I attended a fascinating conference over the weekend, hosted at Warwick University. It was an interdisciplinary conference which drew on research from historians, literature buffs, academics studying film or television, people with a background in cultural studies and many others. The conference 'Let's Hear it for the Girls' focused on Girlhood, Media and Popular Culture, 1990 - Present and explored, among other things, representations of contemporary girlhood. The papers were a fascinating and eclectic mix, exploring contemporary girlhood against a historical backdrop, sexuality, class and politics (in the context of discourses on girlhood), postfeminist media culture, mediating the body – the fleshy and the digital, feminism and fandom, from riot grrrls to larry shippers and images of girlhood in popular culture.
I was there to present my own paper on Young Adult fiction, looking at the LGBTQ representation in Young Adult fiction and focusing on a couple of books in particular to chart the changes over the decades - beginning with Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden and concluding with The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily Danforth and Keeping You a Secret by Julie Anne Peters. I framed the discussion in the context of the quote from David Levithan's Two Boys Kissing: "...just because it's better now, doesn't mean that it's always good" and I have since been pondering on my own paper and general discussions with other attendees which I wanted to touch upon in this post.
I was there to present my own paper on Young Adult fiction, looking at the LGBTQ representation in Young Adult fiction and focusing on a couple of books in particular to chart the changes over the decades - beginning with Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden and concluding with The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily Danforth and Keeping You a Secret by Julie Anne Peters. I framed the discussion in the context of the quote from David Levithan's Two Boys Kissing: "...just because it's better now, doesn't mean that it's always good" and I have since been pondering on my own paper and general discussions with other attendees which I wanted to touch upon in this post.