‘Muy Macha’: Gender and ideology in gang‐girls’ discourse about makeup*

Abstract

This article explores how notions of power, femininity, and ethnicity permeate the discourses of and around girls involved in gangs. I explore how the cholas ‐ Latina gang girls ‐ of Foxbury perform and inscribe on their bodies a specific kind of femininity that not only confounds wider community notions of how girls should act, dress, and talk, but throws into question the very gendered category that girls are expected to inhabit.