The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines ethnography as “the study and systematic recording of human cultures; also: a descriptive work produced from such research.� To increase our mutual understanding of the human experience, ethnographers often take great personal risk. I am one such ethnographer. I have ventured into the world of 13-year-old girls.

This past Friday night my 13-year-old daughter had another 13-year-old girl spend the night. Being an especially courageous ethnographer, I gingerly entered their world. I was, for example, occasionally allowed to walk into the room where they were sitting or talking. They also allowed me to drive them several places. I recorded my observations – though knowing 13-year-old girls’ survival rules dictate that ethnographers and fathers must be as quiet as possible for fear of embarrassing the 13-year-old girl, only breathing if absolutely necessary, I made mental notes only.

First of all, I can report big news: Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend,� while still capable of making 13-year-old girls jump around in the backseat of a Toyota flailing their arms, has quickly been supplanted by Justin Timberlake’s “Summer Love� as the song.

The power of the pack was also witnessed on several occasions. Upon seeing another 13-year-old girl walking down the street, back car windows are immediately lowered and both girls, my daughter and her sleepover friend, immediately lean out the window and screech – very loudly. The screech resulted in 1) this ethnographer almost driving on the median and 2) the third 13-year-old girl, the one walking on the sidewalk, screeching back. This suggests that the screech has communicative properties but at such a high frequency that only my dog could understand it – but my dog, also being a girl, refused to translate.

The power of the pack has such enormous pull that, during the soccer game that night, my daughter’s coach had to move her from left wing because another member of the 13-year-old girl group she runs with was watching from that sideline. Conversation clearly had to continue during the soccer game.

Members of this species prove unusually effective when it comes to guarding their social boundaries:

Me (Saturday morning): Mary [not real name of friend] can stay however long she wants today. I have to take the car in for an oil change, then I’m going to work outside. Then at five your brother has a baseball clinic. So I can get Mary home whenever.

My daughter: We don’t need to know your entire schedule.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 1st, 2007 at 6:16 am and is filed under Family, Humor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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