Loving and Cruel, All at the Same Time’
Girlhood Identity in The Craft
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12975152 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Emily Chandler (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Publication date | 2016-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Girlhood Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1938-8209 • E-ISSN: 1938-8322 |
| Publisher | Berghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.3167/ghs.2016.090213 |
| OpenAlex | W2505787344 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 9 |
The teen horror film The Craft (1996) has remained a cult classic with girl audiences for two decades. Scholarship about the film has focused on its negative representation of girls' friendships, sexuality, and desire for power. In this article, I honor the significance of girl culture by accounting for The Craft's appeal to girl audiences. I argue that The Craft's relevance to girls arises from its subversion of teen film tropes. The Craft explores adolescent girls' fear of isolation by depicting a mentally ill teenager who draws strength and happiness from the company of her friends, and becomes depressed when they oust her. By flouting the imperative for adolescent girl protagonists to be white, middle-class, mentally healthy, and normatively bodied, The Craft portrays girls' desire for understanding over the pursuit of so-called popularity, girls' anger arising from marginalization, and girls' exploiting of friendship as a weapon
Aesthetics · Art · Craft · Developmental psychology · Friendship · Girl · Human sexuality · Identity (music · Masculinity · Power (physics · Psychoanalysis · Scholarship · Sociology · Subversion · Visual arts · Architecture, Design, and Social History · Crafts, Textile, and Design · Fashion and Cultural Textiles · Gender Studies · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |