additionally, these girls offered possibilities for (re)conceptualizing resistance. They descriptions highlighted that resistance can be internally or externally motivated. They noted that they commonly resist messages about sex, drugs and alcohol, physical appearance, and politics. They offered various modes of resistance, including setting and focusing on goals and self-development, escaping, and serving as a mentor or role model. These motivations, targets, and modes of resistance challenge androcentric models of resistance that suggest resistance must be externally motivated and focused and take place in a public, antagonistic way. These girls' perspectives suggest that both voice and resistance may be better thought of as processes rather than single acts. In the dissertation I argue that imposing the dominant definition of voice and resistance upon girls is part of a larger pattern that silences girls' voices, dismisses their actions, and, perhaps even more, problematically, teaches them to do the same.
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  • In Copyright
Advisor
  • Wood, Julia T.
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  • Open access
Date uploaded
  • October 11, 2010

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