Chapter 5
Researching Girl Power with Girls

Chapter Five describes the research methodologies used for the studies described in Chapters Six through through Nine. These latter chapters explore what the girl hero cartoon's discourse on girl power meant to pre-adolescent girls in the cartoons' target audience while the cartoons were popular. In the research that underpins these chapters, I viewed and discussed girl hero cartoons with real girls. We explored what it meant to grow up with girl power, contradictions and all. Through these conversations, I learned how girls have negotiated the cartoons' representations of sexism, strength, intelligence, identity, femininity, and race, and how they related these readings to their everyday lives.

Related videos

The Powerpuff Girls: Mane Event

Kim Possible: Blush (Excerpt)

Related links

(note: links open in a new window)

• Weldon, Fay. (2007). How the Spice Girls have killed feminism, subverted morality, and embarassed us all. The Daily Mail.
• Tumblr: "I'm a feminist because..."