CELEBRATING FEB10 CSW 25 YEARS! Joan Wallach Scott Renowned Historian will speak on “Feminism's Difference Problem” at CSw's 25th Anniversary Event

istorian Joan Gender and the Politics of History, to her more Entitled “Feminism's Difference HWallach Scott, recent book on The Politics of the Veil, Joan Problem,” Scott’s talk will address the Harold F. Linder Scott has consistently engaged the daunting tension within feminism (throughout its Professor at the School intellectual challenges of the moment, from second-wave history) between the need/ of Social Science in the theorizing feminist history responsive to post- desire for a universal ”woman” as the Institute for Advanced structuralist critique to the limits of secularism in subject of the political movement and the Study in Princeton, New Jersey, will be giving relation to the public sphere. We are delighted differences among women that trouble and the keynote at CSW's anniversary party on to have her as our keynote speaker to celebrate challenge universal thinking. She will focus February 22. According to Kathleen McHugh, CSW’s twenty-fifth anniversary, discursively but on the most recent eruption of that tension CSW Director, “From her groundbreaking book, with real cake!” between those feminists who endorse

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secularism and who insist that religion is clear that many scholars at UCLA have been inevitably oppressive and patriarchal and those influenced by Scott's work but Denise Roman, who challenge the categorical oppositions— CSW Research Scholar, notes that she owes religion/secularism, tradition/modernity, an additional debt of gratitude to Scott, “I patriarchy/women's emancipation—arguing was lucky to have Professor Scott as external that feminism and religion can be compatible. reviewer for my doctoral dissertation, which This tension has emerged most visibly in I defended at York University, Canada, in discussions about Islam and gender equality. 2001. Those were tough days for the airline Scott is the author of the essential article, companies, since people were afraid to travel "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical because of 9/11. But not Prof Scott, who flew Analysis,” which was published in 1986 in the all the way to Toronto, to sit in my advisory American Historical Review. In it, she argues committee. The moment she saw me, she that the study of gender must go beyond the said, ‘You've got a book here!’ I am grateful for study of women and that gender analysis must her invaluable feedback to my dissertation and encompass gender’s role in constituting social for encouraging my publication endeavors.” relationships more broadly and in signifying All of us at CSW are very pleased that Scott other relationships of power. “Scott's framing will be speaking at this very special anniversary of gender as a category of historical analysis event. was foundational to the work of so many CSw'S 25TH ANNIVERSARY EVENT will be historians, particularly those conducting held FROM 4 TO 7 PM AT THE UCLA FACULTY research on women's history,” says April CENTER ON FEBRUARY 22. de Stefano, CSW Assistant Director. “Her 1986 article is still widely read by graduate students in history today—a testament to the important legacy of her insights.” It's

FEB10 3 CSupdateW by Kjerstin Elmen-Gruys Fat and Identity Politics A review of Paul Campos's recent talk in the Gender and Body Size Series

...this is the part that never ever gets acknowledged by people who Most of us have heard it know better, even though they will acknowledge it and then renounce before: “Fat is a Feminist Issue.” Ever that they have acknowledged it moments later. We can’t make people since Susie Orbach wrote her book of this thin, okay? There’s no empirical proposition in medicine that is better title (published in 1978), prominent feminist established than this. There is no known way to produce significant long-term weight loss in a statistically significant population. We scholars, including Naomi Wolf, Susan just don’t know how to do it. And that includes weight-loss surgery Bordo, and Kim Chernin, have had much or stomach amputation. That does not produce significant long- to say about what Chernin has described as term weight loss among most people who undergo it. Certainly what “the tyranny of slenderness”. This tradition absolutely fails completely in terms of significant long-term weight of feminist critique has depicted fat hatred as loss is haranguing people about their weight, and telling them that if they ate right and exercised more they would be thin. For the a problem of patriarchy. Recently, however, vast majority of people, that description is a complete failure. It’s academic discussions of body weight have hopefully relatively rare in medicine, in particular, and social policy been dominated by health policy concerns in general, to keep pursuing an intervention which is demonstrably a over the so-called obesity epidemic. failure, over and over again. Now I’m sure many of you are familiar Although these concerns insist that with the definition of insanity—it’s doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. That’s just another word slenderness is necessary for health, they have for dieting. surprisingly seen very little critique from feminist scholars. Moreover, while feminist – Paul Campos FEB10 4 CSupdateW scholars have spilt much ink on the pressures belief that fat individuals can (and should) on average size women to be as thin as become thin. Yet, while “conversion therapy” emaciated fashion models, there has been for gay individuals has been thoroughly very little feminist work on the experiences debunked and openly denounced by the of very fat women. The CSW Winter 2010 modern medical community, weight loss Faculty Curator lecture series, “Gender for “overweight” and “obese” individuals is and Body Size,” curated by Professor instead largely embraced by both the medical Abigail Saguy, Department of Sociology at community and the general public, despite UCLA, is responding to this void in public strong evidence that it is quite possible to be and academic discourse, by hosting three both fat and healthy and that significant long- speakers with expertise ranging from the term weight loss is incredibly rare. epidemiology of body size to “fat activism.” Campos introduced himself by explaining The first of three talks in the CSW to the audience that, because his body mass Gender and Body Size lecture series was index (BMI) is around 26, he is medically given on January 20th by Paul Campos, “overweight.” He then verbalized what most Professor of Law at the University of of his audience was already thinking—that The CSW Winter 2010 Faculty Curator lecture series, “Gender and , and the author of The Obesity despite being in the medical category of Body Size,”—curated by Dr Abigail Myth: Why America’s Obsession with Weight ”overweight,” he is not actually “fat,” which is Saguy from the UCLA Department of is Hazardous to Your Health (Gotham, a social category. “But…,” he reminded us, Sociology—is responding to this gap 2004). Campos’ talk, titled “Fat and Identity “…if I were a woman with this BMI, I would in public and academic discourse, by Politics,” was well attended, with all seats be fat!” This illustration helped to reveal the hosting three speakers with expertise taken and a few dozen audience members gendered nature of our culture’s ideas about ranging from the epidemiology of opting to stand. Campos drew comparisons body size. Importantly, Campos admitted body size to “fat activism”: Paul between the issues of sexual orientation that his status as a “socially” (though not Campos, Katharine Flegal, and Marilyn Wann and body size, arguing that the idea that gay medically) thin man, has allowed him to individuals can (and should) become straight speak and write about body size with greater is not dissimilar from our culture’s general authority—something he feels he would be FEB10 5 CSupdateW less able to do if he were a fat woman. imagined thought of describing a woman as orientation, Campos illuminated the failed Speaking of “fat”, Campos challenged “fat.” (How impolite! How cruel!) I flinched logic behind our own (culturally reinforced) his audience to consider “getting over again when I realizied that as a feminist assumptions about dieting and weight loss. the F-word”. He asked us to contemplate scholar studying issues of body size, I need “Why,” he asked, “is choosing to leave fat whether the word “fat” could be used as a to get more comfortable with the term “fat”! people alone considered radical to the point more neutral physical descriptor, stripped Campos is not the only person who of unacceptability?” It was a thrilling and of its negative moral connotations. He has decided to embrace the word. In his moving—but also overwhelming—call argued that, to him, the term “fat” is vastly discussion of identity politics, Campos to radicalism. Reflecting, I found myself preferable to the words “overweight” explained that numerous “fat activists” noting that the choice to simply leave our or “obesity,” which, by definition, are proudly reclaim “fat,” much like gay activists own bodies alone feels similarly radical imbued with assumptions about health, reclaimed “gay” in the (when the term and brave. With passionate scholars like as well as morality. Because of this, these “homosexual” was used by the medical Campos (and upcoming speaker Marilyn words are medicalizing and stigmatizing community, defining same-sex attraction Wann, an outspoken “fat activist”!), the task to individuals with fat bodies. It was as a mental disorder). Campos’ striking of accepting and embracing “fat”—in others striking to consider using the word “fat” comparisons between body size and sexual and ourselves—is becoming much easier. in a neutral way—many members of the orientation continued: gay and fat people audience laughed with discomfort when have both been told that their “condition” Kjerstin Elmen-Gruys is a graduate student in the UCLA Department of Sociology. Her is a “choice,” both have (often willingly) Campos suggested the idea. Driving dissertation project compares body size home the widespread discomfort with the been subjected to highly invasive medical standards in the medical realm (i.e., ideal word, Campos reflected on his experience procedures and other radical interventions height/weight standards) with those in the fashion industry (i.e., clothing size standards), studying the Monica Lewinski scandal (in aimed at “curing” their condition, and in asking how these divergent standards have which news commentators often remarked both, the “cures” almost uniformly fail. changed over time, how they are produced, at Lewinski’s “zaftig” body): “I noticed By asking his audience to consider these and how they are understood by people in the context of the Clinton-Lewinski similarities across body size and sexual in their everyday lives. Her other research interests include sociology of gender, thing that people flinched a lot less at sociology of work, and cultural sociology. “ stained-dress” than they did with [the word] “fat.” I felt myself flinch at the FEB10 6 CSupdateW by A n n a E . Wa r d Porn, Pedagogy, and the Passing of an Icon

Three days after my students and as a teacher, about where has I discussed the hardcore pornographic been, where it is, and where it’s going. Given film Behind the Green Door (Mitchell and that I was teaching a course on pornography, Mitchell, 1972), its enigmatic star, Marilyn this summons could not have been timelier. Chambers, passed away. Chambers’ The course, “Pornography in Contemporary passing garnered brief nods from news U.S. Culture,” was offered as a senior capstone media, but for the most part, her death seminar by the Department of Women’s faded quickly from national attention. For Studies. As the instructor, I approached the me, however, Chambers’ death seemed course with the explicit purpose of offering to linger, and in some ways, still does. Her Women’s Studies students a perspective on death served as a summons for me to pornography that they rarely encounter in think anew, as a scholar whose work often our curriculum at UCLA, a perspective firmly overlaps with the field of porn studies and rooted in both media studies and sexuality

FEB10 7 CSupdateW studies, but also contextualized within the field On one hand, pornography is discussed as of Women’s Studies itself. if it were an unstoppable behemoth, always If pornography Pornography in the classroom is nothing threatening to take over the cultural landscape, is as ubiquitous new—it has been taught by instructors across described as unavoidable and overwhelming. a wide range of fields, including Women’s Print and television news media paint a as many make Studies, and within a variety of universities for grim picture—our inboxes are overflowing quite some time. Despite this, there is still a with porn spam, the Internet is a veritable it out to be, then great deal of concern surrounding discussing minefield of sexually explicit content, Cable undergraduates pornography in the classroom, particularly programming is increasingly more salacious, if those discussions involve actually viewing and compamies such as , Wicked, and are already pornographic images. As a graduate student Vivid have made porn actors into household instructor, I was cautioned by quite a few of names. On the other hand, when it comes to handling it; it is my colleagues against treading this path. students viewing pornographic images in the already part of the “Not until you have a job and tenure,” I heard classroom, the general consensus seems to be on several occasions, a warning also quite that they can’t handle it—undergraduates are fabric of their lives common within the field of porn studies itself. simply not emotionally and intellectually ready This is probably good advice to heed but, then to encounter such images. These two notions, in some way or again, Women’s Studies graduate students often simultaneously held, seem to me wholly another. aren’t exactly known for following the path of incompatible. least resistance. Nonetheless, these cautions If pornography is as ubiquitous as many prompted me to think carefully about the make it out to be, then undergraduates are If porn’s takeover has been greatly design and content of the course. How will already handling it; it is already part of the exaggerated, then students may be forming undergraduate students respond to explicit fabric of their lives in some way or another. opinions regarding a mode of representation, images? Do the potential pedagogical benefits The argument that undergraduates are not one with significant legal, political, and cultural of showing pornographic images in a class emotionally or intellectually ready to view stakes, without direct engagement with the about pornography outweigh the risks? Is it these images seems more an argument for media in question. This may be especially true worth it? pornography in the classroom than against it. for Women’s Studies students, many of whom

FEB10 8 CSupdateW are presented with arguments regarding The 1970s “porno-chic” era of Behind the Green Classroom viewership, while certainly pornography in their coursework, with little Door, as well as Boys in the Sand (Poole, 1971), markedly different from a public theater, to no direct engagement with examples Deep Throat (Damiano, 1972), The Devil in Miss is a form of “be[ing] seen screening it.” of the representations discussed. Students Jones (Damiano, 1973), and The Opening of Misty Viewing pornography in the classroom typically have to rely on descriptions of images Beethoven (Metzger, 1976), was notable for the requires each participant to think about and these descriptions tend to vary widely “assertive publicness of its exhibition.”1 Deep themselves in relation to the other people according to the viewpoints of the authors. Throat, in particular, remains one of the most sitting next to them, to think about Engaging directly with porn representations successful independent films of all time— themselves as part of a larger audience, allows students to form their own people of all stripes went to see it, and they and to own their presence in that audience. interpretations and do so from the perspective went to see it with partners, friends, and It requires a taking of responsibility, unlike of a viewer. The students’ responses to the family. As Linda Williams suggests, what was the private viewership engaged in by media presented in my class ran the gamut so important about Deep Throat had less to so many people and shared with so few. of reactions, including amusement, disgust, do with what was going on on-screen, and Most importantly, shared spectatorship excitement, and boredom. While each student more to do with the viewing experience provokes conversation. As much as I hope in the class took the course seriously, thinking itself and the conversations it engendered. my students found what I had to say and carefully about the representations and issues She argues, “The most significant show what the authors we read had to say about under discussion, and producing solid written offered up by Deep Throat…was taking the issue of pornography compelling work, they were not dispassionate observers place in the audience: our social presence to and instructive, I would speculate that and didn’t pretend to be. Their reactions one another at a public screening of graphic, the most significant work this course reflected not only their individual, honest unsimulated sex; our willingness not only did was invite dialogue amongst the responses, but also reflected the experience of to screen sex but to be seen screening students themselves, and with the people viewing these images in a group setting. it.”2 With the rise of video and web-based in their life. As astute as many students’ The group dynamic is perhaps the most pornography, however, viewership has, in comments in class were, I found myself, important and underappreciated aspect of large part, retreated back to the domain of as an instructor, more intrigued by the pornography in the classroom. It provides the private. conversations I witnessed spilling into the an opportunity to engage in a viewing hallway after class. Students also recounted experience that has largely come and gone. 1. Linda Williams, Screening Sex (Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2008), 127. a multitude of discussions they had with 2 Screening Sex, 142. FEB10 9 CSupdateW roommates, friends, and partners about part of the shared space of the classroom. Watching these what we were watching in class. I suspect One person’s laughter inevitably led to there is a certain safety in engaging others others. It would be easy to dismiss this images as part in conversation about something you as simply a by-product of a group-think of a community viewed for a class, rather than having mentality, but I think it’s altogether to fess up to watching something on something different. Yes, pornography is encourages people your own. These discussions often led to meant to be, and sometimes actually is, broader issues that extended beyond just arousing. But, it can also be quite funny; to experience and the topic of sexual representation itself. sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. express a broad The conversation that emerged during Intentional humor and unintentional, the 1970s around pornography, an era laughter-inducing bad dialogue aside, range of emotions in which and Behind there is something about sex that is… the Green Door were such an important well…funny. Rather than dismissing the and have them part, may have come and gone, but the giggles that undergraduates occasionally validated. experience of viewing pornographic emit when the subject of sex arises in the images in a collective space may be worth classroom, we might have to confront the reinvigorating. Watching these images as fact that they may know something we’ve part of a community encourages people long since forgotten—that while sex can, to experience and express a broad range at times, be profound, or dangerous, or of emotions and have them validated. even spiritual, for the most part, it’s just Students did not hesitate to laugh when not worth taking so seriously. We can they found something funny, to utter recognize the violence, loss, heartbreak, sounds of displeasure or rear back in terror, confusion, sadness, and pain that their chairs when they found something can accompany sex, and still not lose sight disgusting or shocking, or yawn or sigh of this. when the images failed to hold their Approaching pornography with a bit attention. These vocalizations became a more levity, even while recognizing

FEB10 10 CSupdateW its potential dangers and limitations, statements, and teaching philosophies on is particularly important in a Women’s some level. In a Women’s Studies teaching A startling Studies context. It is common to hear context then, it seems crucial to me that in scholars in porn studies bemoan any order to “move on” from these debates, we number of the rehashing of the feminist “sex wars” must ultimately pass through them. graduating around the issue of pornography; this is Perhaps the reason why this issue has particularly true for scholars trained in dropped out of our classrooms is because seniors in my film and media studies.3 The field is urged the debates were often so ugly, so divisive. to “move on” and it largely has. The need Indeed, many Women’s Studies and class had never to “move on” is one I wholeheartedly related programs have avoided the issue heard of the support, and even invoke in the course altogether, resulting in the graduation of description for my class—where I disagree undergraduate majors and minors who “sex wars,” the is in regards to how to go about this. In are unfamiliar with this critical moment in the context of Women’s Studies, as well as feminist scholarly and political history. A 1982 Barnard Gender Studies, Sexuality Studies, Feminist startling number of the graduating seniors Conference, Studies, and their various combinations, in my class had never heard of the “sex the "sex wars" are part and parcel of the wars,” the 1982 Barnard Conference, or or Catherine formation of our field. The development Catherine MacKinnon. “ceasefire” and consolidation of many Women’s was called, one of the stipulations seems MacKinnon. Studies courses and programs in the US to have been a tacit agreement to just not occurred in the 1970s and 1980s, during the talk about it anymore. height of these battles; it is unreasonable Why the silence? Have the debates that to think that these debates are not woven emerged around sex and sexuality during into the fabric of our curriculums, mission this era been settled? Are these debates

3. For an excellent discussion of the “sex wars” and this era of no longer interesting? Have we moved US. feminist theorizing and activism, see Jane F. Gerhard’s beyond “pleasure and danger” once and Desiring Revolution: Second-wave Feminism and the Rewriting of American Sexual Thought, 1920 to 1982 (: Columbia University Press, 2001).

FEB10 11 CSupdateW for all?4 Or, have we just ceded this ground circulates amongst Women’s Studies issue of sex in our curriculums. I certainly to other fields, hoping that they will take students; they view passing judgement don’t have it figured out, but this teaching care of this messy issue of sex and its as antithetical to gender scholarship experience has taught me that this representation? Women’s Studies courses and activism, particularly in the realm of conversation is one that students want to talk a lot about “sexuality” but, strangely, sex and sexuality. Behind that mantra, be having. If the eighteen students I had rarely talk about sex. I am always intrigued however, often lies a different reality, in my class last Spring Quarter are any that entire weeks devoted to discussing one that needs to be interrogated in the indication, our undergraduates are not sexuality in classrooms manage to avoid rigorous manner that our curriculum only capable of having this conversation talking about sex altogether. One of engages other issues in. but have much to offer it. I hope Women’s the reasons why feminist discussions of The pro-porn/anti-porn dichotomy is a Studies as a field continues to reinvigorate pornography in the 1970s and 1980s were false one—it always was. In that sense, yes, our commitment to discussions around so divisive is because they forced frank we absolutely must move on and largely sex and sexuality, including pornography; conversations regarding sexual desires have. The issue of sexual representation, otherwise, we will only ensure that the and practices, and these conversations however, remains a critical one and needs conversation will go on without us. revealed some startling assumptions to be engaged in directly. The belief and viewpoints that drove a wedge in that students are not ready to confront Anna E. Ward is a PhD candidate in the Department of Women's Studies. between individuals and communities. pornography in the classroom says more Her dissertation project is entitled "The Discussing pornography in the classroom about those making the argument than it Uncertainty of Pleasure/The Pleasure of provides a space for students and does about the students themselves. This Uncertainty: and the History of Ecstatic Expression," instructors to articulate these assumptions argument may be merely a guise for the and viewpoints—and, again, to take discomfort of faculty and administrators. responsibility for them. There is a strange Within Women’s Studies, it may be a guise Seinfeldian “not that there’s anything for the fear that if we reopen the door to wrong with that” mantra that sometimes pornography, the old disagreements and 4. The anthology arising from presentations at the controversial 1982 divisions will inevitably slink in along with The Scholar and the Feminist IX Conference, “Towards a Politics of Sexuality,” held at Barnard College, is titled Pleasure and Danger: it. It may also signal that we still haven’t Exploring Female Sexuality (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984), edited by Carole S. Vance. quite figured out how to address the

FEB10 12 CSupdateW Girls' Studies

CSW RESEARCH SCHOLAR AND AUTHOR of A new book discusses how an new field of research seeks to document and affirm the lived experience of girls

by Elline Lipkin

n the mid 1990s, specifically the sum- bonds and rituals that had become emotion- mer of 1995, while living in New York ally essential to the girls who attended every ICity, I walked by a stack of newspapers. year; it was about the transitions and mile- The lead story on the front page caught my stones and uncertainties the girls experienced eye: “When Typical Teen-Agers Are Awesome as they made their way from their elementary Elders; Super Supy Girls Are Those Who Pass to their high school years; it was about the nu- the Traditions Down to the Younger Ones.” ances of girlhood—baffling, energizing, chang- The image presented, of a pre-teen girl at ing almost by the minute as these girls tried to summer camp, stopped me in my tracks. I figure out who they were and what they were remember wondering What was this article doing. And it was in the New York Times. On about and what was it doing on the front page the front page. Of the Sunday edition. Further- of the New York Times? more, I realized, this wasn’t just an isolated The article was about a girls’ summer article. It was one of a four-part series. As I camp in upstate New York; it was about the stood there taking this in, I felt stunned.

FEB10 13 CSupdateW How could this be? was my immediate Unbeknownst to me at that time, the field insist that girls have never been as strong reaction. Was this really considered “news”? of Girls’ Studies was just being born, usually and outspoken as they are now; some voices Wasn’t this prime newspaper space reserved the offspring of Departments of Gender and/ decry that girls are sexualized too soon, oth- for Important Stories? The more I read the or Women’s Studies. Energy gathered in the ers claim it’s great that they feel ownership more I felt an almost electrical reaction as early 1990s around the riot grrrls movement of their bodies in ways previously disallowed. I saw aspects of my own teen years de- and the American Association of University And rather than being taught silence, girls’ scribed, and credence given to experiences Women’s key reports about girls’ experiences voices are now heard shouting through the that I knew would resonate for others, but in school (Shortchanging Girls, Shortchanging distance. Through zines, websites, lyrics, would probably never be acknowledged America released in 1991 followed rapidly blogs, videos, among other outlets, girls now beyond their peers. I felt a curious combi- by How Schools Shortchange Girls in 1992). have greater visibility with expressing their nation of being both shocked and moved. The release of key texts In a Different Voice by concerns and having their points of view When I reread the series of articles scholar Carol Gilligan (in 1993), Reviving Oph- heard. Yet, in an ever more media-saturated as part of my research for Girls’ Studies, I elia by psychologist Mary Pipher, (in 1994), world, these additional resources can also was struck all over again, not just by the and Schoolgirls: Young Women, Self-Esteem, be places where girls feel yet more pressure content matter covered—the poignan- and the Confidence Gap by journalist Peggy to fulfill set expectations and to perform a cies, triumphs, and intricacies of these Orenstein (in 1994) brought a fast rise in at- certain type of femininity. girls’ bonds—but because what the series tention to the drop in self-esteem girls experi- As a field, Girls’ Studies is very much still communicated is that these girls’ lives mat- ence around the time of early adolescence. All in its own girlhood. Mention of its mere ex- tered. Their concerns and their visions for of a sudden, in both the popular press and in istence can still astonish. When I have taught their futures are news. The mere existence the academic world, there was serious study this topic, I see in my students’ reactions of the series stated that the public should about how girlhood was defined, what experi- the same wonder and revelation that I felt care about how girls are shaped by popular ences most shaped girls and into what kind of when I picked up the New York Times’ article culture and how the stamp of femininity is mold. Suddenly looking at how ideas about about camp. They are amazed that their lives pressed upon them. It was a revelation to femininity constructed—and constricted—girls are considered worthy of examination, that me to see this in a paper of national reputa- became a topic of national importance. it is legitimate to recognize the forces press- tion in the mid 1990s, and I’m grateful that In the years since, concern about girls has ing on them through their girlhood years and I don’t think this series would seem such a swung a wide pendulum: some voices main- that, alongside other academic disciplines, radical act now. tain their self-esteem is ever in peril, others this also matters. Alone, this stunning thought

FEB10 14 CSupdateW brings a sense of validation and excitement into the classroom that is deeply energizing. As a field, Girls’ Studies is very much still in its Girls’ Studies has, however, hardly be- own girlhood. Mention of its mere existence can come a centralized, unified field. Much of the debate over gender differences between girls still astonish. and boys has moved into discussion of differ- ences around learning and the value of single- sex education. As this field develops it has experienced the growing pains any adolescent does—including debate about its necessity and identity, accompanied by often vitriolic assertions that promotion of girls means that boys are unfairly being left out of the equa- tion. Proponents of Girls’ Studies will often ad- vocate that this is exactly why the field needs to exist—to counter the unspoken assump- there was often a long pause as I could see waves of “mean girls” crest to the catchphrase tions that use boys’ experiences as the base- a measure of emotion collecting behind the “girl power” and then ricochet off to new di- line in studies about youth or adolescence. questions asked, or buried within the stories rections reflects how deeply American culture It is also a field that dips powerfully into that burst forth about their daughters, or rising cares about its girls—and also how fraught that public consciousness. Debate about girls plays within a moment’s recollection of a girlhood concern can be. Many programs have sprung out in popular newsmagazines, television hurt, or a special bond, or an unexpected up to bolster girls’ self-esteem—sometimes shows, and school policies. As I carried my legacy whose impression lingers. The power trickily defined as well as, at moments, dubi- research books with me this past year—on felt in those moments was palpable, and often ously reinforced. Programs such as Rock ‘n’ planes or in coffee shops—it almost never contained, again, the breathtaking realization Roll Camp for Girls have imitators nationally, failed that women would ask me what I was that their girlhoods were considered worthy of and there have been a plethora of writing reading or why, and would then react with study, of consideration, even just of mention. programs created to serve girls alone, such as the same profound recognition that I first had. There is now deep concern about girls in WriteGirl, based in Los Angeles. Similarly, I After I explained the rise of this new field, the world. Seeing popular culture follow the was glad to discover how many organizations

FEB10 15 CSupdateW now exist to promote girls in developing coun- amazed to open what felt like a time-warped Elline Lipkin is a CSW Research Scholar, poet, tries, often with the realization that helping a pink cocoon. Much of what was buried inside and writer. Her new book, Girls’ Studies, was published in October 2009 by Seal Press. girl finish her schooling, (as one example), can seemed just as appropriate to give a girl today, Her poems have appeared in Crab Orchard significantly impact an entire family system, or a realization of which I wasn’t sure what Review, Margie, North American Review, The even her whole village. to make. I found myself remembering Toni Texas Review, and in The Poets’ Grimm: 20th Debate is often quickly sparked around Morrison’s Sula, an old favorite, and turned Century Poems from Grimm Fairy Tales. She how girls outpace boys with grades, college instantly to the book’s closing lines, just as Nel is also an editor at Girl with a Pen: Bridging Feminist Research and Popular Reality, http:// admissions, or GPAs once there, hence the recognizes how much she’s been missing her girlwpen.com/. seeming lack of a “self-esteem problem” for childhood friend, Sula. Morrison writes, “’We girls anymore. Yet, when students are coaxed was girls together,’ she said as though explain- to look beyond these figures to look at how ing something. ‘O Lord, Sula,’ she cried, ‘girl, this success translates to later life empower- girl, girlgirlgirl.’” The emotion Nel expresses, ment, arguments often grow thin. And the in her ringing cry for the girlhood friendship concept of girlhood as a troubled time isn’t she shared, is described as having no bottom one that most students, female and male, want or top, just “circles and circles of sorrow,” and clouding near them. They are often quick stands in for the coiled mysteries of girlhood to point out how pressured they feel, with itself—some of triumph, some of pain, but no neutral ground on which to stand as they a spiral towards womanhood, that, as Mor- negotiate the conflicting messages they are rison says, has no end. Girls’ Studies explores given about girlhood—be athletic but not too the rise of this field and the concentric issues tomboyish, or attractive but not too sexual, as- that surround and comprise girlhood—body sertive but not transgressively angry, or, alarm- image, sexuality, friendships, media influence ingly still, intelligent but not too smart. Stories and pressure, how girls’ voices are heard and about injustice against girls because they are expressed—as part of an overlapping expan- girls still abound in the news, and toy stores sion toward girls’ futures. divide neatly along bifurcated gender lines. Not long ago, after a move, I unpacked several boxes of childhood juvenilia. I was

FEB10 16 CSupdateW FEB 10

Green Me Up, JJ!

CSW Research Scholar Jenny Price, does not want to contribute to global who is the author of a book entitled Flight warming, Amanda, who wanted to know Maps: Adventures with Nature in Modern how clean recyclable items need to be America and is working on a new book for them to go in the blue bin, and John entitled 13 Ways of Seeing Nature in L.A., Jr.’s Dad, who wanted to know which is is writing a new “green advice” column the most eco-friendly car to drive. Price for LA Observed website called “Green answers these questions with humor while Me Up, JJ” about “how to act and think providing answers to these questions all of environmentally smart in our complicated us “greenies” have wanted to ask but didn’t 21st-century world.” She receives queries know where to turn. of all kinds including a question from Jason, a parent whose son wanted to join – Jaimie Baron a baseball league 28 miles away but who

17 FEB 10

Patricija Petracˇ is a Bruin Angel!

CSW’s Adminis- nonprofit founded in 2007 by Andrew Resources, devoting 10 to 30 hours a week trative Assistant Geisse and Ian Lee, that organizes fundrais- to the group. She is particularly proud of Patricija Petracˇ ing parties for charitable organizations, her part in organizing an art auction and was recently including Kiva, Invisible Children, and the reception for Upward Bound House, which featured as a Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Petrac, who was provides housing for the homeless. She has “Bruin Angel” always involved in volunteering while she also helped Philanthro Productions become in UCLA Today was an undergraduate at UCLA, first at- a more professional organization, starting because of her time spent volunteering for tended one of these parties last year and has a grant-writing component that will help Philanthro Productions, an all-volunteer since become the group’s head of Human sustain the organization in the future.

– Jaimie Baron

18 FEB 10

UCLA Center for the Study of Women CSW Update is the newsletter of the UCLA Center for the DIRECTOR Kathleen McHugh Professor, English and Cinema and Media Studies Study of Women. It is published monthly during the academic ASSISTANT DIRECTOR April de Stefano, PhD year. UCLA faculty, staff, MANAGING EDITOR Brenda Johnson-Grau and students are welcome to ADMINISTRATIVE ANALYST Jessie Babiarz submit articles for inclusion. If you have questions, please ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Patricija Petraˇc email the publications staff at STUDENT ASSISTANTS Jaimie Baron, Sarah Cho, Chelsey Crowley, Libby Dierker, [email protected] Hao Dieu, Andrey Gordienko, Erin Hill, Jackie Hunt, Angelica Lai, Susan McKibben, Sadie Menchen, EDITOR/DESIGNER Alfonso Orozco, Monica Peña, Dayo Spencer-Walters, Brenda Johnson-Grau and Wenpeng Zou EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS CAMPUS ADDRESS 1500 Public Affairs Building 722203 Jaimie Baron, Sarah Cho,

MAILING ADDRESS UCLA CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF WOMEN Libby Dierker, Hao Dieu, Box 957222 Sadie Menchen, and Wenpeng Zou

Los Angeles, CA 90095-7222

PHONE/FAX 310 825 0590 / 310 825 0456 EMAIL [email protected]

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