Girlfighting: Betrayal and Rejection Among Girls - Hardcover

Brown, Lyn Mikel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0814799159 ISBN 13: 9780814799154

Publisher: NYU Press, 2003

Synopsis

In opposition to other books available discussing how girls are mean to each other, this book looks at WHY girls act this way. The author looks at the images family and media inadvertenly send to girls and discusses what should be done to prevent this avoidable pattern.

About this title

Review:

"Brown's book, however, is a clear departure from the film [Mean Girls] stereotypes about dumb, mean, backstabbing girls."
-Waterville, Sunday Morning Sentinel

"Girlfighting is a serious and intelligent analysis of the cruelty and meanness involved in girls' relationships at each stage of development."
-Pyschiatric Services

"This book opens discussion related to the female gender role and the socialization of girls in many different, thought provoking ways, and serves as a timely critique of the current societal messages directed toward girls."
-Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy

"Brown declares that to change the patterns of female animosity we must address the social environment as well as the individual."
-Women's Review of Books

"While schools and parents scramble to once again 'fix girls' via meanness prevention programs, Lyn Brown gives us a wider, different, and eye-opening view of the problem. . . . This is the smartest book on mean girls around."
-Sharon Lamb, author of The Secret Lives of Girls

Synopsis:

In Girlfighting, psychologist and educator Lyn Mikel Brown scrutinizes the way our culture nurtures and reinforces competition, cliques, backstabbing, and general meanness among girls. She traces the changes in girls' thoughts, actions, and feelings from childhood into young adulthood, providing the developmental understanding and theoretical explanation often lacking in other conversations. Through interviews with over 400 girls of diverse racial, economic, and geographic backgrounds, Brown chronicles the labyrinthine journey girls take from direct and outspoken children who like and trust other girls to distrusting and competitive young women. By allowing the voices of girls to be heard, Brown demonstrates the complex and often contradictory realities girls face, helping us to better understand and critique the socializing forces in their lives and challenging us to rethink the messages we send them.

About this edition

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0814799159
• ISBN 13: 9780814799154
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272