Peer relations as arenas for gender constructions among young teenagers

Abstract

This article addresses themes of development among young teenagers. Children aged 12 and 13 were followed up on a regular basis. The girls' vivid accounts on negotiations and reorganisations in their joint, field of peers aroused interest in their developmental efforts. Consequently, the practices and discourses connected with the personal and social project of growing older as a girl in her social and cultural context form the main focus of analysis. The girls' exploring of culturally approved developmental pathways brought them into the sphere of heterosexuality. Activities, interests and ways of being oneself seemed to be irrigated by the ideas of being part of a romantic couple as this is made in a modern, western way. To grow as girls, they had to take these developmental standards into consideration, even though many of them resisted or tried to get around them. The ways the children move ‘forward’ are basically gendered. Sociocultural theories are well suited to approach human development as gendered processes, even though this advantage has not been fully exploited so far. Constructionist/poststructuralist approaches, which include a wide array of gender studies, will thus serve as a fruitful methodological extension in this article.

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