Navigating Adolescent Girl Transition: Reviving Ophelia vs. Girl Power Discourses

1. The Revived Ophelia Discourse and All-Girls Boarding Schools: Helping or Harming Adolescent Girls Transition to Adulthood? Margaret M. Marcum and James A. Marcum Baylor University, TX, and University of Redlands, CA

2. Abstract Today, two discourses compete with one another for guiding the transformation of adolescent girls into young women. The first is the girl power discourse in which girls are told that they have the strength and capability to shape who they are and their future. The second is the Ophelia discourse with its emphasis on powerless and vulnerable girls, and the tragedy that may befall them unless they comply with socially sanctioned norms. Recently, it has been revived and institutionalized in terms of all-girls boarding schools. But, by reviving the Ophelia discourse, do all-girls boarding schools help or harm adolescent girls in terms of their overall development and wellbeing? In the present paper, we address this question by critically analyzing the revived Ophelia, as well as the girl power, discourse. We conclude that these schools result in more harm than help for adolescent girls with respect to their development and wellbeing.

3. Girl Power versus Reviving Ophelia The girl power discourse asserts that adolescent girls have the strength and intelligence to become independent and productive members of society. In contrast to the empowerment associated with the girl power discourse, Mary Pipher, in Reviving Ophelia, portrays adolescent girls as weak and fragile—“like saplings in a hurricane.” And, according to this discourse these girls often yield, unless parents and society intervene to control them, to distorted messages regarding body image and personal (mis)behavior. Unquestionably, the stark contrast between the two opposing discourses—the new girl who is powerful and assertive versus the delicate and tragic Ophelia who is voiceless and powerless—often wreaks havoc on the cognitive and behavioral development and wellbeing of adolescent girls

4. All-Girls Boarding Schools At the end of the twentieth century and in seeming contradiction to the rise of girl power, all-girls boarding schools made a resurgence not only in the United States but also globally. What is at issue in the resurgence of these schools is control, especially on the part of parents, to prevent their daughters from becoming the new girl invested with girl power. Rather, they want to revive Ophelia, who conforms to normative traditional cultural (especially moral) standards. The revived Ophelia discourse associated with the staff at all-girls boarding schools must be contrasted to the girl power discourse among the adolescent girls at these schools.

5. The Revived Ophelia Discourse: Helping or Harming? Importantly, all-girls boarding schools function to assist adolescent girls not simply to learn but to acquire and operationalize a discourse associated with reviving Ophelia. For many parents view the new girl invested with girl power as problematic and even dangerous for the overall development and wellbeing of their daughters. But the question that remains unanswered in this quest for the selves of many adolescent girls is whether they are being harmed from the different and even inconsistent and contradictory discourses of what it truly means to be a schoolgirl, who is transitioning towards young womanhood. In an effort to make the educational process safe from the uncertainty and complications of life for adolescent girls, all-girls boarding schools might be aiding the tragic outcome of Ophelia.​

6. A Parental Solution? Rather than all-girls boarding schools helping adolescent girls transition from childhood to young adulthood, we propose that parents can assist their adolescent daughters in negotiating the often baffling girl power and revived Ophelia discourses, in order to provide the connection between the two discourses. Parents should familiarize themselves with the girl power and revived Ophelia discourses and critically evaluate them for themselves in terms of the discourses’ advantages and disadvantages. They should discuss what they have learned with their adolescent daughters. And, an important feature of this discussion is that it should be a dialogue in which there is mutual respect for opposing viewpoints. The most important feature in helping adolescent daughters to mature as powerful and self-confident persons is for parents to put themselves in their daughters’ shoes.

7. Conclusion The transition for adolescent girls in contemporary society from childhood to adulthood is fraught with difficulties and problems, which can jeopardize their development and wellbeing. And, neither the revived Ophelia discourse nor even the girl power discourse may be adequate for the job. On the one hand, as discussed above, the revived Ophelia discourse—especially as it is institutionalized in all-girls boarding schools—might be harming rather than helping girls to transition successfully from childhood to adulthood. On the other hand, the girl power discourse does offer adolescent girls the means and muscle to transition from childhood to adulthood. But, one of the major problems is that the discourse is often coopted by commercial interests. In the end, there appears to be no simple solution or guiding discourse for the transition from girlhood to womanhood, especially in terms of promoting wellbeing. Although no single discourse is available, parents can be involved in helping their adolescent daughters transition from childhood to adulthood rather than relying on all-girls boarding schools.

8. Musical gatherings as a resource of spirituality

9. Musical Gathering Literature • Why Do We Attend Musical Gatherings? • Social Opportunities, Outdoors (Nature Connectedness), Musical Enjoyment, Escape Responsibilities (i.e. Work, School) (Acaordia,2013) • Benefits of Musical Experiences • Psychological and Social benefits (i.e., stress relief, social interactions) • Spiritual Pursuit • Meaningful experience (Schaefer,2014)

10. Current Study • We explored the motivation behind adolescents attending large scale music festivals • Investigated the retrospective narration of a musical gathering (i.e., spirituality, significance, self-growth) • Participants (n =120 ) were aged 18 to 50 (m = 26, SD = 5.09)

11. Preliminary Data "I truly felt at home. Never felt that way at any Church. My soul felt at peace” (participant K) "I am not a spiritual person in normal life, but when I was at EDC. I felt like my soul was being touched by other people I talked to and met. But I touched their soul as well” (participant G)

12. Contact Information Lead Investigator Noah Little Ph.D Student at McMaster University noahlittle@hotmail.com QR Code:

13. Independent Living through Universal Accessibility: A Goal for the Disability Community Ibarloza Arrizabalaga, Dr. Ander

14. Independent Living through Universal Accessibility: A Goal for the Disability Community • The number of individuals with disabilities is steadily increasing. One of the significant aspects in relation to the social cohesion of this group is nowadays the universal accessibility. • The current priority of social services in Europe is to provide care in the home for persons with disabilities. The main effort is keeping them in their own homes as far as possible, depending on their degree of dependency.

15. Independent Living through Universal Accessibility: A Goal for the Disability Community • The measures to ensure universal accessibility to buildings have developed gradually since the 1990s, and the accessibility rights have gradually obtained recognition and nowadays are considered universal rights. • The regulations that were initially compulsory only for new buildings and “recommended” for rehabilitated buildings are now mandatory also in rehabilitation works.

16. Independent Living through Universal Accessibility: A Goal for the Disability Community • The collective buildings built between the late 50s and the mid-70s are the ones that currently suffer from the greatest shortcomings, including issues of accessibility: many of them have no lifts or have lifts that do not operate from ground level. • The crisis has also hit condominium owners’ associations, they know that their blocks are likely to suffer more and more shortcomings and deterioration, but their scarce resources have been directed elsewhere.

17. Independent Living through Universal Accessibility: A Goal for the Disability Community • The role of government in managing aid for housing rehabilitation and social support is essential to achieve the objectives of greater social integration and a more independent live of these individuals.

18. Independent Living through Universal Accessibility: A Goal for the Disability Community Ibarloza Arrizabalaga, Dr. Ander Contact: ander.ibarloza@ehu.eus

19. TOBACCO USE IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS NIDHI SHARMA, PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHER, MOUNT LITERA ZEE SCHOOL, PATIALA (INDIA). GURNAM KAUR, PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHER, SR. SEC. MODEL SCHOOL, PATIALA, (INDIA)

20. TOBACCO • Prepared by curing the leaves of the tobacco plant. The plant is part of the genus Nicotiana and of the Solanaceae (nightshade) family. • The chief commercial crop is Nicotiana Tabacum and more than 70 species of tobacco are known. • Nicotiana Rustica is also used around the world which is more potent variant. Tobacco contains the alkaloid nicotine, which is a stimulant. • Dried tobacco leaves are mainly used for smoking in cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, and flavored shisha tobacco. “In 2008, the World Health Organization named tobacco as the world's single greatest cause of preventable death.” Source: WHO

21. Trends in tobacco use • India is the third largest producer and consumer of tobacco in the world. • Tobacco use in children and adolescents is reaching pandemic levels. • The World Bank has reported that nearly 82,000–99,000 children and adolescents all over the world begin smoking every day. • About half of them would continue to smoke to adulthood and half of the adult smokers are expected to die prematurely due to smoking related diseases. • If current smoking trends continue, tobacco will kill nearly 250 million of today's children. • 80%of these live in low- and middle-income countries • Total number of smokers is expected to reach about 1.6 billion by 2025. • Cigarettes contain about 600 ingredients.When they burn, they generate more than 7,000 chemicals, according to the American Lung Association.

22. NO SAFE WAY TO SMOKE • Replacing cigarette with a cigar, pipe, or hookah won’t help to avoid the health risks associated with tobacco products. • Many of those chemicals are poisonous and at least 69 of them can cause cancer. • Many of the same ingredients are found in cigars and in tobacco used in pipes and hookahs. • According to the National Cancer Institute, cigars have a higher level of carcinogens, toxins, and tar than cigarettes. • When using a hookah pipe, you’re likely to inhale more smoke than you would from a cigarette. • Hookah smoke has many toxic compounds and exposes you to more carbon monoxide than cigarettes do. Hookahs also produce more secondhand smoke.

23. HEALTH EFFECTS OF SMOKING Seek Medical Assistance Join a counseling program Try medication Understand why quitting is important Improving Your Ability to Breathe Learn controlled breathing Allow yourself to cough Reduce mucus. Get Plenty of Exercise Maintain a healthy diet Take medications Try lung therapy Consider surgery QUIT SMOKING • Acute Myeloid leukemia • Bladder Cancer • Cancer of the Cervix • Cancer of the Esophagus • Kidney Cancer • Cancer of the Larynx (voice box) • Lung Cancer • Cancer of the Oral Cavity (mouth) • Cancer of the Pharynx (throat) • Stomach Cancer • Cancer of the Uterus