The google search results for “Girl” reflect the diverse use of the word girl, girls, and girlhood. The top three results for "girls" were related to a television series titled Girls. Girls is about a group of twenty-something females living in New York City. The next set of links are websites advertising “The World’s Hottest Girls and Sexy Women.” Maxim and Myspace are included in the results. Finally, the last link for Google search is for Girl, Inc, a website meant to empower girls. The results for “girlhood” were similar, including links to a documentary and books about girls and modern day girlhood. The documentary, Girlhood, is about girls in Baltimore that commit serious crimes and do drugs at a very young age. The girls in the documentary are well into their high school years. Is this what society expect all girls doing through girlhood experience? When does a female stop being a girl?
These results make “girls” and “girlhood” similar to the “girls” in Girls Gone Wild. Girls are no longer prepubescent girls who enjoy playing with toys and reading. Girls and girlhood become spectacles for entertainment only. Society must expect all girls to be sexy and illicit at all ages. The word “girls” is not targeted or limited to a certain age group. This can detract from the specialness of girlhood. Special attention is paid to childhood today, but these results transform the innocence of girls and girlhood.
In comparison, the google results for “boys” and “boyhood” focus on boys in puberty and Boy Scouts (nonetheless including inappropriate YouTube videos at the bottom of the results). A discrepancy exists between what the virtual world depicts “girls” as and what girls are really like during their girlhood.
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