Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Adolescent girls resist encouragement to be passive, quiet and "good," finds Brown, an associate professor of education and human development at Colby College and coauthor of Meeting at the Crossroads: Women's Psychology and Girls' Development. The girls in her study readily identify the sources of their anger when it is aroused, but sometimes have difficulty expressing it directly, often navigating daily between what is expected of them and what they expect of themselves. They relentlessly try to make sense of the world and their place in it, refusing any attempt to pacify or silence them when conflicted. Although Brown acknowledges that her research is limited by her choice of subjects--only white, lower- and middle-class girls, aged 11 to 14, in two Maine towns--her admission isn't enough to cover the lack of comparison regionally and racially. Once one has made allowance for this small sample, however, Brown's observations about class differences and emotional expression should prove intriguing for those trying to explore the valleys and peaks of an adolescent mind. Unfortunately, Brown isn't content simply to let the girls speak for themselves, but reinterprets their verbal play, labors over points that are already self-evident and dissects their every childish giggle. Although her writing is graceful and sometimes even beautiful, Brown fights too hard for a group that obviously can fight for itself, given the girls' fiery speeches. (Oct.)
Rebecca Mead
[Brown] worries that the the current rhetoric of low self-esteem 'has become a self-fulfilling prophecy and this book is an attemp to provide an alternative prophecy, with the hope that it, likewise, will be fulfilled. -- The New York Times Book Review
Kirkus Reviews
A rebuttal to—or at least an amplification of—the research and popular writing that shows young teenage girls as tuned-out and turned-off shadows of their lively, challenging pre-adolescent selves. Brown (Education and Human Development/Colby College) was co-author with Carol Gilligan of the much-discussed Meeting at the Crossroads, the study of girls' development at an Ohio school that seemed to reinforce reports that girls on the cusp of puberty experience plummeting self-esteem. Brown objects that reports of this research (which made girls appear passive and victimized) were misleading. She set up another study of white junior high school girls, differentiated by class (working vs. middle), in two communities in Maine. Each group of girls met weekly to discuss gender-related issues and whatever else might come up. Both groups were angry and frustrated about what they felt was discrimination in the classroom and pressure for them to conform to a female ideal. The working-class girls were more likely to express their anger directly, to feel outrage appropriately, and to resist more strongly fitting into the good-girl mold. Yet they saw their futures as 'dim' and uncertain and themselves as 'stupid,' because they or their families had been unable to move up the economic ladder. The middle-class girls were more likely to lead double lives: quiet and conforming in public (e.g., school), argumentative and defiant at home or among close friends. Their economic futures were rosier, however, with college and career virtual givens. Brown explores both groups' awareness of (and struggles against) cultural expectations of what women should be. That they seem to be losing thewar is sad; that they are fighting at all is heartening. Appealing subjects mix confusion and protest about equally; but in this study, the consequences of the economic gap are more interesting than those of the gender gap.
