PA L A GR VE STUDIES IN LIFE W RIT IN G EMMA MAGUIRE GIRLS, A U T O B I O G R A P H Y, MEDIA Gender and Self-Mediation in Digital Economies SERIES EDITORS: CLARE BRANT AND MAX SAUNDERS Palgrave Studies in Life Writing Series Editors Clare Brant Department of English King’s College London London, UK Max Saunders Department of English King’s College London London, UK This series features books that address key concepts and subjects, with an emphasis on new and emergent approaches It offers specialist but accessible studies of contemporary and historical topics, with a focus on connecting life writing to themes with cross-disciplinary appeal The series aims to be the place to go to for current and fresh research for scholars and students looking for clear and original discussion of specific subjects and forms; it is also a home for experimental approaches that take creative risks with potent materials The term ‘Life Writing’ is takenbroadly so as to reflect the academic, public and global reach of life writing, and to continue its democratic tradition The series seeks contributions that address contexts beyond traditional territories – for instance, in the Middle East, Africa and Asia It also aims to publish volumes addressing topics of general interest (such as food, drink, sport, gardening) with which life writing scholarship can engage in lively and original ways, as well as to further the political engagement of life writing especially in relation to human rights, migration, trauma and repression, sadly also persistently topical themes The series looks for work that challenges and extends how life writing is understood and practised, especially in a world of rapidly changing digital media; that deepens and diversifies knowledge and perspectives on the subject, and which contributes to the intellectual excitement and the world relevance of life writing More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15200 Emma Maguire Girls, Autobiography, Media Gender and Self-Mediation in Digital Economies Emma Maguire James Cook University Townsville, QLD, Australia Palgrave Studies in Life Writing ISBN 978-3-319-74236-6 ISBN 978-3-319-74237-3 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74237-3 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018934696 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018 This work is subject to copyright All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations Cover illustration: Nanette Hoogslag / Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland This book is dedicated to all of the girls and young women who, despite it all, insist on taking up space Acknowledgements A shorter version of Chap appeared in Biography 38.1 (2015); thanks to Lucinda Rasmussen for her extremely valuable editorial comments on that version of the research This work was helped greatly by funding received from the Faculty of Education, Humanities and Law at Flinders University to support my travel to Banff, Canada to attend the International Auto/ Biography Association (IABA) conference in 2014 The faculty and Flinders University both helped to fund a research field trip that I undertook in 2014 to several zine archives in the US, for which I am grateful I have been fortunate to have the support of many others in the process of writing this book Thanks to Camille Davies, Ben Doyle, and all at Palgrave Macmillan To Clare Brant and Max Saunders for our short but valuable conversations at IABA conferences, and also for their work as editors of the Palgrave Studies in Life Writing Series Thanks to Esther Fan, Sara Fan, Olivia Park, Andrew Smales, Jenna Mourey, and Alex Wrekk for giving permission to reprint their images here The IABA community: I owe so much to the wonderful, generous scholars who make this field what it is Especial thanks to Craig Howes for his exemplary leadership—I have never met such an inclusive, tireless, giving, and incisive scholar: we are so lucky to benefit from your knowledge and experience To Julie Rak for her leadership, encouragement, support, and for her scholarship which has been so incredibly influential on my work and thinking To all of the people who watched, asked questions, and offered feedback on conference papers that developed research for vii viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS this book, thank you I would like to offer particular thanks to Paul Arthur, Ash Barnwell, Ricia Chansky, Cynthia Franklin, Rob Gallagher, Emily Hipchen, Claire Lynch, Joel Haffner, Laurie McNeill, and Nicole Matthews And to the organisers of these conferences: Julie Rak (IABA 2014), AmyKaterini Prodromou (IABA 2016), Kate Douglas and Kylie Cardell (IABA Asia-Pacific 2015), Donna Lee Brien (IABA Asia-Pacific 2017), and Clare Brant and Max Saunders (IABA Europe 2017), thank you for all of the work put in by you and your teams These conferences have been so important and so special Thanks also to excellent postgraduates and early career researchers in the IABA community, especially: Ana Horvat, Daniel Juckes, Ümit Kennedy, Sarah McRae, Olga Michael, Marie O’Rourke, Leila Pazargadi, Astrid Rasch, Rachel Spencer, Daniella Trimboli, and Alex Winder To my collaborators and friends Maria Faini and Orly Lael Netzer: I feel so lucky to have been part of creating something special with you both You each continue to inspire and motivate me to good work and fight the good fight My greatest hope is that we continue to find excuses to work together for many years to come To the Flinders Life Narrative Research Group for many workshops, writing lock-ins, and events that contributed to shaping this research To Tully Barnett and Son Vivienne for organising events that I feel very lucky to have taken part in To Larissa Hjorth for her considered and useful feedback on an early iteration of my research on camgirls To Julia Watson for her detailed comments and recommendations on an early version of this project To John Zuern, for your invaluable feedback and encouragement, and your continued generosity and support You are truly one of the good guys To Anna Poletti, who gave extensive and valued feedback and advice, particularly in the early stages of writing, and for whose insightful and incisive conversation I am incredibly grateful Anna, we are so lucky in Auto/Biography Studies, to have your ideas and your voice to move discussion forward Kylie Cardell’s support and enthusiasm for this project has been a vital source of encouragement, and I am grateful for her intellectual rigour which has improved my thinking, writing, and this research Lauren Butterworth, Alicia Carter, and Melanie Pryor: without you, academia (and life) would be much less fun and interesting I am continually awed and inspired by you remarkable women I can’t thank you enough for your friendship and for all of our conversations which have helped shape my ideas and clarify my thinking about gender and culture ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix I cannot adequately express my profound gratitude for the mentorship, wisdom, generosity, support, and friendship of Kate Douglas, from whom I have learned so much To my family: your love, hearty encouragement, and belief in my capabilities has meant the world to me And at last, to my strongest ally and fiercest supporter, Simon Gould, for everything There are no words that can describe what your support means to me and no scale that can measure the impact you have had on my life and work Thank you Contents 1 Introduction: Girls, Autobiography, Media 2 Camgirls: Surveillance and Feminine Embodiment in Lifecasting Practice 27 3 Negotiating the Anti-Girl: Articulating Punk Girlhood in the Online Diary 53 4 Self-Branding and Hotness in the YouTube Video Blogs of Jenna Marbles 83 5 Fangirling as Feminist Auto Assemblage: Tavi Gevinson and Participatory Audienceship 107 6 Sad Asian Girls and Collaborative Auto Assemblage: Mobilising Cross-Platform Collective Life Narratives 139 7 Eyebrows on What? Girls and Viral Economies 157 xi 200 E MAGUIRE Dhir, Amandeep, Ståle Pallesen, Torbjørn Torsheim, and Cecilie Schou Andreassen 2016 Do Age and Gender Differences Exist in Selfie-Related Behaviours? Computers in Human Behaviour 63: 549–555 Douglas, Susan J. 2000 Narcissism as Liberation In The Gender and Consumer Culture Reader, ed Jennifer Scanlon, 267–282 New York: New York University Press Egan, Susanna 2011 Burdens of Proof: Faith, Doubt and Identity in Autobiography Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press Elle Magazine 2016 Meet the Most-Followed Insta-Girls in Australia Elle Australia October http://www.elle.com.au/fashion/most-followedaustralianinstagram-models-9177 Farkas, Rózsa Zita 2015 Whose Bodies Temporary Art Review, August http://temporaryartreview.com/whose-bodies-2/ Fishwick, Carmen 2016 I, Narcissist – Vanity, Social Media, and the Human Condition The Guardian, March 17 https://www.theguardian.com/ world/2016/mar/17/i-narcissist-vanity-social-media-and-the-humancondition Green, André 1986 repr 2005 On Private Madness London: The Hogarth Press Ltd Halpern, Daniel, Sebastián Valenzuela, and James E. Katz 2016 ‘Selfie-ists’ or ‘Narci-selfiers’?: A Cross-Lagged Panel Analysis of Selfie Taking and Narcissism Personality and Individual Differences 97: 98–101 Hunt, Elle 2015 Essena O’Neill Quits Instagram Claiming Social Media ‘Is Not Real Life’ The Guardian, November https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/03/instagram-star-essena-oneillquits-2d-life-to-reveal-true-story-behind-images Instagram, Inc 2017 Instagram iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/instagram/id389801252?mt=8 Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) 2016 [2014] ICA Off-Site: Do You Follow? Art in Circulation #3 ICA, October 17 https://www.ica.art/whatson/ica-site-do-you-follow-art-circulation-3 Jane, Emma A 2014 Your a Ugly, Whorish, Slut Feminist Media Studies 14 (4): 531–546 ——— 2016 Online Misogyny and Feminist Digilantism Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies 30 (3): 284–297 Jansen, Charlotte 2015 From an Instagram Hoax to a Holiday in Pyongyang The Guardian, October 15 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/ oct/15/amalia-ulman-in-north-korea-instagram-hoax-frieze Kim, Eunice, Jung-Ah Lee, Yongjun Sung, and Sejung Marina Choi 2016 Predicting Selfie-Posting Behavior on Social Networking Sites: An Extension of Theory of Planned Behavior Computers in Human Behaviour 62: 116–123 HOAXING INSTAGRAM: AMALIA ULMAN EXPOSES THE TROPES… 201 Kinsey, Cadence 2016 The Instagram Artist Who Fooled Thousands BBC, March http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160307-the-instagramartist-who-fooled-thousands Langmuir, Molly 2016 Amalia Ulman is the First Great Instagram Artist Elle, September 16 http://www.elle.com/culture/art-design/a38857/amaliaulman-instagram-artist/ Larbi, Miranda 2017 Fitness Blogger’s ‘Insta Girl Edit’ Proves That You Can’t Tell What’s Been Edited or Not Anymore Metro, September 10 http:// metro.co.uk/2017/09/10/fitness-bloggers-insta-girl-edit-proves-that-youcant-tell-whats-been-edited-or-not-anymore-6915929/ Lasch, Christopher 1982 The Culture of Narcissism London: Abacus McMaster, Catherine 2016 Performing for the Camera: Is This Art or Pure Self- Indulgence? Westminster World, March http://westminsterworld.com/ performing-for-the-camera-is-this-art-or-pure-self-indulgence/ Meet the Most-Followed Insta-Girls in Australia 2016 Elle Australia, October http://www.elle.com.au/fashion/most-followed-australian-instagrammodels-9177 Moon, Jang Ho, Eunji Lee, Jung-Ah Lee, Tae Rang Choi, and Yongjun Sung 2016 The Role of Narcissism in Self-Promotion on Instagram Personality and Individual Differences 101: 22–25 Moss, Hilary 2015 Chanel vs the Costume Institute, Amal Clooney’s Gown and Naomi Campbell on the Instagirls Blog Post on the New York Times TMagazine, January 30 http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/30/ chanel-vs-costume-institute-amal-clooney-gown-naomi-campbell-instagirls/ Neuendorf, Henri 2016 Tate Modern Taps Instagram Sensation Amalia Ulman for Its Next Major Show Artnet News, January 21 https://news.artnet.com/ exhibitions/amalia-ulman-instagram-tate-modern-410375 Nolan, Emily 2015 Beyond the Filter – The Rise of the Instagirl University Times, November 16 http://www.universitytimes.ie/2015/11/beyondthe-filter-the-rise-of-the-instagirl/ Okwodu, Janelle 2016 Kendall, Gigi, Bella, and the Year in Insta-Girls Vogue, December 20 https://www.vogue.com/article/2016-insta-girls-instagramfashions-new-normal-kendall-jenner-gigi-hadid Romm, Robin 2017 Double Bind: Woman on Ambition New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation Saad, Nardine 2014 Forget Supermodels It’s Now All About the ‘Instagirls’ The Sydney Morning Herald, August 19 http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/fashion/forget-supermodels-its-now-all-about-the-instagirls-20140819-3dxs4 html Salon Digital Talk: Instagram as an Artistic Medium 2015 YouTube, January 20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8PHAtm9Buk 202 E MAGUIRE Sharkey, Linda 2015 Naomi Campbell Hits Out: Supermodels vs Instagirls The Independent, January 27 http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/ features/naomi-campbell-hits-out-supermodels-vs-instagirls-10005837.html Shaw, Adrienne 2014 The Internet Is Full of Jerks, Because the World Is Full of Jerks: What Feminist Theory Teaches Us About the Internet Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 11 (3): 273–277 Sheldon, Pavica, and Katherine Bryant 2016 Instagram: Motives for Its Use and Relationship to Narcissism and Contextual Age Computers in Human Behaviour 58: 89–97 Shenn, Kinza 2017 Keeping Up with the Instagirls i-D, April 19 https://i-d vice.com/en_uk/article/8xq48a/keeping-up-with-the-instagirls Smith, Sidonie and Julia Watson, eds 2002 Interfaces: Women, Autobiography, Image, Performance Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press Sooke, Alastair 2016 Is This the First Instagram Masterpiece? The Telegraph, January 18 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/photography/what-to-see/is-thisthe-first-instagram-masterpiece/ Sorokowski, P., A. Sorokowska, A. Oleszkiewicz, T. Frackowiak, A. Huk, and K. Pisanski 2015 Selfie Posting Behaviors Are Associated with Narcissism Among Men Personality and Individual Differences 85: 123–127 Sorokowski, Piotr, Agnieszka Sorokowska, Tomasz Frackowiak, Maciej Karwowski, Irmina Rusicka, and Anna Oleszkiewicz 2016 Sex Differences in Online Selfie Posting Behaviors Predict Histrionic Personality Scores Among Men But Not Women Computers in Human Behaviour 59: 368–373 Tait, Amelia 2017 The Fake Kids of Instagram? Behind the Backlash Against the Internet Famous New Statesman, July 12 https:// w w w n e w s t a t e s m a n c o m / s c i e n c e - t e c h / s o c i a l - m e d i a / / / fake-kids-instagram-behind-backlash-against-internet-famous Taylor, Trey 2015 Amalia Ulman: Meme Come True Dazed, February 25 http://www.dazeddigital.com/ar tsandculture/ar ticle/23700/1/ amalia-ulman-meme-come-true Twenge, Jean M., and W. Keith Campbell 2009 The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement New York: Free Press Tyler, Imogen 2005 Who Put the ‘Me’ in Feminism? The Sexual Politics of Narcissism Feminist Theory (1): 25–44 ——— 2007 From ‘The Me Decade’ to ‘The Me Millennium’: The Cultural History of Narcissism International Journal of Cultural Studies 10 (3): 343–363 Ulman, Amalia 2014a Excellences and Perfections https://www.instagram.com/ amaliaulman/ Accessed 10 Oct 2017 ——— 2014b Instagram Post, May 11 https://www.instagram.com/p/ n0tU4BlV8-/?hl=en&taken-by=amaliaulman Accessed 10 Oct 2017 ——— 2014c Instagram Post, June 20 https://www.instagram.com/p/ pdbufLlV3e/?hl=en&taken-by=amaliaulman Accessed 10 Oct 2017 HOAXING INSTAGRAM: AMALIA ULMAN EXPOSES THE TROPES… 203 ——— 2014d Instagram Post, June 25 https://www.instagram.com/p/ poZqEllV04/?hl=en&taken-by=amaliaulman Accessed 10 Oct 2017 ——— 2014e Instagram Post, July https://www.instagram.com/p/ qGUMyRlVxL/?hl=en&taken-by=amaliaulman Accessed 10 Oct 2017 ——— 2014f Instagram Post, July Gottemcakes https://www.instagram com/p/qNDFxGlV6N/?hl=en&taken-by=amaliaulman Accessed 10 Oct 2017 ——— 2014g Instagram Post, July 18 https://www.instagram.com/p/ qjzmthlVyc/?hl=en&taken-by=amaliaulman Accessed 10 Oct 2017 ——— 2014h Instagram Post, August 14 https://www.instagram.com/p/ rrUG3QlV78/?hl=en&taken-by=amaliaulman Accessed 10 Oct 2017 ——— 2014i Instagram Post, August 24 https://www.instagram.com/p/ sCsHF8FV5j/?hl=en&taken-by=amaliaulman Accessed 10 Oct 2017 ——— 2014j Instagram Post, August https://www.instagram.com/p/ rcBXSLlV-R/?hl=en&taken-by=amaliaulman Accessed 10 Oct 2017 ——— 2014k Instagram Post, September 14 https://www.instagram.com/p/ s65tHOlV35/?hl=en&taken-by=amaliaulman Accessed 10 Oct 2017 ——— 2016 Instagram Post, September 16 https://www.instagram.com/p/ BKZjerkAkF9/?taken-by=amaliaulman Accessed 10 Oct 2017 Video in Common 2014 Amalia Ulman in Conversation with Dr Cadence Kinsey Video in Common http://video.incommon.org.uk/projects/27/ Accessed 10 Oct 2017 Whitford, Margaret 2007 Irigaray and the Culture of Narcissism Returning to Irigaray: Feminist Philosophy, Politics, and the Question of Unity Ed by Maria C Cimitile and Elaine P Miller Albany: State University of New York Press Williams, Zoe 2016 Me! Me! Me! Are We Living Through a Narcissism Epidemic? The Guardian, March https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/ mar/02/narcissism-epidemic-self-obsession-attention-seeking-oversharing Accessed 10 Oct 2017 CHAPTER Conclusion What are the political consequences of a commoditized relation among subjects who are defined not as actors in history but as persons who shop and feel? Lauren Berlant The epigraph to this final section articulates a central concern of this research project In my first year as a PhD student I became enamoured with Berlant’s tricky, complex theorising and this passage from The Female Complaint (2008) struck me so strongly that I wrote it out and pinned it above my desk There it looked out at me for the next three years during which its meaning blurred into the background scenery, commingling with the daily office clutter It was eventually packed away in a box In coming back to my research and reformulating it for this book, I found the scrap of paper and considered the tidily handwritten phrase anew The question of how contemporary subjects understand themselves within the twin logics of commodification and intimacy pervades Berlant’s conceptualisation of intimate publics, which has been taken up enthusiastically by scholars of auto/biography (see Jolly 2011) The ways in which intimate publics function to connect personal and political ideas through affective attachments and modes of understanding the self have particular relevance to autobiographical writing, which “makes many people feel connected” and “connects individual feelings to group ideas” (Rak 2013, 33) © The Author(s) 2018 E Maguire, Girls, Autobiography, Media, Palgrave Studies in Life Writing, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74237-3_9 205 206 E MAGUIRE The digital and commercial contexts that I have examined have particular consequences and pressures that shape representations of youthful femininity as marketable products embedded in networks of cultural consumption, and they raise questions around contemporary girls’ life narrative: How girls market their self-presentations among a superfluity of selves, lives, and stories available for consumption? How are girls and their autobiographical texts positioned in relation to judgements of cultural value? And what kind of strategies are girls employing to navigate hostile or sexist pressures in order to mediate girl selfhoods? This book has considered how girl autobiographers have mediated their selves and lives in a range of self-published, digital forms I have been particularly interested in how young women’s automedial selves are constituted and consumed as literary or media products in a digital landscape dominated by intimate, though quite public, modes of self-disclosure These narratives are valuable because they show us how girls, as marginalised and objectified cultural subjects, can demonstrate agency and create empowering narratives of subjectivity But they are also valuable for showing when such practices fail, or for illuminating textual situations where empowerment is out of reach or under pressure The girls’ texts that I have examined here make visible some of the complexities around mediating young, feminine subjectivities and my case studies illuminate a host of urgent topics that surround girls’ autobiographical practices in digital contexts For example: the negotiations around asserting girlhood in male- dominated subcultures such as punk; the pressures of YouTube that encourage young women to self-brand as hot products; the way fangirling can empower girls to participate in meaning-making around popular texts, and how girls use these cultural texts to articulate and formulate their own identities; how young women are using media sites to experiment with collective forms of identity and to engage in activism using automedia; the value of Black girlhood as a potentially “viral” commodity, and the flows of capital that exploit young Black creators; and the ways that innovative young women are putting social photo-sharing sites to use as venues for art in order to question constructions of authenticity and feminine identity expected by their audiences This project has examined several different forms of girls’ autobiographical media but none of them have been books It has been a welcome challenge for me, as a literary researcher, to apply life narrative theory beyond the book There is a body of work that has emerged in the field of Auto/Biography Studies which aims to extend the tools and reach of Life CONCLUSION 207 Writing Studies to include a diversity of media forms, and in many ways this kind of research was ignited by the approaches assembled in Getting a Life: Everyday Uses of Autobiography, edited by Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson in 1996 Since that time, digital media has pervaded the everyday landscapes and occasions through which people go about the business of “rehearsing, performing, circulating, and consuming carefully fashioned and rapidly interspersed identity fragments” (Smith and Watson 1996, 21) Anna Poletti and Julie Rak’s (2014) collection Identity Technologies: Constructing the Self Online, as well as the special edition of Biography on “Online Lives 2.0”, edited by John Zuern and Laurie McNeill (2015), both assemble a wave of scholarship invested in adapting the tools of Life Narrative Studies and applying them to increasingly significant digital contexts The Media Studies journal Persona Studies is, too, concerned with how practices of mediation impact upon life narration This book on girls’ automedia is part of this wider scholarly concern I have argued that reading young women’s autobiographical practice within a framework of automedia reveals how their constructions of selfhood are positioned within broader cultural discourses as well as within literary and media landscapes The texts that I have explored make visible a range of textual strategies employed by girl authors as they narrate girlhood selves against a culture in which their voices are marginalised, even if their bodies are highly visible The postfeminist media landscape from which these texts have emerged has exerted pressure upon girls, their self- representations, and the responses to their self-made texts At the present moment, which is seeing a resurgence of feminist criticism and debate beyond the academy, girls are taking up and participating in cultural conversations about selfhood, feminism, and power A large part of this conversation is taking shape online against a background of self-branding and commodification of digital selves The research I have presented here reflects and draws from this media context Girls’ online self-representations, and the digital communities in which they circulate, compel scholars to reconsider how we think about life narrative as literary and cultural production In thinking about how girlhood, as a potentially vulnerable subject position, circulates as a commodity in digital autobiographical media, I have suggested that we might read these texts as negotiations of subjectivity In using digital technologies to write themselves into culture on the margins, girls are staking a claim on public space and asserting the right to create and distribute their own r epresentations of girlhood Their texts show how they navigate this territory and its pressures in order to become narrators of their own lives and stories 208 E MAGUIRE Looking forward, this research anticipates further enquiry into digital modes of girls’ self-representation, and opens up ways to consider how girls’ mediation of their selves and lives changes and shapes what can be represented Social media is one context that is emerging as a site of autobiographical mediation attracting scholarly attention, and looking at these popular forms of life narration as digital texts reveals them as richly layered cultural material that can be analysed There is room for more textual analysis of media forms that have previously been perceived as non-literary, marginal, or purely “social”, such as photo-sharing apps like Snapchat, micro-blogging platforms (Twitter and Facebook), and other digital spaces like gaming forums and broad-based discussion forums like Reddit that coax users to create and assemble selves that perform for, respond to, and engage with audiences or communities There is room here to more genre work around the kinds of auto/biographical practices that are emerging online: How does genre shape the kinds of sociality enabled by different kinds of social media? How genres enable (and disable) forms of gendered selfhood? Sites of self-representation that become increasingly commoditised provide rich spaces for investigation of how selves are produced, consumed, and branded in a market that is hungry for “authentic” representations of “real” lives I also hope that this research encourages scholars to ask Where are the girls? in certain auto/biographical forums If girls are not visible, why not? Are we looking hard enough to find and examine the autobiographical work of young women? As new technologies emerge, girls will face new challenges and will put new tools to use to represent themselves The research that I have presented here works towards a growing body of interdisciplinary research that seeks to theorise the manifold ways that people use media to create selves, negotiate identities, and—ultimately— to get a life Works Cited Berlant, Lauren 2008 The Female Complaint: The Unfinished Business of Sentimentality in American Culture Durham: Duke University Press Jolly, Margaretta, ed 2011 Life Writing as Intimate Publics Special Issue of Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly 34 (1): v–xi McNeill, Laurie and John Zuern, eds 2015 Online Lives 2.0 Special Issue of Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly 38 (2) CONCLUSION 209 Poletti, Anna, and Julie Rak, eds 2014 Identity Technologies: Constructing the Self Online Madison: University of Wisconsin Press Rak, Julie 2013 Boom! Manufacturing Memoir in the Popular Market Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press Smith, Sidonie, and Julia Watson 1996 Getting a Life: Everyday Uses of Autobiography Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press Index1 A Aesthetics and authenticity, 36, 38, 160 and femininity, 36, 178 of the early Internet, 35 Affect, 35, 205 Affordances, 5, 14, 85, 87, 159, 171, 185 African American Vernacular English (AAVE), 167, 168 Agency, 3, 47, 67, 100, 132, 142, 197, 206 Anacam, 27, 31, 40, 41, 44, 45 Andrejevic, Mark Bardeen, 34, 35, 39, 40, 44 Archive, 27, 28, 31, 37, 40, 41, 46, 47, 144, 152–154, 159, 171n2, 185 Art and autobiography, 5, 16, 179, 195–197 and embodiment, 36, 40–43, 45, 49 and gatekeeping, 176 and resistance, 141 institutions, 149, 150, 152 women artists, 30, 45, 48, 151, 152, 165, 181, 188, 194, 196, 197 Audiences, 1, 7, 13, 14, 17, 28–49, 54, 74, 77, 83–85, 87, 89, 90, 93–96, 98, 100, 101, 110, 111, 117, 119, 123, 124, 130, 140–142, 144, 145, 148–151, 153, 160, 162, 164, 165, 168–171, 176, 179, 181–186, 189, 195, 196, 198, 206, 208 Authenticity as aesthetic effect, 38, 160 as autobiographical strategy, 181 and celebrity, 36–40 as suspect, 12, 186 online, 36, 179, 181, 185 Auto assemblage, 107–133, 139–154 Note: Page numbers followed by ‘n’ denotes note © The Author(s) 2018 E Maguire, Girls, Autobiography, Media, Palgrave Studies in Life Writing, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74237-3 211 212 INDEX Autobiographical “I”s, 12, 14, 148 Automedia definition of, 21 examples of, 21, 38, 84, 85, 87, 89, 206 genres, 3, 21, 22, 140, 169, 194 strategies, 3, 22, 30, 101, 107, 111, 126, 131, 142, 143, 146 B Banet-Weiser, Sarah, 17, 22n4, 88, 89, 91, 182 Baran, Madeleine, see Dental, Maddy Berlant, Lauren, 55, 69, 70, 187, 192, 205–208 Big Brother, 17, 34 Blogs, 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, 14, 18–20, 22n4, 83–101, 116, 117, 124, 128, 139, 140, 143, 144, 148, 181 Bodies, see Embodiment Boyd, danah, 18, 36 Brainscan, 53–55, 59–61, 63, 65, 68, 70, 71, 73–77, 79n2, 79n9 Bruns, Axel, 87, 102n2, 124, 157 C Camgirls as artists, 29, 44, 48, 189 definition of, 30, 34, 35, 47 as pioneers, 29, 32, 48 and pornography, 30, 35, 44 Capitalism, 161, 189 Cardell, Kylie, 73, 74, 148, 198n1 Chatting (online), 32, 37 Coaxing, 3, 16 Cody, Diablo, 22n1, 23n6 Collaboration, 140–146, 152 Collective life narrative, 139–154 Commodification of the self, 179 Community, 3, 10, 13, 18, 19, 22n4, 36, 48, 54, 71, 74, 77, 78, 80n9, 87–89, 100, 102n5, 111–116, 118–120, 123–126, 130, 132, 139, 140, 142, 144, 145, 153, 154, 158, 161–163, 167, 168, 170, 181, 207, 208 Cruel optimism, 55, 69–71, 187 Currie, Dawn H., 10, 65 D Dailiness, 71 De Kosnik, Abigail, 114 Dental, Maddy, 54, 58, 59, 69, 70, 78, 79n3 Diaries as feminine, 77 online, 3, 19, 53–79 and privacy, 74, 77 DiaryLand, 53, 54, 70–73, 77 Digital archaeology, 30–32 Dobson, Amy Shields, 17 Douglas, Kate, Driscoll, Catherine, 5, 6, 18, 22n2, 65 E Embodiment, 27–49, 149–152, 194 Exhibitionism, 43, 191 Exploitation, 163, 165–168, 171 F Facebook, 20, 36, 83, 84, 87, 89, 93, 94, 96, 112, 158, 159, 162, 165, 175, 208 Fan, Esther, 112, 139–150, 152–154 Fans and automedia, 111, 121 INDEX fanboys, 112, 113, 133n5 fandom, 107, 108, 110–116, 118–120, 126, 131, 133n4, 133n5, 133n9 fangirls, 3, 19, 22n4, 101, 107–133 online, 108 Feminism, 7, 11, 18, 19, 54, 65–67, 125, 129, 130, 207 Florini, Sarah, 167, 169 Frank, Anne, 22n1, 23n5 G Gaze, 29, 32, 43–47, 49, 93, 118, 119, 131, 132, 153, 197 Genres, 3, 14, 15, 21, 22, 34, 74, 77, 85, 102n8, 140, 160, 166, 169, 171n2, 185, 186, 188, 194, 208 Gevinson, Tavi, 107–133, 143 Gilmore, Leigh, 14 Girlhood anti-girl, 53–79 boundaries of, 121–122 as a commodity, 13, 65, 84, 158, 171, 206, 207 friendship, 53, 62, 63, 76, 77 as identity, 108, 129 and media making, 10, 12, 120 and subjectivity, 13, 55, 70, 71, 84 Google, 31, 163, 164 GQ Magazine, 108–111, 133n3 Green, André, 193, 194 Greene, K.J., 164, 165 H Harris, Anita, 10, 17 Hegemony, 70–78 Hoax, 38, 176, 179, 182, 186, 188, 196, 197 Hotness, 83–101 Huhtamo, Erkki, 32 213 I Identity, and authenticity, 10, 12, 179, 206 and resistance, 55, 78, 149 construction (see self-construction) online, 33, 167 play, 32 tourism, 32 Instagram, 5, 17, 19–21, 36, 83–85, 89, 93, 96, 98, 102n6, 140, 152, 159, 160, 164, 171, 175–198 Intellectual property, 162–165, 167, 171 Internet activism, see Online activism Intersectionality, Intimacy, 32, 36, 48, 49, 74, 205 Iyer, Pico, 126 J Jenkins, Henry, 89, 114–116, 120, 121 JenniCAM, 27, 28, 31, 36, 39, 40, 47 Jimroglou, Krissi M., 44 Jurgenson, Nathan, 150 K Kardashian, Kim, 164, 198n2 Kearney, Mary Celeste, 5, 10, 120 Keller, Jessalynn, 10, 118, 125 Kraus, Chris, 44, 45, 48, 130, 189 L Lasch, Christopher, 192 Leblanc, Lorraine, 8, 54, 57, 58, 65, 69, 70, 78 Lejeune, Philippe, 85 Levy, Ariel, 84, 91, 92 Life narrative, 5, 8, 11, 13, 14, 19, 21, 27–30, 35, 74, 107, 128, 139–154, 177, 181, 182, 196, 206, 207 214 INDEX Life writing, 3, 10, 11, 14, 15, 20, 21, 29, 141, 196 Lifecasting, 27–49 Liveness, 28, 33 M Marbles, Jenna, 83–101, 102n6 Marginality of girlhood, and identity, 141 of media forms, 16 Markets, 13, 16–18, 22, 23n7, 34, 84, 85, 87–89, 91, 101, 125, 142, 161, 183, 195, 206, 208 Marwick, Alice, 17, 36 Masculinity, 57, 70, 112 Materiality, 20, 59 McNeill, Laurie, 23n8, 71, 77, 87, 207 Media and autobiography, 1–22 and gender, 9, 179, 190 forms, 2, 3, 9, 10, 16, 18, 34, 140, 207, 208 mainstream, 3, 33, 34, 43, 89, 98, 110, 116, 125 making, 10, 120 marginal, 16 networked, 2, 83 Memoir, 5, 16, 22n1, 23n6, 85, 134n10, 141, 148 Miller, Daniel, 32, 33, 36 Misogyny, 7, 8, 55, 56, 62, 78, 110 Mobile technology, 162 Morrison, Aimée, 85, 96, 162 Mourey, Jenna, see Marbles, Jenna, 92 N Nakamura, Lisa, 32, 90, 102n3, 169 Narcissism, 30, 43–45, 49, 171, 179, 187–195, 197, 198n3 Networked social media, 178 Networks as community, 116 and markets, 13 Newman, Kayla, 158, 160, 161, 163–165, 167–171 Nguyen, Mimi, 64 O Objectification, 45, 84, 189 Online activism, 141, 145, 154n3 Online diary, 53–79 P Parikka, Jussi, 32 Park, Olivia, 139–150, 152–154 Peaches Munroee, see Newman, Kayla Persona, 36, 73, 85, 93, 96, 177, 185 Personal narrative, 11, 15, 74 Photography, 45, 60, 117, 160, 181, 188, 189 Piepmeier, Alison, 11, 65 Poletti, Anna, viii, 11, 108, 126–128, 140, 143, 144, 207 Pornography, 30, 35, 44 Produsage, 89 Punk, 8, 53–79, 79n1 R Race, 9, 64, 140, 142, 157, 158, 166, 168, 169, 178, 198n4 Rak, Julie, vii, viii, 20, 21, 140, 205, 207 Reality market for, 16 media, 17, 198n2 as suspect, 186 television, 16, 34, 39 Remixing, 120, 132 Ringley, Jennifer, 27–32, 34–40, 43–49, 198n2 INDEX Riot Grrrl, 11, 64–67, 69, 76, 79n8, 80n10 Rookie Mag, 108, 116, 117, 122, 123, 125, 133n8 S Sad Asian Girls (SAG), 139–154, 154n1 St Felix, Doreen, 157, 158, 162 Sandvoss, Cornel, 119 Self-branding, 22n4, 44, 48, 83–101, 125, 160, 179–188, 207 Selfies, 1, 36, 84, 175–178, 184, 185, 189–191, 197 Self-presentation and commodification, 179, 185 and embodiment, 49 online, 29, 179, 197 strategies for, 10, 84 Self-representation, see Self-presentation Senft, Theresa M., 29, 36, 37, 40, 43, 44, 170 Sexuality, 4, 15, 17, 42, 47, 57, 84, 91, 94, 101, 110, 131, 132 Shields, David, 16 Shriver, Lionel, 165, 166 Sinanan, Jolynna, 32, 33, 36 Skype, 32 Smith, Sidonie, 8, 9, 11–15, 20, 29, 30, 38, 141, 142, 181, 193, 207 Snapchat, 181, 185, 198n1, 208 Space, 3–5, 7–9, 18, 19, 28, 32, 33, 35, 36, 39, 40, 43, 46–49, 55, 56, 58, 61, 68, 71, 74, 77, 78, 83–85, 87, 89–92, 96, 97, 101, 108, 112, 115, 123–127, 130–132, 133n6, 139, 141, 142, 144–146, 149–153, 157, 159, 167, 169, 178, 179, 181, 182, 193, 197, 207, 208 215 Speaking back, 87, 90, 141–146, 152–154 Specular economy, 47 Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty, 145 Steiner, Peter, 33 Style Rookie, 116, 117, 124 Subcultures, 8, 54–57, 60, 63, 64, 68–70, 206 Sugg, Zoe, 111 Surveillance, 27–49, 119, 191 T Tumblr, 19, 93, 96, 98, 110, 112, 143, 144, 159 Tyler, Imogen, 191–193, 197 U Ulman, Amalia, 36, 175–198, 198n4 V Video, 3, 83–101, 117, 139, 175 Vine, 5, 96, 102n6, 158–164, 167, 169–171, 171n1 Viral media, 157, 158, 161, 168 Visibility, 27–30, 32, 33, 43–47, 49, 91, 125, 144, 160, 164, 168, 169, 192 Visual media, 37 Vivienne, Sonja, viii, 169, 171n4 Voog, Ana, 27, 29–32, 34–36, 40–49 W Watson, Julia, viii, 11, 12, 15, 20, 29, 30, 38, 141, 142, 181, 193, 207 Wayback Machine, 27, 28, 31, 37, 40, 153 Web Journal, see Online diary 216 INDEX Webcam girls, see Camgirls Webcams, 3, 14, 27–43, 45–48, 122 Weissman, Aerlyn, 47 Whitford, Margaret, 193, 194 Whitlock, Gillian, 108, 126–128, 141–144 Wilke, Hannah, 44–46, 189 Wrekk, Alex, vii, 53–79, 79–80n9 Writing back, 142 Y YouTube, 10, 20, 83–85, 87–89, 91, 98, 102n6, 139, 159, 163, 170 Z Zines, 5, 10–12, 14, 53–56, 59–64, 66, 67, 69–78, 79n7, 79–80n9 Zuern, John, viii, 23n8, 207 ... comes into play in emerging modes of enacting selfhood and “living” digitally Youth and Femininity in the Contemporary Digital Landscape I am interested in the kinds of subjectivities emerging... between confounding and conforming to dominant ideologies of race and gender Examining these representations brings to light the struggle sometimes involved in presenting a young, feminine self What... to be in the process of constructing a feminine gender identity as a young person Of course, gender is something we construct all the time, again and again in our daily acts, behaviours, and performances