Lauren Greenfield’s photobook called Girl Culture made over a five-year period was originally released in 2012, and now in its fourth edition was part of an exhibition touring America, Europe and Russia in 2015. The photographs and interviews explore the relationship between body image and identity and the importance of appearance and the body in defining and becoming, when concerning girls, from pre-pubescent to late adolescence.
The photographs show how girls are influenced by the media, social media, peer pressure and issues in society to value their looks for performance and acceptance. Regardless of the social status, no girl is unaffected, either there is pressure to be attractive or thin or sexualised, even the popular girls feel pressure to stay popular. In one interview with 13-year-old Hannah, she reflects on how long to spend on grooming her appearance for the look that will be accepted by her peers.
“I don’t want to look trashy. I try to look natural” Hannah said.
She also describes the qualities that are important to raise status as a young teenage girl.
Greenfield captures the insecurities in different social settings at different ages of girlhood. An 11-year-old is photographed being measured at ‘fat camp’, shamed and shipped off by society to change to adapt to the acceptable size for a girl. There is a shot of an uncertain porn star before shooting with a male arm around her. Another girl examines the results of her breast augmentation in the mirror.
In December 2015 Lauren Greenfield created a video about the catch cry of “Like a Girl” by questioning the meaning behind the phrase and getting to the core of its connotation and significance and then challenging that. In the footage of boys and girls over twelve who were asked the question what does it mean to “run like a girl”, we saw them flapping their arms and shrieking in a high pitched voice. When asked to “fight like a girl” we saw them flap their hands like they were doggy paddling in the water.
However, when boys and girls who were pre-pubescent, the answers showed they had not yet learned this gender stereotyping sexist attitude yet. She asked more than 250 people and the results were consistent. A five-year-old when asked what it meant to run like a girl answered “to run as fast as you can”.
Lauren Greenfield has also created a documentary called “Thin” which is a behind the scenes account of several look at people with eating disorders, at a treatment facility for eating disorders. She concluded that each story was different, some with histories of abuse and one women quoted as saying “Nothing like abuse ever happened to me, I just wanted to be thin”. After her Girl Culture project where women use their bodies to express themselves, her encounters with women with eating disorders really struck a chord and she wanted to explore it further.
Greenfield is also known for her documentary called “The Queen of Versailles” about a wealthy American couple who set out to build the largest house in American and find themselves in financial ruin during the 2008 GFC.
Greenfield has done groundbreaking work with Girl Culture, #Like a Girl, Thin and many other projects which tackle sensitive and pervasive issues like the roles of girls in society, that are so entrenched in our society. Her photographs, interviews and videos are engaging and enlightening and reflect the society that has lost its way when there is a well-used phrase that denigrates half of the population and she has to point out there is a problem with it. There is also a lot of positivity in her work in her quest for change, validation and positive use of non-gender bias language regarding girls.
