Feminism, Young Women, and Cultural Studies

A feminist analysis of young women and popular culture and a forceful critique of male domination in youth culture.

Feminism, Young Women and Cultural Studies: Birmingham Essays from 1975 Onwards by Angela McRobbie brings together the Birmingham University Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) essays of the 1970s and ‘80s with a new introductory chapters and four new chapters of updated analysis on music, magazines, vintage fashion and youth culture. The early work provides both a feminist analysis of young women and popular culture as well as a forceful critique of male domination in youth culture and the ways in which an ideology of adolescent femininity functioned so as to subdue and restrain young women in passive and subordinate gender unequal positions. These chapters also shine a light on the kinds of methodologies being developed at Birmingham University CCCS as cultural studies was emerging as a distinct field of study. These essays when first published found their way onto the university undergraduate curriculum across the world and were translated into many languages. Adopting an intersectional perspective and engaging with questions such as the “category of the girl,” the new chapters extend the field of study in a lively and accessible sociological voice. The book will be of keen interest for students in Sociology, Media and Cultural Studies and Literary Studies.