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Jean O'Malley Halley
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Horse Crazy: Girls and the Lives of Horses Paperback – July 1, 2019

5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 4 ratings
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Horse Crazy explores the meaning behind the love between girls and horses. Jean O’Malley Halley, a self-professed “horse girl,” contends that this relationship and its cultural signifiers influence the manner in which young girls define their identity when it comes to gender. Halley examines how popular culture, including the “pony book” genre, uses horses to encourage conformity to gender norms but also insists that the loving relationship between a girl and a horse fundamentally challenges sexist and mainstream ideas of girlhood.

Horse Crazy looks at the relationships between girls and horses through the frameworks of Michel Foucault’s concepts of normalization and biopower, drawing conclusions about the way girls’ agency is both normalized and resistant to normalization. Segments of Halley’s own experiences with horses as a young girl, as well as experiences from the perspective of other girls, are sources for examination. “Horsey girls,” as she calls them, are girls who find a way to defy the expectations given to them by society―thinness, obsession with makeup and beauty, frailty―and gain the possibility of freedom in the process.

Drawing on Nicole Shukin’s uses of animal capital theories, Halley also explores the varied treatment of horses themselves as an example of the biopolitical use of nonhuman animals and the manipulation and exploitation of horse life. In so doing she engages with common ways we think and feel about animals and with the technologies of speciesism.

Previous page
  1. Print length
    272 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    University of Georgia Press
  4. Publication date
    July 1, 2019
  5. Dimensions
    7.7 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0820355275
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0820355276
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Drawing on rich interviews, personal experience, and extensive reading of fiction, sociology, and history, Horse Crazy gives us girl-with-horse―its meaning, its influences, its ramifications. In my youth, I was gloriously a girl-with-horse, but it is only after reading Halley’s illuminating and fascinating bookthat I comprehend its profoundly transformative power. -- Carol J. Adams ― author of The Sexual Politics of Meat and Burger (Object Lessons)

Review

Drawing on rich interviews, personal experience, and extensive reading of fiction, sociology, and history, Horse Crazy gives us girl-with-horse—its meaning, its influences, its ramifications. In my youth, I was gloriously a girl-with-horse, but it is only after reading Halley’s illuminating and fascinating bookthat I comprehend its profoundly transformative power.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Georgia Press (July 1, 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0820355275
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0820355276
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.7 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 4 ratings

About the author

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Jean O'Malley Halley

Jean O'Malley Halley

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Professor of Sociology, College of Staten Island and Graduate Center. Animal and Gender Studies. Horse lover and queer.

Customer reviews

5 out of 5 stars
5 out of 5
4 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

kathleen omalley
5.0 out of 5 stars Female independence
Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2019
Verified Purchase
Horse Crazy:Girls and the Lives of Horses is an important book that should have been written years ago. In it the author, Jean Halley, assists the reader in understanding this common phenomena of young girls and their love of horses. In doing so Halley uncovers the significance and meaning for those girls who choose horses as a childhood focus rather than the more culturally normative focus on boys. It underscores the independence and empowerment of young girls who cultivate their sense of self often resisting cultural expectations.
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13 Is the New 18 author
5.0 out of 5 stars If you know a girl who loves horses, or you were a girl who loves horses, this book is for you
Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2019
A brilliant and long-overdue look at the phenomenon of girls who love horses. They ride horses, play horses, read about horses; if they can't be with real horses, they play with My Little Pony or read Misty of Chincoteague. It's a phenomenon that's been going on for more than a century around the world. But why? Sociologist Jean Halley, who's horse-crazy herself, says it's because horses represent something outside the normal gender expectations for girls. They can be the masters of a 1,000-pound animal. They can go on adventures (or pretend to). Their relationship with horses becomes an activity that spares them from things like the intense pressure to be pretty for boys. I didn't know before reading this that equestrian competitions are gender-neutral - girls compete with boys equally, no separate divisions, and in many competitions, esp local ones, the riders are almost all girls. The thing that makes the book so readable and heart-rending, though, is the author's personal story, growing up in a troubled home in WYoming with an abusive father. Horses were her salvation. It's a good read and sheds light on a topic that few have really explored in a thoughtful way.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars An extremely interesting read!!
Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2019
Sociologist Jean Halley discusses the phenomenon of being horse crazy and how horses assist in disrupting gender norms for women and girls. Through a mixture of personal stories, scholarly research and interviews, Halley explores the phenomenon of horse crazy girls and women. Furthermore, she examines why this phenomenon impacts so many and why. Her work has helped me better understand my horse crazy little cousin and all of the ways these creatures are so important to her. I recommend this book for anyone who is or knows a girl or women who is horse crazy, anyone who pushes back against gender norms and anyone who understands what it’s like to love and bond with an animal.
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