MaryElise.com :: Modern Woman > Book Review: "Girl Culture" by Lauren Greenfield

Beauty & Sex Know No Age
Book Review:
Lauren Greenfield's "Girl Culture"
By: Carolyn Devilbiss
Posted September 2007

"The body has become the primary canvas on which girls express their identities, insecurities, ambitions, and struggles. Women expect to be judged by how they look so some take to that and will never leave the house without looking their best."

“…If you want to do something real with your life and give back to the world and do something intelligent, then I don’t think beauty is power. Uniqueness is power. And creativity is power” states Lillian, a 19 year old featured in Lauren Greenfield’s gripping book, Girl Culture. Lillian is only one of many young women who lent their voices to Greenfield’s insightful look into the meaning of being a woman, past and present.

Any female can relate to the experiences and thoughts expressed in Girl Culture. Females are chained by societies thoughts, forced to conform or become an outcast. Women are supposed to be beautiful sex symbols, thin and voluptuous. The girls in this book are strippers, prom queen’s, medicated teens, actresses, models, teen mothers and children who aren’t even old enough to understand sex. Every one of them has the same worries, problems and fears that all females have all across the world. They worry about being too fat, being ugly, being unpopular and most importantly, they worry about how society sees them.

Greenfield visits a weight-loss camp in New York where teenagers and pre-teens go to “improve themselves”. The people at this camp speak of the pressures of being overweight in a “thin” society and how, even at a weight-loss camp, “the guys go for the thin, pretty girls”. The thinner girls in the camp regard themselves as more popular than the others, though in the same paragraph they mention how in the “real world” they are judged on their weight. On the opposite side of the spectrum, in Coconut Creek, Florida, 24 year old Erin talks about her treatment at an eating-disorder clinic.

At fetus bingo in Inglewood, California, 15 year old Christina tells readers how she got pregnant at 13 from a one night stand with a 26 year old she met on the internet. She was kicked out of her house by her grandmother, who she was living with. After she was taken back in and returned to school the truth about her pregnancy had spread, and she admits to enjoying the attention she was getting. Currently, she is raising a baby girl without any help or support from the baby’s father. She is still in school and plans on finishing her high school diploma and going on to college.

Greenfield speaks to 6 year old Lily who states that she has to dress well or she will be a geek. Her role models are Britney Spears and Madonna because they dress sexy. Where would a 6 year old get these ideas? Why, at 6, should you worry about being pretty and boys?

In Chattanooga, Tennessee, 18 year old Mary talks about being the “epitome of a Southern girl.” You hear of her plans on being a virgin when she gets married and how her husband will be the head of the household. Men should have 100 percent control in any marriage or relationship, according to Mary. She is from family who prides itself on its roots in the south, who believe that being a “Southern belle” is essential for any young lady. You must learn “how to be gracious and how to handle yourself and how to stand up straight.” You must learn how to be “a lady.”

The author ends the book with an entry of her own. Greenfield speaks about being a 6 year old staring in the mirror and realizing she was “unimaginably ugly, and crying hysterically.” Though she is unsure the source of the thought she remembers understanding the shame and sadness of not being the ideal girl. She understood, subconsciously, the value of beauty. The painful transition from girl to teen, marked by the summer she graduated from the kid’s camp to the teen camp. Greenfield states that “the body has become the primary canvas on which girls express their identities, insecurities, ambitions, and struggles.” Women expect to be judged by how they look so some take to that and will never leave the house without looking their best. Others take the opposite approach and do everything in their power to be inconspicuous. And some make certain they are noticed for their individuality, their need to stay as far away from mainstream as possible.

Lauren Greenfield’s book is a must read for women. The photographs in her book are compelling and insightful, adding depth to the thoughts expressed by numerous anonymous women all across the country. As a women myself, it was like a look into the past. I remember feeling what those girls feel, thinking what they think and wishing that I could be thin so people would like me. Girl Culture is an empowering book, if you read it right. Only we, as women, can change how society views us. We just have to start with how we view each other.