Teenage Girls and Leisure : The Social Construction of a Plural Culture

Teenage girls and leisure : the social construction of a plural culture.

In an intersectional perspective, this paper aims to highlight inequalities in accessing leisure by focusing on teenagers in France.

Based on quantitative and qualitative data collected in three French regions in 2013, the focus of this paper is to shed light on the leisure activities of teenagers in terms of differentiated social practices according to gender, age, social class, physical and social morphology of the neighbourhood, and relational and situational criteria. Their leisure is channeled by public policies as well as educational, family, and socio-educational care that structure their time and space. However, this paper also aims to highlight the subjective dimension. Gender, age and social network define living conditions and possible futures. More or less forgotten by the authorities (and by researchers), the teenage girls studied have different leisure activities from that of the boys. This paper seeks to point out that teenage girls in deprived neighbourhoods, in reaction to what they perceive as a social limitation, try to meet friends in other places and other networks, to experience new activities, situations and spaces.

Ultimately, the framework of their leisure experience brings these teenage girls, compared with the boys, to develop more heterogeneous leisure practices without hostility to conventional culture.  In doing so, they build a plural culture.