Texting girls: images,sounds, and words in neoliberal cultures of femininity

This introductory essay provides an overview of the arguments and premises of this special issue, Texting Girls: Images, Sounds, and Words in Neoliberal Cultures of Femininity. Situated within the recent historical conjuncture in which “girls” (and all that is suggested by the term) have an unprecedented cultural visibility, the essay argues that the figure of the girl is coerced into performing forms of symbolic work within neoliberalism that displaces and contains the corrosive effects of capitalism unbound. Drawing from recent work in Girl Studies and Feminist Theory, the introduction demonstrates that this work relies upon a long-standing conflation of girls and commodification, which supports “girlphobic” constructions in both pro-capitalist stances and anti-capitalist critiques.