Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Institute for Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Theses Studies 11-19-2008 "So Very," "So Fetch": Constructing Girls on Film in the Era of Girl Power and Girls in Crisis Mary Larken McCord Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/wsi_theses Recommended Citation McCord, Mary Larken, ""So Very," "So Fetch": Constructing Girls on Film in the Era of Girl Power and Girls in Crisis." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2008. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/wsi_theses/13 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Institute for Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. “SO VERY,” “SO FETCH”: CONSTRUCTING GIRLS ON FILM IN THE ERA OF GIRL POWER AND GIRLS IN CRISIS by MARY LARKEN MCCORD Under the Direction of Amira Jarmakani ABSTRACT In the mid-1990s, two discourses of girlhood emerged in both the popular and academic spheres. Consolidated as the girl power discourse and girls in crisis discourse, the tension between these two intertwined discourses created a space for new narratives of female adolescence in the decade between 1995 and 2005. As sites of cultural construction and representation, teen films reveal the narratives of girlhood. The films under consideration serve as useful exemplars for an examination of how such discourses become mainstreamed, pervading society’s image of female adolescence.