{"id":1602,"date":"2009-04-20T06:38:14","date_gmt":"2009-04-20T11:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlwpen.com\/?p=1602"},"modified":"2009-04-20T06:38:14","modified_gmt":"2009-04-20T11:38:14","slug":"girl-talk-one-is-not-born-a-woman-or-man-quick-hits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/2009\/04\/20\/girl-talk-one-is-not-born-a-woman-or-man-quick-hits\/","title":{"rendered":"GIRL TALK: One is Not Born a Woman (or Man)\u00e2\u20ac\u201dQuick Hits"},"content":{"rendered":"

MCMiley Cyrus is all grown up.<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, I am going to squeeze Simone de Beauvoir and Miley Cyrus into the same sentence.\u00c2\u00a0 If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re following Miley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s career these days, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll know that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153becoming a woman\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the media and entertainment worlds.\u00c2\u00a0 Simone de Beauvoir definitely had it right, and rarely do we see so clearly exactly how someone \u00e2\u20ac\u0153becomes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a woman.\u00c2\u00a0 But really, this is her \u00e2\u20ac\u0153adult,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d womanly roll-out, and just to be sure we get it the media coverage makes clear that Miley is all \u00e2\u20ac\u0153grown up\u00e2\u20ac\u009d now.\u00c2\u00a0 She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on the cover of Glamour magazine<\/a> this month, hit the American Idol stage this week in a sexy strapless gown<\/a>, and has a movie<\/a> in theatres nationally.\u00c2\u00a0 With a career like that she definitely has adult responsibilities, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure.<\/p>\n

But just ask my daughter\u00e2\u20ac\u201dMiley is sixteen, which does not seem especially grown up to me, particularly as the parent of an 8-year-old (So my daughter is halfway to adulthood?? I hope not!).\u00c2\u00a0 Here are my questions: what does it mean for a sixteen-year-old (or her handlers) to be reinventing herself as a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153woman\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in media terms?\u00c2\u00a0 Can we expect her to shed the squeaky-clean image and angle for meatier (read: sexier) parts?\u00c2\u00a0 And what does it mean for her tween fan base to witness this transformation?\u00c2\u00a0 Finally, you tell me: when do girls become women?\u00c2\u00a0 What marks that transformation in your mind?<\/p>\n

Becoming a man.<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0 Judith Warner has a thoughtful column this week, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Dude, You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got Problems,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/a> about the use of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153gay\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as an epithet.\u00c2\u00a0 She writes, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s weird, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it, that in an age in which the definition of acceptable girlhood has expanded, so that desirable femininity now encompasses school success and athleticism, the bounds of boyhood have remained so tightly constrained?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not so sure, however, that I agree with Warner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s assertion that being called a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fag\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has \u00e2\u20ac\u0153almost nothing to do with being gay.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Instead, she argues, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fag\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is used to deride weakness or femininity.\u00c2\u00a0 Well, yes, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I call homophobia, which certainly does go hand in hand with sexism.<\/p>\n

Is Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Studies the next Sex and the City?<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0 Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hope HBO can do for women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s studies what it has already done for big city career girls, mobsters, undertakers, and polygamists.\u00c2\u00a0 The cable network apparently has a show in development<\/a> about a former \u00e2\u20ac\u0153feminist It Girl\u00e2\u20ac\u009d who is now turned to being a professor at a small liberal arts college.\u00c2\u00a0 Will such a show poke fun at women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s studies?\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, this field offers plenty of material for laugh lines, but if we also wind up as the next hit series everyone is talking about, then the HBO line on my cable bill will have been money well spent.<\/p>\n

–Allison Kimmich<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Miley Cyrus is all grown up.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, I am going to squeeze Simone de Beauvoir and Miley Cyrus into the same sentence.\u00c2\u00a0 If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re following Miley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s career these days, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll know that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153becoming a woman\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the media and entertainment worlds.\u00c2\u00a0 Simone de Beauvoir definitely had it right, and rarely do we see so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1905,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21103],"tags":[245,21387,21395,1976,5007,100],"class_list":["post-1602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-girl-talk","tag-feminism","tag-gender-studies","tag-girls","tag-masculinity","tag-pop-culture","tag-youth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1905"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}