Week 5: Becoming a Girl (Driscoll)

As I am reading the first 100 something pages of Driscoll’s book where she talks about what ‘being a girl’ means from different perspectives, time frame and theoretical positions, I can’t help but think of another way of becoming a girl – a literal way: through sex change. I wonder how that might fit into the given scheme of things, particularly in Indian contexts where such things are still big taboos?

One of my friends from India is a LGBT activist and researcher. She once told me about this couple she knew. The girl was in school with her and she knew the boyfriend primarily through the girlfriend, and only later discovered other connections. The couple had been together for several years, before the boyfriend realized that she had always felt like a girl inside and wanted to change sex. The story was narrated to my friend by the girlfriend, who expressed her concerns and confusions about her boyfriend suddenly turning into a girl. Put that way, the story probably sounds funny, but as far as I have learned from my friend it had a rather sad ending for the couple. It pains me to think what ‘becoming a girl’ could entail for people like them, especially in an unsympathetic and unforgiving conservative society.

Week 4: American Sweethearts (Ilana Nash)

Nancy Drew is one among the ‘American Sweethearts’. Nancy Drew is a fictional amateur detective character in a children’s mystery series founded by Edward Stratemeyer in 1930. Since then Nancy Drew books are still in print. The books are ghostwritten under the pseudonym of Carolyn Keene. In the 1980’s a new series called Nancy Drew Flies was created that featured an older and professional Nancy Drew as a pilot and had romantic plots. In 2004, the Nancy Drew series was replaced by a new series called Girl Detective. Nancy Drew books have been translated into over 45 different languages and there has been 5 films, 2 television shows and a number of popular computer games based on Nancy Drew.

[Screenshot of ‘Nancy Drew – Lat Train to Blue Moon Canyon’ – a Nancy Drew mystery computer game in which the Hardy Boys has invited Nancy Drew (represented in the game by the player) on a train ride out West. Their hostess, socialite Lori Girard has gathered the best minds in mystery to solve a century-old secret and the haunted train is their best clue. The game can be played at two different levels – the Junior and senior detective.]

Week 3: Girls and Subculture (Angela McRobbie)

Wikipedia defines ‘subculture’ as:

In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture (whether distinct or hidden), which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong. For example, if a particular subculture is characterized by a systematic opposition to the dominant culture, it may be described as a counter-culture.

Dick Hebdige has argued that subculture that brings together like minded individuals who feel neglected by societal standards and allow them to develop a sense of identity is a subversion of normalcy.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subculture)

On the other hand, attributing the term to Theodore Roszak, the term ‘counter-culture’ is defined as “the cultural equivalent of political opposition”.

What then is the difference between subculture and counter-culture? Are they two terms for the same thing?