Why Good Girls Go Bad.

Navigation: Main page

Author: Unknown

BOOK FOCUS

The image of women as catty and vicious is age old and continues to turn up--even in television characters. These images concerned Lyn Mikel Brown, a women's studies professor at Colby College in Maine, so she decided to find out why girls act the way they do.

Brown analyzed Interviews and focus groups with 421 girls in grades 1-12. The study led to her book, Girlfighting: Betrayal and Rejection Among Girls (New York University Press, 2003), Brown found that in today's still-sexist climate, "it is simply easier and safer and ultimately more profitable for girls to take out their fears and anxieties on other girls rather than on boys or on a culture that denigrates, idealizes, or eroticizes qualities associated with being feminine."

During her research. Brown discovered three key areas where adolescent girls project their anxieties and pain onto others: sexuality (too much or too little), attitude (too "full of themselves"), and appearance/body image (fitting the media's ideals and gaining the attention of boys).

What to do? Schools should encourage various ways for girls to demonstrate positive attributes, such as through sports, social activism, and in "safe places" for sharing ideas and feelings. "We're going to have to help girls figure out how to negotiate their power," says Brown.

PHOTO (COLOR)