Richard presents paper in Boston*

Holly Richard, director of the Saint Teresa Leadership and Service Institute for Women, presented a paper at the 2007 Joint Conference of the National Popular Culture and American Culture Associations, the 37th annual PCA conference, in Boston, Mass., on April 5. Her presentation, “Catholic School Girls Rule: Undressing the Myth,” examined the humorous, salacious, and dangerous pop-culture depictions of the schoolgirl in uniform. Taken out of an academic and historical context, the schoolgirl-in-uniform has become a national (and international) mythological character.
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With analysis of literary and contemporary classic characters such as Nabokov’s Lolita to Saturday Night Live’s Mary Katherine Gallagher, song lyrics and characters from musical artists including the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Aerosmith, pop-star images like Madonna, Britney Spears and t.a.t.u., and the increasing porn industry and sex trafficking, Richard argued that our culture’s schoolgirl-in-uniform fetish undermines efforts towards ending female objectification and reveals the nascent crisis of pedophilia, causing the schoolyard to no longer be a safe place students.