ABSTRACT
For the last decade, young girls in the United States have been told by the advocacy organization Girls, Inc., to be “Strong, smart and bold.” Meanwhile, sneaker giant Nike’s memorable ad campaign tells girls and women to “Just do it.” And most girls raised in the wake of the 1976 bestseller Free to Be…You and Me were told by parents and teachers, “You can be whatever you want.” These sound bites challenged girls to rise to their potential-which girls certainly did, as witnessed by how many of them play sports and say they want to be president when they grow up. But it also left them confused. Confused because these messages boiled down to integrating themselves into a male world and proving they could do masculine things. We argue that it is a progression of feminism that younger “third-wave” women (and men) are embracing girlieness as well as power.
