Blog #4 - Girls Gone Wild?

I found Dobson’s chapter “The Representation of Female Friendships on Young Women’s MySpace Profiles” to be a particularly interesting reading, primarily because I think a lot of her observations are relevant to not just MySpace but today on Facebook as well.  Dobson examines the text and photos on 45 profiles of Australian women between the ages of 18 and 21 and specifically looks at how they engage in gender-typical aesthetics and current heterosexual paradigms of feminine performativity (128).   She found that often times, female friends depicted themselves with undertones of ‘tongue in cheek’ and seduction of viewers (127). 

 

The friendships on social media sites don’t act to reflect the ‘real’ nature of the friendship, but as a space in which to ‘perform’ the friendship (135).   Thus we see that the representation of female friendship becomes a crucial factor in an individual’s overall identity performance on the public forum of the internet.  Additionally, Dobson brings into question whether fame has replaced romance as the dominant fantasy for this generation of young women (Hopkins, 2002).   Youth and females are increasingly attempting to “act like a rock star” (135) and in doing so, they are displaying “laddish” behavior (ex. brashness, partying, drinking, etc.) typical of young men. 

 

Words like “bitch” and “slut” which have negative connotations are in turn used amongst female friends as terms of endearment.  This is partially due to their popularity in youth culture—specifically the musical hip-hop scene in which artists use profanity to increase their ‘cool factor’. We see the adoption of a hedonistic lifestyle through rowdy partying portrayed on profiles with photos, comments, profile texts, etc.  Along with these displays of ‘laddish behavior’, the article discusses female friendships being portrayed as close and devoted to each other in a way that’s comparable to romantic and family relationships (135).  This generates a sense of exclusivity among the females included and an exclusion of the ‘other’ or ‘outsiders’—creating a ‘Mean Girls’ effect.  These displays of female friendship are unspoken signifiers of who is included in the ‘In Crowd’. 

 

Many feminist scholars have expressed the desire for media to portray ‘better’ and ‘authentic’ women (129).  However, youth culture seems drawn to emulate those to display overtly sexualized celebrities. Katy Perry is a perfect example; her single “I Kissed A Girl” is the musical incarnation of what many females are doing on their profiles—portraying a carefree, party driven attitude, while exploring sexuality as a means of enticing audiences.  The song includes lyrics such as “drink in hand, lost discretion, just want to try you on” etc. Female friends go out for a ‘girl’s night’, scantily clad, and snapping photos in suggestive postures almost with the sole intention of uploading for presentation on sites like Myspace and Facebook.  In most cases, these friends go out for a relatively normal dinner and/or drinks and once a camera is whipped out, they fall into their ‘party-girl’ alter ego posing with ‘kiss-y’ faces and embracing each other.  As Dobson noted, these female friendships presented on social networking sites are more of a performance for entertainment as opposed to showing the reality of the nature of their friendship.

 
From a young age, the concept of gender becomes so ingrained within our thought and self-perception that we don’t think twice about how the way we present ourselves is actually pre-meditated by others.   Despite what we grow up believing, gender is not biological, we “do gender” and much of how we portray this gender is derived from they way it’s portrayed in the media.  We are constantly bombarded with news, images, characters, etc. which don’t just reinforce gender roles, but sometimes create unrealistic, hyper-exaggerated displays of men and women.  We see this most prevalent in magazines where content is specifically tailored towards women to deliver tips on how to correctly obtain femininity.  In displaying what Dobson calls ‘laddish’ behavior, women simultaneously exert their freedom to act like typical males, yet conversely seem to be doing so with the intention of enforcing their femininity.  

-Emma L