[Commlist] Call for papers - Journal of Film, Fashion and Consumption - Special Issue on Girlhood 1955-1975

Call for papers: Deadline extended to 1^st February 2022

Journal of Film, Fashion and Consumption

*Special Issue – Beyond Bedroom Culture: Representations of the Girlhood 
Experience in the Public Sphere, from 1955-1974 *

Angela McRobbie (1991) discussed the concept of ‘bedroom culture’ in her 
feminist analyses of girlhood. The teenage girl’s bedroom was seen as a 
space for creativity and the articulation of identity. McRobbie 
criticised the subcultural research of the Birmingham Centre for 
Cultural Studies for its focus on young men and its dismissal of female 
teenage experiences. She suggested that the academics at the Centre saw 
girls as either being limited by parental control or else by their own 
desire to engage with, rather than resist, mass media culture such as 
pop music and fashion and to participate in the growing climate of 
consumerism.


Contemporary studies of girlhood, however, reveal that girls display 
creative responses to contemporary media in virtual public spheres such 
as the internet and social media. Sian Lincoln (2012), for instance, 
developed the concept of ‘the bedroom’ into particular zones where 
different activities took place. There is now a growing academic 
interest in girls’ particular responses to social media within 
contemporary culture.

However, this female creativity and expression of identity could be 
found in earlier eras when girls entered the public sphere. This issue 
examines the experiences and the imagined lived experiences of girls, 
from 1955–74, through their encounters with the public, rather than the 
domestic, sphere. It looks at their representation in film, on 
television and in the media.

In keeping with the remit of the journal, this CFP is interested in 
papers that examine female fashion and consumption, or particular 
representations of girls on film and on television that articulate 
perceived female experience in this era.

Potential topics may be (but are not limited to) any of the following:

*Fashion and Style: *how did girls develop their style in the regions 
for instance, compared with London and larger conurbations?

*Style leaders and their impact on young girls*: this could be regional, 
local or national/global (e.g. Mary Quant, Twiggy, Barbara Hulanicki, 
Cathy McGowan, Jane Birkin, Jean Shrimpton).

*Resistance to style*: girls in subcultures (interviews, archives, 
recollections on social media, DIY culture, fashion, representations on 
film for example).

*Participation in subcultures and transgressive behaviour*: drug taking, 
alcohol consumption, all night partying, fighting, pre-marital sex, the 
pill, abortion, enforced adoptions, early marriage or representations of 
these.

*Relationships with parents and peers*

*Race, ethnicity and subcultures*: what was the girlhood experience 
within new immigrant communities with the influx of Jamaican, Asian and 
Eastern European peoples? How and why did these girls create their own 
style?

*Creation*: creating products connected with subcultures, for instance, 
jewellery, hair styles, fashion design, producing music, zines.

*Fandoms*: Comics, film, magazines and television fandoms, Radio fandom 
(pirate radio, Radio 1) Local scenes and artists , Music Fandoms, 
including rock and roll, ska and reggae, soul, R&B, Glamrock, ‘Prog rock’

Send abstracts of 500 words to /(_k.l.milestone /at/ mmu.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(k.l.milestone /at/ mmu.ac.uk)> _/and /(_joanormrod /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(joanormrod /at/ gmail.com)> _ /by *February 1^st 2022*. You may also 
email us with a proposal.

*Readings*:

Lincoln, S. (2012). /Youth Culture and Private Space/. Palgrave Macmillan.

McRobbie, A. (1991). “Jackie” Magazine: Romantic Individualism and the 
Teenage Girl. In A. McRobbie (Ed.), /Feminism and Youth Culture: From 
‘Jackie’ to ‘Just Seventeen’ /(pp. 81–134). Palgrave London.

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