The Bedroom Culture

Marie Antoinette (2006), dir. Sophia Coppola

My personal fascination with my artistic research themes comes from the fact that the bedroom represents a paradoxical non-place, defined specifically and technically as the embodiment of an individual's right to privacy. Even in socialist utopias, which are typically eager to eliminate egotism and promote collective solutions, the sanctity of the bedroom is vigilantly protected. This space is fundamentally the birthplace of independence and self-respect.

For teenage girls in particular, the bedroom is a sacred place; a place where they can meet and gossip with their friends at sleepovers, a place where they can cry over boys, a place where they can spend endless hours on the internet. In that sense, Bedroom culture is a theory developed by sociologist, Angela McRobbie which argues that girls are socialised to not engage in crime and deviance through bedroom culture; this is because they’re virtually trapped in their room. Parents often dissuade their teenage daughters from going out in comparison to their teenage sons, as they are more at risk of danger. This idea of bedroom culture is where girls can be within the safety of the computer and the television, whilst being able to express anger and discontent without fear of threat or intimidation. 

Angela Mcrobbie, developed this theory, directly looking at teenage girls and found that the private space of a girl’s bedroom, and offers her every need in terms of entertainment and communication.  It was introduced after the Second World War, as girls were seen to be more ‘focused on remained more focussed on home, Mum, and marriage than her brother or his male peers. More time was spent in the home’’ Because of their domestic orientation, such girls developed what McRobbie described as a ‘‘culture of the bedroom,’’ which involved engaging in consumer products that might improve their appearance or provide entertainment that could be enjoyed alone or with girlfriends. At the centre of this culture was girls’ consumption of commercial magazines and recorded music. 

During her research, she found that girls were more likely to stay inside, as they were more likely to be accused of sexual impropriety and are more likely to face psychological hardships, due to factors such as lack of self-confidence than their male counterparts, meaning that they are safer in their bedrooms. Thus, as this theory was introduced in the 1960s, the social world was more likely to be on the street, whilst girls used their bedrooms to establish their own social world (such as pyjama parties and testing their own identities by changing their hair-styles and clothing). However, perhaps the bedroom for girls has changed as girls became associated with virtual spaces and digital bedrooms. This can refer to websites such as Facebook, Myspace and Youtube. 

Although the bedroom has changed for girls, it still acts as a place where growth into woman takes place. As a result, it has been argued that bedroom culture has become an explanation and a conceptual tool with which to understand the specific ways in which girls organise their lives.