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Between Feminism and Femininity: Shifting Cultural Representations of Girlhood in the 1960S

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Between Feminism and Femininity: Shifting Cultural Representations of Girlhood in the 1960S BETWEEN FEMINISM AND FEMININITY: SHIFTING CULTURAL REPRESENTATIONS OF GIRLHOOD IN THE 1960S Ying-bei Eldridge A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2017 Committee: Jolie Sheffer, Advisor Andrew Hershberger Graduate Faculty Representative Timothy Messer-Kruse Radhika Gajjala © 2017 Ying-bei Eldridge All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Jolie Sheffer, Advisor Media and cultural studies of girlhood have shown that we live in a postfeminist era, when the label “feminism” evokes many negative stereotypes against women demanding greater rights and opportunities whereas eye-catching “girl” figures promote and advertise a stronger vision of femininity in the popular culture market. Tracking how “girls” replace “women” and become favored icons of feminism in contemporary culture, this dissertation analyzes the shifts in cultural depictions of girlhood in the 1960s. Examining magazines and newspapers’ coverage of Beatlemania in 1964 and 1965, Twiggy’s successful modeling career from 1966 to 1968, and the eventful Miss America pageants from 1968 to 1970, I find that mass media and popular culture institutions presented a series of new images and themes about girlhood that featured romantic desires for male idols, challenges to prevailing definitions of fashionable femininity, and an outspoken approach to controversial political and social issues. These new themes exemplify that the differences between girlhood and womanhood intensified along with the development of feminist movements in the 1960s, when mass media invested in constructing a new girlhood identity as a way to fend off changing views of womanhood and uphold some elements of traditional femininity. This new girlhood is thus an outcome of the oscillation between the feminist counterculture and traditional gender discourses in the 1960s. The development of the new girlhood in the 1960s can help in understanding the consumption of feminism in American culture today, where the power and freedoms the feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s promised are taken away from older, professionally accomplished women and reserved for girlish girls and young women. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am an international student from Taiwan. English is not my first language and not the language that I grew up writing. This means that my committee, besides giving me critical feedback and ideas to facilitate the research of this project, had to help me become a better writer. What I found more alarming than the grammatical issues that non-native writers commonly make, was my initial lack of understanding of Western rhetorical traditions. In particular, I had to develop the ability to formulate my unique argument in an academic conversation. Thanks to the tremendous amount of time and effort each of my dissertation committee had spent guiding me to analyze and think through the subjects, I was able to cultivate my voice as a researcher. Without this my dissertation would not have been accomplished. My advisor, Dr. Jolie Sheffer, gave me specific and insightful feedback, which greatly helped with the overall development and organization of this project. Dr. Timothy Messer-Kruse gave me comments that inspired me to morph this dissertation into a cultural history project, a field I have always been interested in. Early on, when I was not sure about the larger framework of this project, Dr. Radhika Gajjala listed specific literature and encouraged me to start from gender and media theories. I also want to thank Dr. Andrew Hershberger, for being my graduate representative and for giving me astute feedback from the perspective of an arts scholar. I was truly blessed to have a committee so generous and so pleasant to work with. An archival study like this would not be possible without valuable input provided by experienced librarians and archivists. I am grateful to a group of librarians and archivists at BGSU’s Jerome Libraries, who helped me find historical documents that this dissertation heavily references. Special thanks to Susannah Cleveland of the Music Library and Bill Schurk Sound Archives, and Stefanie Hunker of the Browne Popular Culture Library. Susannah introduced the music library’s collection of old teen magazines, and Stefanie showed me the popular culture v library’s exclusive collection of beauty pageant documents. It was a privilege to pursue my doctoral study at BGSU, which is home to one of the world’s largest collections of American popular culture materials. I have been surrounded by a highly supportive community throughout my doctoral study at BGSU. I am thankful to all the professors I worked with and friends I made at graduate school, including my same-year cohorts and fellow graduate students I attended classes with. I was surprised by how much I learned from them and how often I adopted their words as my own, ranging from formal in-class discussions to random jokes they made. I want to thank Jason Clevenger, who gave me an opportunity to work as a writing consultant at the Learning Commons at BGSU, a wonderful learning experience that, through working with other writers, helped me stay focused on writing. I was lucky to have my family on my side to go through this journey. I thank my parents for always believing in me and supporting my decisions. Finally, to my husband Nathen, who insisted that I had to take a break once for a while and brightened my days with a sense of humor and good food. Thank you. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 Research Objectives ............................................................................................................ 7 Girlhood: A Symbol of Ideal Femininity ............................................................................ 8 The Rise of Adolescent Girlhood ......................................................................... 10 The Dichotomy of Teenage Girlhood ................................................................... 12 What is Feminism of the Sixties? ..................................................................................... 15 Communicating Feminism on Mass Media .......................................................... 21 Feminism, Girlhood, and Girl Culture .................................................................. 27 From Counterculture to Popular Culture .......................................................................... 33 The Culture War ................................................................................................... 33 The Commercialization of Feminism ................................................................... 37 Chapter Outlines ............................................................................................................... 40 CHAPTER 1. LOOKING FOR LOVE AND FANTASIES: ROMANCE, BEATLEMANIA, AND AMERICAN GIRLS ........................................................................................................... 43 How Beatlemania Liberated Girls .................................................................................... 46 The Culture of Romantic Yearning....................................................................... 49 16 Magazine and Beatlemania .......................................................................................... 55 Visual Representations of the Beatles: Why Girls Needed “Enormous Close-up” .......... 59 Sexualized Pictures ............................................................................................... 63 “Intimate” Stories: What Girls Learned about Relationships from the Beatles ................ 71 Love Letters to the Beatles ............................................................................................... 78 vii Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 84 CHAPTER 2. TWIGGY IN AMERICA: MOBILITY, EMPOWERMENT, AND POPULISM AS NEW FORMS OF FASHIONABLE GIRLHOOD ................................................................ 85 A New Fashion Icon for Teenagers .................................................................................. 87 Twiggy in Magazines ........................................................................................................ 90 The Mobile Girl ................................................................................................................ 93 Girl in the Air ........................................................................................................ 95 Girl on the Move ................................................................................................. 100 The Look of Empowerment ............................................................................................ 105 Resisting the Male Gaze ..................................................................................... 107 Resisting Traditional Gender Roles .................................................................... 112 Not a Boy. Not a Girl .......................................................................................... 115 A Populist Model ............................................................................................................ 119 Crafted Beauty ...................................................................................................
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