American Sweethearts: Teenage Girls in Twentieth-Century Popular Culture
Department
Gender and Women's Studies
Document Type
Book
Files
Description
Teenage girls seem to have been discovered by American pop culture in the 1930s. From that time until the present day, they have appeared in books and films, comics and television, as the embodied fantasies and nightmares of youth, women, and sexual maturation. Looking at such figures as Nancy Drew, Judy Graves, Corliss Archer, Gidget, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Britney Spears, American Sweethearts shows how popular culture has shaped our view of the adolescent girl as an individual who is simultaneously sexualized and infantilized. While young women have received some positive lessons from these cultural icons, the overwhelming message conveyed by the characters and stories they inhabit stresses the dominance of the father and the teenage girl's otherness, subordination, and ineptitude. As sweet as a cherry lollipop and as tangy as a Sweetart, this book is an entertaining yet thoughtful exploration of the image of the American girl.
Call number in WMU's library
PS374.G55 N37 2006
ISBN
0253346592
Publication Date
2006
Keywords
Teenage girls, girls in literature
Disciplines
American Literature | American Popular Culture
Citation for published book
Nash, Ilana. American Sweethearts: Teenage Girls in Twentieth-century Popular Culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006.
Recommended Citation
Nash, Ilana, "American Sweethearts: Teenage Girls in Twentieth-Century Popular Culture" (2006). All Books and Monographs by WMU Authors. 225.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/books/225