The Pennsylvania State University the Graduate School College of Education TRACING PUERTO RICAN GIRLHOODS: an INTERGENERATIONAL
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The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Education TRACING PUERTO RICAN GIRLHOODS: AN INTERGENERATIONAL STUDY OF INTERACTIONS WITH BARBIE AND HER INFLUENCE ON FEMALE IDENTITIES A Dissertation in Curriculum and Instruction by Emily R. Aguiló-Pérez © 2016 Emily R. Aguiló-Pérez Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2016 The dissertation of Emily R. Aguiló-Pérez was reviewed and approved* by the following: Jacqueline Reid-Walsh Associate Professor of Education and Women’s Studies Dissertation Advisor Chair of Committee Daniel Hade Associate Professor of Education Christine Marmé Thompson Professor of Art Education Courtney D. Morris Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Women’s Studies William Carlsen Professor of Education Director of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies, Curriculum and Instruction *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT Since her creation in 1959, Barbie has become an icon of femininity and an important artifact in girls’ cultures. The doll has become a great part of children’s lives either through her presence or her absence in their play experiences. Moreover, the feelings and memories she evokes can provide insights to girls’ lived experiences in relation to a number of topics. As a result, Barbie becomes an important artifact of girlhood and an excellent site of interrogation about girlhood. While a large amount of research has examined Barbie’s role in girls’ lives, the scholarship has not included the experiences of Puerto Rican girls. This study examines the experiences of a group of multigenerational Puerto Rican women and girls who interacted with Barbie dolls during their childhood and the social and cultural implications these experiences may have on their lives in the present. Through qualitative research approaches that included individual and group interviews, as well as artifactual data, this study depicts the narratives of twenty-one participants who recounted stories of how Barbie became part of their childhoods and the meanings the doll held in their lives, showing how different those experiences can be for girls according to their contexts. Based on the these stories, this research raised questions about Barbie as a marker of class, accessibility to the doll and her accessories, representations of female body and image, race, and gender. The findings of this research demonstrate the important role Barbie played in the formative years of many Puerto Rican girls. Participants perceived interactions with the doll, however different, and whether entirely positive or not, as an important part of their iv girlhoods and in some cases even their adult lives. They also describe the often- complicated relationship girls and women have with the doll. More importantly, the study highlights how women and girls constructed their own identities in relation to femininity, body image, race, and nationalism through Barbie play. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................. viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... ix Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 Overview and Background ............................................................................................... 2 Statement of the Research Inquiry and Research Questions ............................................ 4 Why Barbie? ............................................................................................................. 6 Overview of Methodology ................................................................................................ 7 Rationale for Study ........................................................................................................... 9 Organization of Chapters .................................................................................................. 10 PART 1: THEORETICAL TERRAIN ..................................................................................... 13 Chapter 2 Review of the Literature ......................................................................................... 13 Introduction and Overview ............................................................................................... 13 Whose Girlhood? Who is Girl? ........................................................................................ 14 Girls and their Material Cultures: Girlhood, Dolls, and Identities ................................... 18 Foregrounding Girls’ Voices: Research with and about Girls .................................. 18 Gendering Material Culture: Dolls in Girls’ Play Practices ..................................... 21 Studying Girlhood through Dolls: Dolls and the Construction of Identity ............... 25 Barbie as a Site of Interrogation ....................................................................................... 32 Barbie in Dominant Western Culture ....................................................................... 33 Barbie in the World ................................................................................................... 38 Accessing Barbie: Issues of Race and Class ............................................................. 40 Mapping Girls’ Lives and Cultures in Puerto Rico .......................................................... 43 Girlhood in Puerto Rico: An Emerging Conversation .............................................. 43 Racial Identity in Puerto Rico ................................................................................... 50 Barbie in Puerto Rico ................................................................................................ 52 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................................. 56 Chapter 3 Remembering Barbie: A Discussion of the Research Methodology ...................... 59 Introduction and Overview ............................................................................................... 59 Rationale for Qualitative Research Designs ..................................................................... 60 The Qualitative Researcher .............................................................................................. 65 Researcher/Participant Dynamics ............................................................................. 65 Ethical Considerations .............................................................................................. 68 Studying Girlhood(s): Past and Present ............................................................................ 69 Working with Girls: Possibilities and Challenges .................................................... 69 Exploring Girlhood through Adults .......................................................................... 73 Memory-Work Methods ................................................................................................... 75 Recruitment and Participant Selection ............................................................................. 81 vi Research Design ............................................................................................................... 85 Data Collection Methods .......................................................................................... 85 Approaches to Data Analysis .................................................................................... 92 Description of Participants ............................................................................................... 94 Individual Interviews ................................................................................................ 95 Group Interviews ...................................................................................................... 96 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................................. 102 PART 2: DISCUSSION OF BARBIE IN PUERTO RICAN GIRLHOODS .......................... 106 Chapter 4 Barbie in Intergenerational Puerto Rican Girlhoods: Individual Experiences ....... 106 Introduction and Overview ............................................................................................... 106 Performing an Other: Participants’ Narrations of their Experiences with Barbie ............ 107 Fashioning a Self: Participants’ Experiences of Identity with Barbie .............................. 121 Teaching to be a Girl: Barbie as the Epitome of (Affluent) Femininity ................... 122 A Plastic Supermodel: Relating to Barbie’s Impossible Body ................................. 132 Colors of the (Barbie) World: Encountering Race and Ethnicity ............................. 144 More than a Doll: Barbie’s Significance in Girlhood and Womanhood .......................... 158 Chapter Summary and Conclusions ................................................................................. 163 Chapter 5 All in the Family: Barbie’s Place in Familial Dynamics ........................................ 168 Introduction and Overview ............................................................................................... 168 The Mother and Daughter Relationship ........................................................................... 171 “I hated