Girls' experiences of artistic ambition: The Voices of a religious Zionist and a kibbutznik

This article explores the gendered artistic ambition of adolescent girts as it is constructed in two divergent Israeli communities: religious Zionist and kibbutz. Listening to the voices of two young women who relate their experiences, hopes, desires, and conflicts, the authors deduce how each reproduces, struggles with, and resists conceptions of gender, sexuality, and artistic performance that prevail in her community. Although the girls share a romantic view of the modern girl/woman, divorced from implications of gender and sexuality, their experiences and interpretations of womanhood and self-realization diverge dramatically. By exploring these individual worlds of artistic ambition, anchored in two local cultural settings, the authors contribute to the growing understanding of girlhood in context.