Introduction
Girls' dressing
Conceptual framework
Terminology
Research methodology
The minority group perspective
A girl-centred approachFocus groups
Table 1 (Research Sample)
Research position
Chapter outline
1 Understanding girls' dressing
Introduction
The discourse of sexualisation
Western popular culture
'Traditional' popular media
The raunchy celebrity culture
Tween consumer culture
The commodification of the tween girl
The 'unknowing' tween
A discourse of protection
Critiques of the sexualisation-of-girls discourse
The definition of sexualisationSexualisation as a linear concept
Problems of a discourse of protection
Class and the discourse of sexualisation
Postfeminism and girls' dressing
Conclusion
2 Girlhood in Singapore
Introduction
Western dominant accounts of childhood
Childhood in Singapore
Population policies and childhood in SingaporeEducation policies and childhood in Singapore
Consumption and adult-like clothing for girls in Singapore
Asian values and the culture of consumption in Singapore
Consumption and social class in Singapore
Femininity in Singapore
Contesting femininities
Conclusion
3 YouTube and girls' dressing
Introduction
Girls' popular culture consumption in Singapore: a pastiche of East and WestConceptualising girls' popular culture consumption in Singapore
The changing mediascapes in tween girls' lives
YouTube as an emergent popular media source
Tween girls' spectatorship
"I just look at the YouTubers" Popular YouTubers/YouTube channels
Local Singaporean YouTubers
Popular Western YouTubers
Rethinking YouTube and tween girls' dressing
The DIY ethos
Conclusion
4 A cultural perspective of tween girls' dress
Introduction
Aspirations of style
Girls' definition of style
Style as necessityStyle through boundary-making
Style as a youthful practice
Allowances
Girls and brands
Purchasing new clothing
Girls as reflexive and 'sensible' consumers
Affiliation
Class, social mobility and adult-like clothing
Conclusion
5 Girls' interpretive repertoires
Introduction
A confidence narrative
Effort in the production of self
Confidence and not contentment
Accoutrement
Girls and nail polishHair and Heels - Diversity, complexity and contradiction
Makeup as accoutrement: "No, no. Just don't wear makeup"
Adultification as something extrinsic "They dress too old."
Critical readings of celebrities' dressing
Critical readings of other girls' dressing
Reframing adult-like dressing
Conclusion
6 Conclusion
'Slowing down'
Existing inbetweenAsia as method
Girls' feminism and postfeminism in Singapore
References