Research Paper on:
Social Forces and Girl Cultures

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
English major to graduate without ever having once been required to read a novel written for an audience of girls. Likewise, a history major can graduate without knowing anything  about how girls have been socialized in the US over the past several centuries, and an anthropology or sociology major, even a major in American Studies, can earn a degree  without ever considering the place of girls within Western culture (Inness, 1998). As this denotes, the idea that girls culture is lacking in importance is remarkably tenacious. Nevertheless, over  the past decade, scholarly interest has begun to focus on girls culture and the social forces that shape and mold the lives of girls. Girls culture is a  broad field. It can refer to the culture that girls themselves make, such as girl-created zines and other items manufactured by girls., or it can to the countless of  mass-produced commodities, books, television shows, magazines, dolls, etc, that are manufactured by adults and targeted to girl consumers (Inness, 1998). While some girl culture studies have focused on the  beginnings of a separate girl culture in the nineteenth century, it is in the twentieth century that girls culture began really gain in significance. Inness writes that whether it is  a "Cabbage Patch doll, a Nancy Drew novel, a recent edition of Seventeen magazine or a television show...the commodities of girls culture" in the twentieth century possessed the power to  "reach millions of consumers" (1998, p. 5). Although girls are socialized in numerous ways, this discussion will narrow the focus of "girl culture" to look specifically at how toys  are marketed to girl consumers. Scanlon (1998) points out that the least gender-specific toys and games marketed today are those for babies and toddlers. In the section of a store