Girl power and 'selfie humanitarianism'

The aim of this article is to examine the ‘turn to the girl’ and the mobilization of ‘girl power’ in contemporary global humanitarian and development campaigns. The paper argues that the ‘girl powering’ of humanitarianism is connected to the simultaneous depoliticization, corporatization, and neo-liberalization of both humanitarianism and girl power. Located in broad discussions of campaigns around Malala, Chime for Change and the Girl Effect, the paper seeks to understand the construction of girls as both ideal victims and ideal agents of change, and to examine the implications of this. It suggests that this shift is intertwined with what we call ‘selfie humanitarianism’ in which helping others is intimately connected to entrepreneurial projects of the self, and is increasingly figured less in terms of redistribution or justice than in terms of a makeover of subjectivity for all concerned. The structure of the paper is as follows. First we consider the literature about the depoliticization of humanitarian campaigns in the context of neoliberalism and the growing significance of corporate actors in the world of international aid and disaster relief. Next we examine similar processes in the commodification and export of discourses of ‘girl power’. We then argue that these have come together in the emerging ‘girl powering of development’ (Koffman and Gill 2013), a cocktail of celebratory ‘girlafestoes’ and empowerment strategies often spread virally via social media; celebrity endorsements; and corporate branding which stress that ‘I matter and so does she’ and elide the differences between pop stars and CEO of multinational corporations on the one hand, and girls growing up poor in the global South on the other. Our paper focuses on contemporary examples from the Girl Up campaign. The paper argues that far from being ‘post’ girl power, global humanitarian and development discourses constitute a new and instensified focus upon the figure of the girl and a distinctive, neo-colonial, neoliberal and postfeminist articulation of girl power

Rwandan girls on post-2015 development

Slide presentation given at the 3rd IPAR Annual Research Conference, 13-14 November 2013

Dublin Food Girl

Welcome to the Diary of a Dublin Food Girl, a collection of food related posts from a girl wanting to get out and about and experience every delicacy the city has to offer. From restaurant reviews to cookery courses, keep an eye on this page to hear about my latest explorations. There will also be some recipes along the way, recipes to suit the season and may be just my mood. Enjoy

Culture Shock

Take one week living in our culture: Monday: A student quotes other students on Overheard at Gettysburg. “In the commons at 8:50am. Two girls. Completely serious. Girl 1: Have you been outside? Girl 2: Yea! It’s rape weather. Girl 1: I know. A girl could totally get raped out there.” [excerpt

The effects of citizen journalism on the ethics of journalism : the case of the Marikana Massacre and the #FeesMustFall movement.

Master of Arts in Philosophy. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2019.Citizen journalism has for many years, been conceived as a new phenomenon of the twenty-first century, whereas, it has been around long before this period. Due to the creation of the internet and the readiness and accessibility of technology, the general public has drastically been exposed to various ways of communicating and engaging with news. This often includes the capability of reporting breaking news at a swifter speed than the average professional journalist. The profession of journalism has been significantly affected by the overwhelming phenomena of citizen journalism because professional journalists have to write, edit and crosscheck news at a far more rapid pace. Thus, placing pressure on the profession of journalism and its ethics. Citizen journalism is undeniably a heavily appreciated tool of the present-day as it enables a free flow of news content. This makes it possible to cover the majority of events happening around the world that professional journalists might miss out on. This might be a problem because from an ethical point of view, citizen journalism also presents news content that is unregulated and haphazard in quality and coverage. While this challenge is immense, research on its implications to the profession of journalism and its ethics is minimal. The existing literature focuses on the new and advanced technological way of newsgathering, its production and dissemination with a lack of emphasis on journalism ethics. The current study seeks to examine how citizen journalism affects the ethics of journalism. This is done with the use of the ethical theory of consequentialism. The theory is used to explore and evaluate the consequences of the activities taking place in the use of social media platforms as a source of information and news coverage. The study uses the case of the Marikana massacre and the #FeesMustFall movement as classic examples of how citizen journalism affects the ethics of the profession of journalism

Katniss as a Representation of Girl Power in Hunger Games Trilogy

This study is about the representation of girl power in Hunger Games trilogy.Hunger Games trilogy shows how women that are represented by the main character “Katniss”, can do what they want regardless others people opinion. It shows that Katniss as the main character lives in a society that does not have roles between man and woman by showing some action through her characterisctics in the story that against the culture and society. She is able to do anything without thinking about what man or woman should do. Thus,this thesis aims at showing girl power characteristics that are being represented by Katniss. Therefore, I will analyze girl power characteristics in Katniss by using girl power concept. Moreover through this analysis, I find that there are some girl power characteristics that are being represented by Katniss. First, she is an independent woman. Second, she is equally depends on her “brains and brawn”. Third, Katniss is a self-determined woman. For the result of the analysis, it can be concluded that Katniss is the representation of girl power that is shown through her action, words, and thoughts