Country Girls: Do We Have A Warped Sense Of What Is Normal?
WORDS BY JESSICA ROWE.
I would have been about 11. The boys zoomed past on their bikes eager to make the biggest skid in the gravel when they held down their breaks. We were at our neighbours’ house and our mums were inside drinking Omni wine. I’d always enjoyed the dusty, outdoor bicycle antics, but lately it had been getting a little dry. Maybe my biking abilities had stagnated in comparison to my farm-boy companions, and as much as I wanted to eat the cheese platters and eavesdrop on the gossip inside, I knew I’d just be an annoyance to the mums who blissfully left us to our own devices. For whatever reason, I decided to make it more amusing for myself by encouraging all of the girls in the group to tie their tops up, transforming them into crops. I was mimicking the ‘Four X angels’, the scantily dressed ambassadors for the beer brand, and the women who say “go!” at race tracks. The group was divided between KTM (motorbike brand) lovers and Yamaha (another motorbike brand) lovers. So naturally I explained that the girls were to be either the KTM or Yamaha Angels as the boys rode their bikes. Was this the first time I began to perform femininity in a space that I felt was void of it? I so clearly felt the need to create a role for myself where I had none, even if that role was inappropriate for an 11 year old girl. This is one of the many scenarios I reflected back on after reading Sarah E Crann’s research article, “Small town girls” and “country girls”: Examining the plurality of feminine rural subjectivity.
“Its a man’s world,” my Mum and I would often say when discussing the socio-cultural goings on of Kangaroo Island. Crann explains that the “gendered coding of rural spaces as masculine created a natural place for boys but reduces the visibility and possibilities for girls in these spaces. For example, when girls occupy rural space they tend to be coded by others as ‘tomboys’.” If you think about past- times and aesthetics of country life, chances are you will find yourself listing things that are also considered, in the traditional sense, as masculine. Sports, farming, bikes, cars. These are activities and passions that were readily available and highly encouraged where I grew up. Things considered stereotypically feminine were not. Fashion, beauty, creative endeavours, and dance. In a strange way, when coming of age as a girl in rural areas, you are caught between the rules set out in the media about being feminine, and the cultural norms in your town. Unfortunately, from a young age I cared about what men thought of me, and like many others, often see myself through the male gaze. Idolising glamorous women on TV, magazines and on YouTube set a standard so far from farm-life in terms of what is considered attractive. On the other hand, there was a sense of respect for boyish pursuits as opposed to the demonisation of the ‘girly-girl’ in my small town. Where does that leave young girls as they attempt to navigate the unique social norms and expectations of femininity in rural areas?
what I have labelled as the demonisation of the ‘girly-girl,’ stems from what I believe is a value-system in rural areas quite unique to those of urban spaces. Country life is synonymous with the idea of the ‘aussie-battler,’ and the prioritisation of survival, this renders things like self-expression and creative past-times low on the list of what is valued in a micro-society who sees itself as separate from all that fluffy stuff. Crann explains, “positioning oneself as a country girl – a girl who is strong, resourceful, and contributes to the community in a meaningful way – against the subject position of city girls – girls who are assumed to be conventionally feminine and, at least as far as Natalie’s account suggests, preoccupied with shopping, clothes, and talking on the phone – appears to create new possibilities for feminine rural subjectivity unbound by conventional femininity.” Where urban areas and the media tend to create feminine ideals of being constantly ‘made-up,’ and concerned with fashionable appearances, it is clear that in rural areas still bound by this historical idea of survival, they tend to care more about whether a girl is contributing to the community in the way that the micro-society deems as ‘valuable.’ While this shirks urban expectations of femininity, it also creates new ones. Crann elaborates, “Notably, the production of this particular subjectivity does rely, to some extent, on the devaluing of conventional femininity.” Under the watch of what I would argue is an even narrower male-gaze, is there an opportunity for girls coming of age to experiment with conventional femininities without being patronised or socially and academically dismissed?
The minute population of rural areas creates unique and narrow social expectations, and ideas about what is feminine and attractive, this is why I believe those who grow up in isolated areas have a warped and incredibly select perception of what is considered ‘normal’ in this world. In Crann’s study, she found that country-girls would often describe themselves in polarity and comparison to the ‘city-girl’. She explains, “by constructing oneself against the “other,” social markers of race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexual identity, and ability become visible. What emerges through this process of identity construction, according to Gonick (2003), are narratives of what is “normal” (i.e. white, Anglo, middle class) and therefore “not normal,” thus rendering the “normal girl” imaginable and knowable through an identification of the “not-normal girl.” She elaborated, “the participants collectively position themselves, through a shared racial and religious identification, to fit within what they considered to be “normal” (...) As Becca and Chloe’s exchange reveals, in order to collectively view the fashion choices of city dwellers as “not-normal,” there must be collective agreement on what constitutes “normal” appearance.” Though this phenomena is somewhat inevitable, it is a shame that when us country girls slip slightly from the tiny mould of what we think is expected of us, we feel crazy or alien. The city has shown me that I am talented in a lot of areas that were of no use on the island, but it also taught me that I’m not really unique at all! Frankly, my fashion choices are mild and my social and political ideologies are shared by most here in the city. I thought I wasn’t ‘normal,’ but to all the young girls out there living rurally, I have found, my friends, that ‘normal’ doesn’t exist.
EDITORIAL NOTE: This article has been reuploaded and was originally published in 2022.