‘I was a scarf-like gangster girl’ – Negotiating gender and ethnicity on the street

Drawing on an ethnographic study in Copenhagen, this article explores the gendered ethnicities of young women navigating multi-ethnic street terrains. The study includes an ethnically heterogeneous sample of 25 women aged 13–23 who are involved in street-oriented peer groups and activities. The analysis demonstrates how young women modify their lifestyle, language, body and posture to establish proximity to ethnic minority youth. By applying intersectional theory, the article explores gender and ethnicity as situational accomplishments, and it is argued that ethnic identifications in this context need to be explored as flexible and fluid, changing, not only over a lifetime, but within a single day. This exploration of young women’s gendered ethnicities adds to the limited research on the gendered and racialized dynamics of street culture.