Beyond the Notorious: A Critical Youth Studies Examination of a Youth Adaptation About Justice Ginsburg

• In Event: Examining and Reimagining Constructions of Adolescence/ts, Sexuality, and Gender in Education

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between adolescence/ts and young adult (YA) literature. While this relationship has a longstanding presence in YA scholarship (e.g., McCallum, 1999), current legislation that seeks to police who gets to say what in educational spaces has created new urgency surrounding the notion of “appropriate for youth.” With the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the Dobbs decision, we set out to understand how youth are being positioned as readers and thinkers in the YA literature market by examining the original and the youth adaptation of the nonfiction book Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Theoretical Framework
Drawing on dominant discourses of youth (Discussant, 2012), the youth lens (Author, 2015), and feminist literary theory (Trites, 1997; Varga-Dobai, 2013), our framework allowed us to examine assumptions “youth appropriate”-ness, particularly regarding how feminist concepts were made available for youth or not. This framework enabled us to consider the literary, historical, and pedagogical implications of the youth adaptation of Notorious RBG and consider more broadly the relationship between adolescence/ts and the YA literature market.

Methods and Analysis
Our inquiry is grounded in critical comparative content analysis (CCCA) (Author, 2020). CCCA is a methodology drawing on critical content analysis (Johnson et al., 2017), content analysis (Krippendorff, 2013), qualitative content analysis (Schreier, 2012), literary criticism (Trites, 2000), and critical discourse analysis (Rogers, 2011). Methods within CCCA feature systematic exploration of textual representation, maintaining the analytic stance that representational shifts in original and youth adapted books are motivated by socioeconomic rationales and reveal cultural assumptions about adolescence/ts.

Findings
The original version of Notorious RBG portrays Ginsburg as a legal architect integral to the advancement of gender equality. However, the youth adaptation portrays RBG within a Nancy Drew archetype, that is, as a go-getter detective who was brave and strong in her fight for equality. We describe this change in portrayal by referencing three themes that emerged from our coding process: the policing of women’s bodies, e.g., removal of the issue of abortion and several omissions within the historical timeline; a grin with different meanings, e.g., a picture in both versions that is described in terms of legal strategy in the original and relief from motherly duties in the adaptation; the patriarchy without a face, e.g., the removal of proper names in relation to events steeped in patriarchal power.

Significance
Our study reveals reductive thinking about the readiness of youth readers to engage in more robust understandings of feminism and reproductive justice. While this study provides an example of the relationship of dominant understandings of adolescence/ts and the YA publishing industry, as teacher educators and researchers, we believe this study also opens opportunities for youth and teachers of youth to critically engage these representational differences in the classroom.

Authors

• Lauren M Colley, University of Cincinnati

• Mark A. Sulzer, University of Cincinnati