Joan Jacobs Brumberg
Encyclopedia
Joan Jacobs Brumberg is a social historian and academic. She is a Professor Emerita of Cornell University
, and lectures and writes about the experiences of adolescents through history until the present day. In the subject area of Gender Studies
, she has written about boys and violence, and girls and body image
.
Brumberg says that adolescence and childhood have been made more difficult for women due to the much earlier age of menarche
than in the past. The average age at menstruation has dropped from 16 in 1890, to 12 while psychological development, she believes, has not accelerated. Also, consumer culture has added to people's insecurities about their bodies. It is now normal and fashionable for girls to dress in a sexualized way.
One reviewer described her book, The Body Project as having a "reactionary subtext", saying it praised the place of girls in Victorian times in comparison to what girls encounter today.
Brumberg has also written about the history of boys and crime, saying that research shows boys in early adolescence are not psychologically developed enough to be liable for their actions to the extent of an adult. Her work has been used in arguments against the death penalty.
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, and lectures and writes about the experiences of adolescents through history until the present day. In the subject area of Gender Studies
Gender studies
Gender studies is a field of interdisciplinary study which analyses race, ethnicity, sexuality and location.Gender study has many different forms. One view exposed by the philosopher Simone de Beauvoir said: "One is not born a woman, one becomes one"...
, she has written about boys and violence, and girls and body image
Body image
Body image refers to a person's perception of the aesthetics and sexual attractiveness of their own body. The phrase body image was first coined by the Austrian neurologist and psychoanalyst Paul Schilder in his masterpiece The Image and Appearance of the Human Body...
.
Brumberg says that adolescence and childhood have been made more difficult for women due to the much earlier age of menarche
Menarche
Menarche is the first menstrual cycle, or first menstrual bleeding, in female human beings. From both social and medical perspectives it is often considered the central event of female puberty, as it signals the possibility of fertility....
than in the past. The average age at menstruation has dropped from 16 in 1890, to 12 while psychological development, she believes, has not accelerated. Also, consumer culture has added to people's insecurities about their bodies. It is now normal and fashionable for girls to dress in a sexualized way.
One reviewer described her book, The Body Project as having a "reactionary subtext", saying it praised the place of girls in Victorian times in comparison to what girls encounter today.
Brumberg has also written about the history of boys and crime, saying that research shows boys in early adolescence are not psychologically developed enough to be liable for their actions to the extent of an adult. Her work has been used in arguments against the death penalty.