They got booked for tours, cut albums and cd's, and had riotous fans. They could do it all. You must be kidding. In a sense, liberation comes with being not nice, with red lipstick, short skirts and high heels, through an exaggerated feminity that advertizes hormonal awakening. This stress on female sex attributes, added to obscenities and violence, breaks barriers around the proper female and all that is ladylike, just as bra-burners protested against physical restraint in the '70's and artists put tampons in galleries.
Dolls provide powerful girl-type content easily bordering on the abject.
Asian girls emerge not from the music scene but through cyber-culture, where 'chick' shows up as often as 'girl'. Mimi Nguyen has drawings of tough grrls in t-shirts, jeans and carrying a gun, and Mimi Ilano has other drawings and photos Another edge to girl imagery counters this preference for aggressive sexuality. Here older girls reclaim their lost freedom, one they had prior to the socialization that accompanies sexualized bodies, by endorsing a girly style that counters female stereotypes. Not all girls have burgeoning wombs. The territory burns on.