Noisy Girls

Abstract

Young women have taken up new subject positions in a historical period when the subject of modernity has been declared dead. Subject positions have been far from selfevident either in the cultural context, or in the young women themselves, a fact that may, paradoxically, have helped them produce modern reflexive subjectivities with greater ease. It has been more necessary for contemporary girls than for boys to ask who they are and who they want to become. By gradually changing the norms for how gender, body or sexuality can be represented in public space, by reframing sexuality and morality in public as well as private, young women over the last three generations have simultaneously carved spaces for new subjectivities for women that are not reducible to gender.Thus, the 'work of culture' has also been a 'work of subjectivity' . General claims of what the processes of modernization entail need specification, not only in relation to gender and other particular identities, but also in relation to societal contexts and to lived life. The new subjectivities are contextualized as 'made in Scandinavia' as well as discussed in an ethical perspective as a new form for 'relational individualism' .

Opportunity or burden? Shifting femininities and women’s experiences in a pre-professional business leadership setting

“…The new ‘ideal’ female subject does not only embody attributes traditionally associated with femininity, but also attributes typically associated with masculinity (Gonick, 2004, 2006; Ringrose, 2007). This combines characteristics such as being emotional and the view that women are restricted to the private sphere as an expression of ‘traditional’ femininity (Lewis, 2014: 114) with characteristics such as being autonomous and rational (Nielsen, 2004: 11), assertive (Ringrose, 2007: 484), professionally successful (McRobbie, 2009: 31), and powerful (Pomerantz et al, 2013) that are traditionally associated with masculinity.…”

Relationality, entangled practices and psychosocial exploration of intergenerational dynamics in sustainable energy studies

“…However, this is not a form of individualism that exists apart from relational considerations. It is a form of relational individualism (Nielsen, 2004), as shown by the way Pat is also affectively attuned to how subsequent generations benefit too from experiencing everyday freedoms from externally imposed needs and wants. For Pat, it is important that the freely available food she values is also freely available to her children.…”

Situating Nordic Girls' Studies

“…From the mid-1980s researchers from various academic backgrounds have investigated a wide array of young women's creative expressions and their circumstances within both youth culture and school environments. The label young women was a distinction based on age, but it also reflected an analytical preoccupation with genera-tional differences and the conflicting positioning of girls and girlhood within modern society (Drotner and Rudberg 1993;Bjerrum-Nielsen 2004). Because gender equality not only represents a political ambition, but also a cultural ideal in Nordic societies, young female subjects have had to negotiate a set of opportunities and pressures both as girls and as women in the making.…”