Copyright 2016 by The Journal of Social Theory in Art Education / Volume 36 In these projects, Untangling Gender Divides we made gender Through Girly and Gendered an explicit topic Visual Culture for class discussion Alice Lai through which Empire State College, State University of New York Yichien Cooper the children could Washington State University Tri-Cities consider the visual The rise of girly culture has brought new dimensions and chal- culture that they lenges to art education. As art educators, we are concerned about what we can do to meaningfully understand and educate enjoy as not simply children—girls and boys—growing up with girly culture. To this end, this paper presents our exploratory study, utilizing the entertainment but methods of literature review, focus group discussion, and class- room observation, and findings on the following: (1) discourses entertainment with of girly (visual) culture specifically related to age metaphor, visual representations of sexuality, and girly aesthetics; (2) postfeminist gender implications. conceptualizations, critiques, and justifications of gender divides manifested through girly visual culture; (3) preadolescent chil- dren’s perceptions of gendered visual culture and gender divides; and (4) gendered visual culture projects and pedagogical strat- egies for fostering gender-inclusive, playful, and empowering learning. Correspondence regarding this article may be sent to the authors:
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[email protected] Frilly dresses, pink accessories, and Disney focus group discussion, and classroom observation, Princess lunch boxes: such signifiers of girly culture to specifically investigate girly visual culture, gender are omnipresent in our children’s everyday lives. divides, and gendered-visual-culture pedagogy.