This Master's thesis examines girls' self-esteem through a qualitative research project held in the summer of 2010 at Portland, Oregon's Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls. I interviewed ten white, middle class girls between the ages of ten and thirteen on various subjects including demographics, self-esteem, music, Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls and finally, experiences and pressures associated with being a girl. One key finding was the unique set of circumstances and experiences present which may foster higher self-esteem: 1) freedom from gender normative behavior; 2) skill mastery associated with learning an instrument; 3) support for a wider range of self-expression; 4) removal of the male gaze and male approval [in a female only space]; and 5) access to female role models. This thesis suggests that through their involvement with the Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls, these ten girls experience greater self-esteem.

L’objet de ce travail est de rendre compte d’une triple invention. La première, au sens de « trouver », tient à la découverte fortuite des œuvres d’Henry Darger (1892-1973). La deuxième, qui est le fait de la réception institutionnelle, consiste à faire de l’écrivain et illustrateur un artiste d’Art Brut, créateur pour ainsi dire par accident. Qui plus est, cette approche privilégie sa production picturale, alors qu’il se considérait lui-même avant tout comme romancier. Ces deux inventions seront avant tout l’occasion d’exposer l’objet central de cette étude : l’invention de l’artiste par lui-même, rétabli en écrivain. Dans ses écrits, autobiographiques et fictionnels, Darger déploie une inquiétude volontaire qui lui permet de remettre en cause le primat de l’identité personnelle, en multipliant les Moi potentiels. L’état d’inquiétude interroge la relation au monde, bouleverse les rapports conventionnels entre réel et vrai, vrai et faux, et met au jour l’irréel, ce pan de la réalité que la fiction rend accessible. Enfin, Darger déploie une pratique littéraire en rapports à des œuvres préexistantes, véritable écriture-lectrice qui repose toutefois sur une mythologie personnelle, un ensemble de thèmes structuré en architecture de symboles. / The purpose of this study is to account for a triple invention. The first resultsfrom the incidental finding of Henry Darger’s works (1892-1973). The secondone, which is the result of institutional reception, consists in turning both writerand illustrator into an Outsider Artist, creator by accident, so to speak.Moreover, this approach favour his pictorial work, whereas he consideredhimself to be a novelist above all. These two inventions will give us theopportunity to present the main issue of this study : the artist’ self-creation,reclaiming the status of writer. In his writings, be they autobiographical or fiction, Darger displays a purposeful anxiety enabling him to question theprimacy of personal identity, hence multiplying potential selves. This purposefulanxiety questions his relation to the world and upsets the traditional structuresbetween what is real and what is true, right and wrong. It also unveils the unreal,this aspect of reality made available by fiction. Finally, Darger displays aliterally craft associated with pre-existing works, a fully-fledged writing-in-thereadingexperience still based upon a personal mythology: a set of themeswoven into an architecture of symbols.

This study is about underlying discourses of two tv-series for children from opposite parts of the globe. Focus lays on which morals and values adults choose to teach children through popular culture, even on an unaware basis and how does differ, or not, between different societies. The theoretical framework chosen for this study are semiotics in combination with the concept of the gaze by Laura Mulvey. Semiotics is the study of signs and their underlying meanings constructed by society. By studying popular culture with the tools provided by semiotic analysis it is possible to discouver underlying myths, social constructions of society, that are reproduced over and over again to remain alive. Mulveys theory of the gaze is helpfull in the process of decoding those constructions to discover the dominant partys and norms represented. In this particular study underlying structures such as patriarcal power relations, unequality between the representation of different ethnicities and the consistent presents of the male gaze where discovered. The conclusions made are that some social constructions are more global then others and that popular culture in a high degree mirrors societies norms, preferences and values.

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Bildungsroman is a literary genre developed from the ideas of the Enlightenment. The genre usually portrays young men coming into the society which raise the question: what literary possibilities exist for portraying young women coming into adult life? The purpose of this study is to analyze novels from two different time periods about girls growing up in an Irish environment to answer how their possibilities coming in to the society are portrayed. Questions that are being answered are: how do the novels discuss class, gender and relationships? How do the novels discuss society? The material consists of The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien (1930–) from 2020 and Normal People by Sally Rooney (1991–) from 2019. The Country Girls was first published in 1960 and both novels used in this study are translated into Swedish. The study uses class and gender theoretical frameworks. The class perspecitve is mainly inspired by the theories of Pierre Bourdieu about different forms of capital, disposition and habitus but Ulrika Holgersson’s feminist framework for analyzing class will also be incorporated. For the gender perspecitve Candace West and Don H. Zimmerman’s idea of sex, sex category and gender will be used to discuss how characters organize their behaviour according to sex category. The gender perspective is also largely influenced by Judith Butler’s and Karen Barad’s theories regarding performativity. The method for this study is a comparative analysis based on close reading. This study shows that these novels use opposites and protagonists in different ways to discuss oppression in the Irish society and propose solutions to that issue. While The Country Girls suggests that men are the main oppressor of women Normal People also portrays a patriarchal society but where capitalism too plays a destructive part. The Country Girls proposes feminist transnational alliances to overcome oppression and Normal People uses masochism as a theme to show how what hurts can be transformed into pleasure.

Accompanying materials housed with archival copy.

Because of the lack in the research field, the investigator undertook a comparative study of the administration and conduct of an equitation program in girls' private summer camps of northern and northeastern states and of Texas.

The purpose of the present study is to study the problems of Anglo-American and Latin-American girls in relation to their socio-economic status.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1985 B93 / Master of Science