ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how girls' musical agency often takes a back seat to the heterosexual relationship at the centre of mainstream teen films. It focuses on All Over Me, an independent film with a lesbian protagonist, to understand how girls' musical agency is affected when successfully coupling with the male love interest is no longer the primary narrative goal. This film tells the story of Claude (Alison Folland), a teenage girl struggling to come to terms with her sexuality and the fact that her best friend, Ellen (Tara Subkoff), will never be in love with her. The film deals with female friendship and lesbian sexuality straightforwardly, it must nevertheless navigate the complications of representing a queer character in a still homophobic society. Claude's actions call to mind the gendered history of rock 'n' roll music, and her reappropriation of the "technophallus" comments on the masculine connotations that accompany playing the rock star.
