The thesis is an exploration of how young women are embedded within and (re)construct discourses of gendered identity within consumerist/capitalist culture, in relation to popular music. Theoretical analysis is juxtaposed throughout with interviews I conducted with 46 young women aged between 11 and 18 years old which took place in schools and a youth centre in Manchester and Salford. The importance placed on the interviews reflects my attempt to privilege young women as the primary focus of the research. The interviews were a means of situating young women's discursive engagement with popular culture in relation to gender identities. The main body of the thesis begins with an exploration of how young women are situated in relation to discourses of social class, ethnicity and sexuality, including how social class connects with young women's lives in relation to popular culture, how to theorise blackness and whiteness, and ways of opening up discussions of both heterosexuality and homosexuality. I then widen the remit of the thesis, by considering where the young women I interviewed are situated in relation to discourses of femininity, utilising theories of the 'male gaze', and of representations of the feminine in popular culture. How these young women's lives relate to feminisms, and feminist work, particularly in relation to structural inequalities, equal rights and sexual behaviour, are then investigated. Finally, the thesis analyses the extent to which the young women's talk in the interviews constructs themselves and others as individual consumers, and examines how this may impact on young women's lives. The thesis concludes how young women's accounts are embedded in a discourse of individualism. Societal structures which help to construct or maintain gendered, racial or sexual inequalities are often ignored in the young women's talk, since the individual as consumer is situated at the centre of their talk. Forms of feminism which attempt to explore inequalities beyond those of 'equal rights' then fail to impact on the young women as an audience. The young women's talk demonstrates that inequalities continue to exist in their lives, and yet popular culture does little to provide solutions or even acknowledgement of these inequalities. I suggest that since the analysis of the thesis has indicated that available feminisms have often failed to engage with young women in meaningful ways, in the future feminists need to highlight ways of challenging inequalities which young women encounter in their day-to-day lives.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:246480 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Constant, Alice |
| Publisher | Manchester Metropolitan University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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