Archive for August 2011

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[ecrea] Feminist Theory: Call for papers on girlhood and sexualization

Tue Aug 23 13:15:56 GMT 2011



*---------*

*CALL FOR PAPERS*

*Feminism, sexualisation and contemporary girlhood*

*A special issue of Feminist Theory*

Editors: Emma Renold and Jessica Ringrose

* *

The subject 'girl' and 'girl culture' has emerged as an increasingly visible problematic in late capitalist societies (Walkerdine 2001 et al., Driscoll 2002, McRobbie 2008) from images of over-achieving consumer oriented 'girl power' through to pathological representations of 'girls at risk'. A significant luminosity in recent years is a resurgence of anxiety and fear over what has come to be known as the 'sexualisation of the (girl) child' (Albury and Lumby 2010). This contested discourse has gained hegemonic status and is framed by many academic commentators as a contemporary moral panic. Indeed, popular and consumer culture have been subject to a regulatory gaze from government and non-governmental bodies across the global north accompanied by a steady stream of sensationalist popular cultural texts bemoaning the loss/desire of sexual innocence. Here, representations of girls' presumed sexual knowing, agency and desire are not only 'no longer missing' but 'cariacaturely displayed everywhere' in contemporary sexually saturated societies (Fine and McClelland 2006).

This Feminist Theory special issue situates the 'sexualisation of girls' discourse as one discourse in a wider assemblage of contemporary and historical gazes upon the sexual girl-child-women (see special issues in Australian Feminist Media Studies 2008, Vol 23 (57) and Feminist Theory 2010, Vol. 11 (3). The aim of the collection is to pay critical attention to the myriad of assumptions, silences and myths associated with this seemingly ubiquitous discourse and its effects and encourages papers which offer critical commentaries upon the ways in which feminist theory and praxis can assist in exploring this discursive terrain. Key questions that authors might like to consider could include:

What old/new theoretical feminisms are available to map and explore contemporary young female sexualities?

Does the contemporary sexualisation moral panic constitute a renewed crisis of femininity within a wider context of shifting gender and sexual relations?

What are the methodological challenges in researching girls and sexuality in postfeminist neoliberal societies and in an era of 'sexualisation'?

How do 'sexualisation' discourses operate in cultures and countries beyond the global north?

This special issue grows out of an ESRC-funded seminar series on: _Pornification? Complicating the Debates about the Sexualisation of Culture. _These seminars included presentations from diverse theoretical and disciplinary fields, including scholars working across a range of regional, national and transnational contexts. We thus welcome contributions from psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, historians and cultural studies scholars who are or have been engaged with the theorising of girlhood, sexuality and subjectivity.

*Submissions***

An abstract of no more than 300 words should be emailed to: Dr Emma Renold ((renold /at/ cf.ac.uk) <mailto:(renold /at/ cf.ac.uk)>) no later than 1^st September 2011

Full papers will be between 6000-7000 words and adhere to Feminist Theory requirements (for details see http://fty.sagepub.com/ <http://jos.sagepub.com/>).

*Timetable**:***

1 September 2011: Abstract deadline

15th September 2011: Notification of acceptance to go through to full paper stage

February 28 2012: Full paper submission deadline

March-July 2012: Refereeing

July 31 2012: Reviewer comments returned to authors

November 30 2012: Revised papers to be received (and returned to referees if needed)

Jan 31 2012: Final corrections received

Feb 28 2013: Final copy to Feminist Theory

[Expected Publication Date is December 2013]



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