Shirley Temple and the Performance of GirlhoodIn the 1930s, Shirley Temple was heralded as Americas sweetheart, and she remains the icon of wholesome American girlhood, but Temples films strike many modern viewers as perverse. Shirley Temple and the Performance of Girlhood examines her early career in the context of the history of girlhood and considers how Temples star image emerged out of the Victorian cult of the child. Beginning her career in Baby Burlesks, short films where she played vamps