Between the Thresholds of Visibility: Teenage Girls Negotiating Sensibility and Femininity in the School Changing Room

The purpose of this article is to explore teenage girls’ changing room practices and in what ways femininity is negotiated. Through a qualitative interview method that allowed for deep engagement with the material context, we interviewed 24 teenage girls in this contested space. The analysis draws from postfeminist sensibility and studies on visibility. In exploring how the changing room was used and the girls’ reasoning behind it, we demonstrate how two sensibilities influence girls’ practices: the apprehension of being judged and the desire for conformity. Navigating between being hyper-visible and invisible, the practices, concerns and strives reveal how current frames of femininity both make room for and constrain the everyday lives of young girls in contemporary society, despite living in a supposedly gender-equal country such as Sweden. The results have pedagogical implications, as the girls’ changing room practices impact their everyday lives in various ways. These implications need to be taken into consideration by youth workers, school staff and teachers.