ABSTRACT
This chapter sets the theoretical terrain and methodological strategies mapped in the previous chapters into motion, exploring how girls are navigating contradictory postfeminist discourses of girlhood. In contrast to the mythologies of ‘successful’ schoolgirls who have magically escaped their feminine bodies (Kindlon, 2006), I will explore a competitive ‘heterosexualised matrix’ (Butler, 1997) of power relations constituting school-based teen girls' relationships. I illustrate the primary importance of the sexualised feminine body in friendship groups, documenting some of the conflicts that are staged in managing transitions into heterosexual dating cultures at school.
