Slapper, geek, bimbo or just a regular girl –identity construction for young Swedish females.
The aim of this dissertation is to study twelve young schoolgirls, to see how they view themselves as girls, and how this affects their situation at school. The main aim is to let the girls themselves voice how they perceive what it is to be a young girl today; what defines a girl, what are the specific gender markers, underlying norm system, and how does this in turn affect behaviour within the group with regards to responsibility, fashion, sub groups and role models. The emphasis of the study is to observe and analyse socially constructed gender norms, do they exist among this group, and if so, how does this affect the girls’ behaviour and social interaction?
The study is a qualitative study, based on a selected group of volunteers from a secondary school in a Stockholm suburb during the academic year of 2007-2008. The students were interviewed separately and in groups, and the transcribed interviews have then been compared to other resent studies of similar demographic groups, and viewed and analysed in the light of resent research theories about gender and gender construction.
Every cluster of questions regarding each specific research area is dealt with separately, with an analysis of the answers and comparisons to other theories and findings finishing off each section.
The main claims from analysing the material, would be that it is important to live up to the socially created and culturally perceived norm, to adhere to the gender markers and not break the invisible mould. All the interviewed girls were very aware of the norm system surrounding them, and they also know that if you break the rules of what is expected of a girl, you can expect negative consequences, and might not even be perceived as a “real” girl. The norms are created and sustained in a social interaction, between the girls but also in interaction with the opposite sex. Some of the rules can appear arbitrary to the detached observer, but for the group of girls the rules are self evident and unquestionable.
The norms are mostly created in the homo-social sphere, between the girls in their everyday lives, and can be hard to describe in detail, even for the informants themselves, although they can describe it clear enough when they perceive that the rules brought on by the norm has been broken.
The thesis ends with a summary and analysis of all the previous sections, and with suggestions for possible further areas of research.