Bodily Knowledge: Learning about Equity and Justice with Adolescent Girls

Bodily Knowledge is a story of how four adolescent girls constructed the meanings of their bodies. It is a story of oppression and resistance, voice and silence. It is a story of how our culture shapes girls’ desires and distracts girls from becoming healthy people who pursue significant goals. Lastly, it is an expression of the girls’ hopefulness – of their collective belief in the value of efforts to create a better world in which all children might have opportunities to grow up healthy and respected. Bodily Knowledge tells these stories in terms of the girls’ analyses of fashion, their desires to be noticed and accepted by others, their concerns about issues of race and racism, and our own commitments to nurturing critique and agency through curriculum and activist research.