Untaming Girlhoods

Cristina Santos is an Associate Professor of Hispanic and Latin American Studies. Her work focuses on sexuality and gender studies from an intersectional feminist perspective in the construct of "monstrous women" from an interdisciplinary and multi-cultural approach as seen in literature, film, television, popular culture and mythology. She also investigates the construct of political and social deviance and trauma in life narratives as the construction of a personal and communal sense of identity that challenges official history and patriarchy. She is the author of Unbecoming Female Monsters: Witches, Vampires, and Virgins.

‘Santos gives a thorough accounting of female-identifying adolescence in culturally-situated accounts that include both biology and psychology. . . . [Chapter 6] is perhaps the strongest chapter of an already stellar book because of the way it ties together all the previously discussed theoretical apparati in relation to one extended text: the Netflix television series The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018-2021). . . . Most significant to my mind is the importance of the new coinage “untaming”. This term proves to be extraordinarily useful in helping to demonstrate how texts can aid girls to reject ideological indoctrination and social positioning.. . . Throughout her work, Santos makes a compelling case that modern retellings of fairy tales and young adult fiction serve similar purposes for their readers. . . . [It pushes] the boundaries of feminism in important directions that acknowledge intersectionality and materiality.’- Roberta Seelinger Trites, International Journal of Young Adult Literature

• By Way of Introduction: Girl(hood)s in ContextGirlhood in ContextStorytelling GirlhoodsPART I Fairy Tales and Emerging Girlhoods in the 20th and 21st Centuries1: Towards (Un)taming Girlhood: Fairy Tales, Popular Culture, and the Cultural Imaginary2: Forging New Pathways through the Forest: Red Riding Hood and New BecomingsThe Journey through the WoodsEmbracing the Wolf (Within): Red Riding Hood, Self-Knowledge, and Selfhood The Huntsman with No Damsel in Distress to Save3: Before They Were Evil, Before They Were Queens: Trauma, Female Rivalry and (Be)coming (into) Self"It is not power that corrupts; it is powerlessness": How the Queen Becomes a VillainComplicit and Compliant: Intergenerational Trauma and Female RelationshipsRecovering Female Communitas: Kissing Old Stereotypes Good-bye?PART II Unruly Girls: Warriors and Witches4: Killer Girls: Red Riding Hood, the Wolf and Girl (Em)power(ed)A Bloody Mess: Red Riding Hood, Werewolves, and MenstruationKiller Girls Take (Back) Control: Red Riding Hood in Hard Candy and Freeway5: This Princess Wears Combat Boots: The Dystopia of Girl Warrior HeroesGirlhood on Display: The Girl Warrior HeroTaking (Back) Control: (Personal) Performance and (Politicized) BecomingA "New" Kind of Female Hero: The Fairy-Tale Princess Gets a Makeover6: Beyond the Fairy-Tale Witch: Contemporary Girl(hood)s in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Sabrina: Rebooting Mortal and Witch GirlhoodsSisterhood and the Rise Against the PatriarchyConclusion