Routledge Girls, Aggression, and Intersectionality: Transforming the Discourse of "Mean Girls" in the United States (Routledge Research in Gender and Society)

From media images of "mean girls" to the disproportionate punishment of Black, Latina and/or queer girls in schools and the justice system, female aggression has become a public concern. Scholars, educators, policymakers and parents are scrambling to respond to the perceived upsurge in girls’ bullying, peer pressure, and aggression/violence. Girls, Aggression and Intersectionality examines how intersecting social identities – such as race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, age, and others - shape media representations of, and criminal justice reactions to, female aggression. The book focuses on three overarching questions: How do race, class, and/or sexuality influence media images of female aggression? How do aggressive girls’ intersecting identities affect law enforcement and criminal justice responses to their aggression? How are diverse groups of girls trying to resist their labelling and criminalization? Using intersectionality as a conceptual framework, this insightful volume deconstructs a unitary analysis of "female aggression" and transforms the mainstream discourse that paints girls as inherently "mean." Girls, Aggression and Intersectionality will appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as postdoctoral researchers, interested in fields including Gender Studies, Women’s Studies, Youth Studies, Criminology and Media and Culture. Review   Girls, Aggression and Intersectionality steps into the "mean girl" hype prepared for battle, directly confronting damaging assumptions and stereotypes. Readers will come away with newfound clarity and fierce loyalty to girls who must fight their way through a potent and troubling morass of sexism, racism, classism, and homophobia for the visibility, respect, and dignity they deserve. This book is mandatory for anyone working with girls, but especially those on the front-lines of education and criminal justice. Lyn Mikel Brown, Professor of Education, Colby College, and author of Girlfighting: Betrayal and Rejection Among Girls Girls, Aggression and Intersectionality is an impressive effort to analyze young women’s violence, and the hype surrounding it, through an intersectional lens. McQueeney and Girgenti-Malone have brought together a distinguished group of scholars who illuminate these intersections in new and important ways. A must read for those of us who hope to intercede on the criminalization of girls―in the justice system and the public imagination. Jody Miller, Distinguished Professor, Rutgers School of Criminal Justice, and author of Getting Played: African American Girls, Urban Inequality, and Gendered Violence Girls, Aggression and Intersectionality is essential reading for scholars and students, and anyone in need of an intersectionalized understanding of "why girls fight." This volume is a comprehensive and skillful intersectional treatment of aggressive and assaultive behaviors committed by girls and young women. This volume provides necessary and up-to-date critical conceptualization of aggressive and assaultive behaviors committed by girls and young women, paying particular attention to the multiple intersecting identities of girls. The chapters in this volume provide rigorous inquiry and analysis to combat misinformed and stereotypical beliefs frequently perpetuated through popular and social media about all girls and young women, but especially about girls of Color, LGBTQ girls, and girls living with minimal financial resources. Hillary Potter, Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies, University of Colorado at Boulder, and author of Intersectionality and Criminology: Disrupting and Revolutionizing Studies of Crime About the Author Krista McQueeney is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, Criminology & Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, USA Alicia Girgenti-Malone is Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Merrimack College, USA