CFP: Representing Girlhood in Popular Culture

Media studies scholar Carmel Cedro is calling for chapter abstracts for a new edited collection, to be part of the Routledge Advances in Popular Culture Studies series. 300-word abstracts, including a title and short biography, are due by December 17^th, 2021.

The collection aims to examine representations of girls and young women across the landscape of popular culture texts to understand how the figure of the girl is constructed and addressed. What do these texts tell us about current ideas of girlhood? Do they perpetuate stereotypes of femininity and girls or contest and subvert dominant notions? How do they negotiate the contradictions and incongruities? Ultimately, how do these texts contribute to broader cultural dialogues about what it means to be a girl in the 21^st century?

Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:

• Depictions of girls and girlhood(s) in popular culture texts (television, film, videogames, literature, comics, popular music, animation, etc.). 
• Representations of race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, disability, stereotyping, counterculture and their intersections with issues of girls and girlhood(s), the body, and identity.
• ‘Subverting’ cultural notions of ‘being a girl’
• Transnational representations of girlhood.
• Genre and girlhood. 
• Girl-centred cross-media adaptations (e.g. from novel to film, from film to television).
• Girl-centred media franchises.
• Representations of girls and girlhood(s) in toys, fandom(s), trends, fads, marketing and advertising.

Send submissions to Carmel Cedro, at [email protected].