HUNGRY FOR AN US - ADOLESCENT GIRLS AND ADULT WOMEN NEGOTIATING TERRITORIES OF RACE, GENDER, CLASS AND DIFFERENCE

This article explores conversational territory covered by an ongoing 'girls' group' of six women four adults, spanning age, generation, race/ethnicity and social class categories. Discourse analysis of these conversations allows us to follow the young women's collective talk, their early and desperate struggle for sameness and then to trace our bumpy journey, ultimately, into a discourse of power and difference. The article marvels at our collective ability, among women, to move toward difference, and ends with worries about young women's inability/refusal to analyze for power or difference when talking about 'personal' relations with young men.