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...(Gibson & Papa, 2000), through schools (Brint, Contrevas, & Matthews, 2001; Oseroff-Varnell, 1998), and through messages presented in media (Fisherkeller, 1999; Teigen, Normann, Bjorkheim, & Helland, 2000). Consumption of media, including books, television, music, and films, is one particularly important source of identity construction (Garner, 1999; Jablin, 2001).
This study examines what girls are being told about themselves and their future experiences and opportunities through the medium of film. It begins with an overview of socialization literature and specifically the role that films play. Next, the results of a study examining the messages presented to teenage girls in films released between 2000 and 2004 are discussed. Finally, the implications of the messages, opportunities for future filmmakers, and suggestions for future research are presented.
Literature Review
Messages that we receive early in life teach us who we are supposed to be as adults. The next section begins with an overview of processes of socialization with a particular focus on anticipatory vocational socialization research, followed by a discussion of the role that media plays.
Processes of Organizational Socialization
We are subject to socialization processes from the time that we first enter into the world. Socialization messages tell us what to do, how to behave, and how to reduce uncertainty related to a situation or context (Oseroff-Varnell, 1998). The messages tell us how we are supposed to act according to our gender as well as to what we may aspire. Obviously these are related, since the way we are socialized into our gender roles may affect the way we (re)create work roles and opportunities (Steele & Barling, 1996; Wilgosh, 2001).
It is important that socialization messages be realistic in terms of what will be expected of us later. Without a sense of realism, we cannot make informed choices or anticipate challenges (Cribb & Bignold, 1999; Oseroff-Varnell, 1998). We are likely to be happier in our future jobs if we have realistic expectations about what they will entail. While socialization presents us with a set of acceptable norms and privileged power positions in relation to others, we are also presented with an opportunity to find a place for ourselves where we can feel comfortable and happy (Jablin, 2001).
Gendered socialization messages
We begin receiving messages about our gendered identities at least from the day that we are born. In the U.S., baby girls are often dressed in pink and baby boys in blue. Little girls are given dolls to play with, while little boys are given cars. Early socialization messages are situated in a dominant ideology that serves to produce and reproduce particular organizational activities and power relationships among the participants (Clair, 1996). From the first day of school, we are taught acceptable and preferable behaviors through rewards of gold stars and candy, which socialize us into a future of salary rewarded for labor that produces acceptable levels and quantities of work (Brint et al., 2001).
We are continuously told who we are, what types of jobs are considered "acceptable," and what it "takes" to have those jobs. For example, many working-class boys realize that their fathers expect them to work at the same company or industry that they do, messages supported by shared communal activities with other families in the same blue-collar line of work (Gibson & Papa, 2000). Such messages are supported by middle-class teachers with little understanding or appreciation of blue-collar lines of work (Willis, 1977). Girls may be discouraged from continuing their educations as a result of behaviors perceived by counselors or teachers as "inappropriate," for example, if they get pregnant while in high school (Eggleston, 2000). If we reach college, we're probably aware that a "real job" is one that pays money and has advancement opportunities and does not mean working as a fast-food manager or a ski instructor (Clair, 1996). In other words, it seems that the desired line of work would be more apparently middle-class managerial or professional than working class or seasonal.
Mediated messages in the past--From Gidget to the Riot Grrrls and Back?
A significant source of socialization messages targeting girls is increasingly found in popular culture and the media. Research has shown that, in contrast to the early part of the 1900s, children and adolescents are now turning to media figures, such as actors or sports stars, rather than to historical figures (Teigen et al., 2000). As a result, media heroines are increasingly filling socializing and role-modeling functions previously provided by families, religious institutions, and schools. Garner (1999) has shown that girls' reading material often reflects the way they view themselves later in life. Girls read books with positive role models that help them find their own way to becoming professional women, such as historians or scientists. It is likely that girls may use other forms of dramatization, such as the films examined here, as similar sources of identification and role modeling.
Historically, stories for children and adolescents in the media focused on boys taking action, while girls either waited for or were rescued by the boys (Banet-Weiser, 2004). Stories about girls, such as those represented by the Gidget series of films and television programs popular in the 1960s, often depicted a girl getting into trouble, then being rescued by her father (or another male figure). Her organizing actions and accomplishments were trivialized (Nash, 2002).
In the 1980s, the Riot Grrls emerged as a powerful movement, contesting the popular representation of girlhood in magazines and older television programs exemplified by Gidget and the like. Acts such as the Spice Girls, with their Girl Power mantra (Fuchs, 2002), and songs such as Cindy Lauper's 1984 hit, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," and No Doubt's 1996 hit, "I'm Just a Girl," used media images of girl culture and girl power as a way to sell its cultural commodities to girls (Wald, 1998). Girls identifying with the Riot Grrrl movement developed their own publishing outlets, started bands, and created a sense of community (Roberts, 2002; Rosenberg & Garofalo, 1998).
The community that was the source of the Riot Grrls' organizing power was increasingly diluted in the media presentation of "girl power" (Roberts, 2002). Popular films such as Pretty in Pink and Sixteen Candles presented girls as neoconservative adolescents perpetuating images of Daddy's girl (Fuchs, 2002). However, there were a few notable exceptions. For example, the television network Nickelodeon regularly presented girls as strong, empowered individuals (Banet-Weiser, 2004). Nickelodeon shows present girls as saving boys rather than boys saving girls and as able school-newspaper journalists. Unlike other media that tend to argue for the construction of girls and women as dependent on men and with little power of their own (Durham, 1998; Garner, Sterk, & Adams, 1998), Nickelodeon continues to show girls as capable of actively creating, organizing, and presenting their own media (Banet-Weiser, 2004). But to what extent are the empowering messages presented by Nickelodeon replicated in the medium of film?
Films as Socializing Agents
Films are significant to the socialization process for several reasons. First, films targeting teenage girls are often viewed by adolescent girls in groups without an adult to assist them with deconstructing what they have viewed (Fuchs, 2002). Not only do teen girls spend more time with their peers than with adults, but they also watch films targeting their age group that present images of women acting like girls. One negative effect of this is the image of girls as too irresponsible to become organizational and societal leaders.
Second, films are part of a larger marketing process that includes mass-produced magazines with stories about media stars, Web pages, and tie-in products. A film such as Disney-produced The Princess Diaries is...
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