Anita Harris creates a realistic portrait of the "new girl" that has appeared in the twenty-first century--she may still play with Barbie, but she is also likely to play soccer or basketball, be assertive and may even be sexually aware, if not active. Building on this new definition, Harris explores the many key areas central to the lives of girls from a global perspective, such as girlspace, schools, work, aggression, sexuality and power.
Biography
Anita Harris is Lecturer in Sociology at Monash University in Victoria, Australia. She was formerly a Visiting Scholar at the City University of New York.
"This is an outstanding book, a wonderfully rich analysis of the changed landscape of growing up female in the Western world. It deserves to be read widely inside and outside of the academic community." -- Angela McRobbie, author of Feminism and Youth Culture
"Are girls and women better off now? Yes! No! Anita Harris demonstrates that both answers are correct in her original and important analysis of contemporary girls. Harris locates the politics of girlhood within the shifting contours of risk society and the emphasis on future achievement as dependent on individual choice and responsible self-making. Harris also reads current scholarship on citizenship, spaces of regulation, and voice alongside girls' multifaceted opportunities and constraints in risky times. Harris's portrait of the contemporary politics of girlhood is lively reading and first-rate scholarship." -- Nancy Lesko, author of Act Your Age! A Cultural Construction of Adolescence