Overview
Pretty in Punk combines autobiography, interviews, and sophisticated analysis to create the first insider's examination of the ways punk girls resist gender roles and create strong identities.Why would an articulate, intelligent, thoughtful young women shave off most of her hair, dye the remainder green, shape it into a mohawk, and glue it onto her head? What attracts girls to male-dominated youth subcultures like the punk movement? What role does the subculture play in their perceptions of themselves, and in their self-esteem? How do girls reconcile a subcultural identity that is deliberately coded """"masculine"" with the demands of femininity? Research has focused on the ways media and cultural messages victimize young women, but little attention has been paid to the ways they resist these messages. In Pretty in Punk, Lauraine Leblanc examines what happens when girls ignore these cultural messages, parody ideas of beauty, and refuse to play the games of teenage femininity. She explores the origins and development of the punk subculture, the processes by which girls decide to """"go punk,"" patterns of resistance to gender norms, and tactics girls use to deal with violence and harassment. Pretty in Punk takes readers into the lives of girls living on the margins of contemporary culture. Drawing on interviews with 40 girls and women between the ages of 14-37, Leblanc examines the lives of her subjects, illuminating their forms of rebellion and survival. Pretty in Punk lets readers hear the voices of these women as they describe the ways their constructions of femininity-from black lipstick to slamdancing-allow them to reject damaging cultural messages and build strong identities. The price they pay for resisting femininity can be steep-girls tell of parental rejection, school expulsion, institutionalization, and harassment. Leblanc illuminates punk girls' resistance to adversity, their triumphs over tough challenges, and their work to create individual identities in a masculine world.
Full Product Details
Author: Lauraine Leblanc
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Imprint: Rutgers University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 1.80cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.399kg
ISBN: 9780813526515
ISBN 10: 0813526515
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 01 March 1999
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Out of stock
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.
Reviews
[LeBlanc] draws on her insider experiences and insights and on the field research and interviews she carried out with 40 self-identified punk girls in her travels to New Orleans, Atlanta, MontrTal and San Francisco. . . . As an aeethnography of gender resistanceAE and inside look at punk subculture, this very impressive study is of theoretical interest to sociologists, cultural researchers and feminist theorists while also sufficiently fascinating and accessible to appeal to a more general audience.-- Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association In this original work, LeBlanc explores how punk girls negotiate and resist hegemonic notions of femininity in the predominantly masculine punk subculture. She asks: What influences some teenage girls to become involved in the punk subculture? How do punk girls negotiate female gender norms within a masculine subculture? . . . LeBlanc's work is engaging. By combining a critical feminist perspective, sound qualitative methodology, and delightfully non-academic prose, she has written a book that is both informative and a pleasure to read. Her work should be appreciated by those who study genders, subcultures, identities, and deviance.-- Ideology and Cultural Production The author's first-person accounts of her life as a punk girl are particularly effective at bringing her analysis of punk girls to life. . . . Original and very insightful.--Kathleen Blee professor of sociology and director of women's studies University of Pittsburgh The girls and women that Leblanc portrays in Pretty in Punk are very nearly as original, spirited, and delightful as Leblanc's prose itself. . . . A happy conjunction of author, topic, and methodology.--Carol Brooks Gardner professor of sociology and women's studies, Indiana University, Indianapolis Pretty in Punk is cutting-edge feminist and cultural studies research. . . . .The stories [Leblanc] relates offer inspirational evidence of rebellion against stereotypical gender arrangementsuof girls empowering themselves in unique ways.--Wendy Simonds author of Abortion at Work: Ideology and Practice in a Feminist Clinic and Women
[LeBlanc] draws on her insider experiences and insights and on the field research and interviews she carried out with 40 self-identified punk girls in her travels to New Orleans, Atlanta, MontrTal and San Francisco. . . . As an aeethnography of gender resistanceAE and inside look at punk subculture, this very impressive study is of theoretical interest to sociologists, cultural researchers and feminist theorists while also sufficiently fascinating and accessible to appeal to a more general audience.-- Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association In this original work, LeBlanc explores how punk girls negotiate and resist hegemonic notions of femininity in the predominantly masculine punk subculture. She asks: What influences some teenage girls to become involved in the punk subculture? How do punk girls negotiate female gender norms within a masculine subculture? . . . LeBlanc's work is engaging. By combining a critical feminist perspective, sound qualitative methodology, and delightfully non-academic prose, she has written a book that is both informative and a pleasure to read. Her work should be appreciated by those who study genders, subcultures, identities, and deviance.-- Ideology and Cultural Production The author's first-person accounts of her life as a punk girl are particularly effective at bringing her analysis of punk girls to life. . . . Original and very insightful.--Kathleen Blee professor of sociology and director of women's studies University of Pittsburgh Pretty in Punk is cutting-edge feminist and cultural studies research. . . . .The stories [Leblanc] relates offer inspirational evidence of rebellion against stereotypical gender arrangementsuof girls empowering themselves in unique ways.--Wendy Simonds author of Abortion at Work: Ideology and Practice in a Feminist Clinic and Women The girls and women that Leblanc portrays in Pretty in Punk are very nearly as original, spirited, and delightful as Leblanc's prose itself. . . . A happy conjunction of author, topic, and methodology.--Carol Brooks Gardner professor of sociology and women's studies, Indiana University, Indianapolis
