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Good Girl Messages: How Young Women Were Misled by Their Favorite Books
Through much of the 20th century, books for children encouraged girls to be weak, submissive and fearful. This book discusses such traits in much of our most popular literature, making an indictment of the books that many generations of girls have loved. This includes Alcott, Betsy-Tacy, Seventeenth Summer, Cherry Ames, the Chalet School, Daddy Long Legs, Elizabeth Enright, Anne of Green Gables and others.
212 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2000
2 people are currently reading
107 people want to read
About the author
Deborah O'Keefe
3 booksMs. O'Keefe has taught at Vassar College and Manhattanville, raised a family of writer sons, and now lives in Westchester, NY.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 14, 2014
A revealing look at the evolution of how girls were given the worst role models growing up during the first half of the 20th Century and the slow, but important improvements made since. Even if you haven't read many of the books referenced there is plenty of information provided to understand the shocking contrast in attitude, and it's apparent we still have a long way to go, but the changing books today gives some hope that ideologies are improving....sort of.
May 29, 2016
It is difficult to determine how many of the hypocrisies and contradictions in this book are intentional, based on the author's avowed aim of feminist literary criticism of a wide variety of self-selected children's novels, and how much is accidental and has not crossed the mind of the author. Nevertheless, it is the job of a fair-minded but critical reviewer to subject a book like this to careful scrutiny, not least because it makes claims of being insightful and providing wisdom when it does not live up to these claims, or many more modest ones besides. The ironies of this book are legion--the author seeks to critique the self-flagellating nature of feminine heroines in old-fashioned literature only to find herself engaging in self-flagellation over her own fondness for many of the worst and blandest books herself when better options were available. She criticizes the writing of C.S. Lewis and others who seek to judge and evaluate female (and male) characters by societal standards and the desire for the preservation of social harmony and moral excellence, but she merely inverts the process by subjecting books and characters and authors to her own self-appointed standards and her own personal biases and perspective, which is a good deal less wise than that the view she criticizes. She bemoans the large role that social harmony and etiquette for girls and women has for girls' fiction but then bemoans the problems of contemporary society, not realizing that the failure of women to properly appease men has increased the danger for women in contemporary society, and that women are asymmetrically subjected to many dangers that men are not in general subjected to, which makes their concern and plight more serious, and more requiring of both virtue and the ability to charm and persuade others, to exercise skill in soft power.
In terms of the book's contents, it reads almost like a parody of books of deportment, with chapter titles like: Horizontal Heroines, Fluttery Girls, Bloody-Minded Boys: Where Girls Fit In, What girls Could Do, Without Losing Their Girlishness, Girls With Grownups: Loving Authority, Melting Hostility, Girls And Their Friends: Civilized By The Group, Girls And Boys--Conservative Romance, and Today's Terrific New Girl Heroes. The book as a whole takes about 200 pages for the author to criticize a lot of books that few readers are likely to have ever heard from and to comment occasionally on some books that are still read even today, like A Little Princess, Lewis' Narnia Novels, and Anne of Green Gables, among other series [1]. The author spends a lot of the pages of this book whining about and bemoaning the nature of children's literature and its messages, especially (but not only) in the 1950's and earlier, but tacitly acknowledges the fact that she herself was largely to blame, since there were better books available even then that she simply was not interested in, a fact for which she bears responsibility. Both her censure and praise are largely irrelevant, as her personal standards lack any tie or regard for larger moral or societal matters, except to reflect her own change in personal preference between her youth and today.
What fills this book is a sense of resentment at society, at the threat of social displeasure over the violation of gender norms, at those who write books seeking to encourage social harmony and avoid disruptions, and at the practical encouragement given to women to use their own emotional maturity and skills at dissembling to manipulate men. Yet the author's desire for the well-being of women is in direct conflict with the author's hostility to the skills and focus on decency and morality that are necessary to preserve that well-being. Likewise, the author's intense hostility to self-sacrifice undercuts the possibility for there being anything but dishonest and hostile relationships between and among men and women. The need to communicate boundaries and tun aside wrath and hostility did not suddenly vanish when culture engaged in the regress that the author is so fond of celebrating, and we live today with the consequences of both that regress and with the failure to recognize it for what it is, and to engage in the appropriate measures of repentance and restoration to recover as much as possible what has been lost without abandoning those few good things that have been gained.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
In terms of the book's contents, it reads almost like a parody of books of deportment, with chapter titles like: Horizontal Heroines, Fluttery Girls, Bloody-Minded Boys: Where Girls Fit In, What girls Could Do, Without Losing Their Girlishness, Girls With Grownups: Loving Authority, Melting Hostility, Girls And Their Friends: Civilized By The Group, Girls And Boys--Conservative Romance, and Today's Terrific New Girl Heroes. The book as a whole takes about 200 pages for the author to criticize a lot of books that few readers are likely to have ever heard from and to comment occasionally on some books that are still read even today, like A Little Princess, Lewis' Narnia Novels, and Anne of Green Gables, among other series [1]. The author spends a lot of the pages of this book whining about and bemoaning the nature of children's literature and its messages, especially (but not only) in the 1950's and earlier, but tacitly acknowledges the fact that she herself was largely to blame, since there were better books available even then that she simply was not interested in, a fact for which she bears responsibility. Both her censure and praise are largely irrelevant, as her personal standards lack any tie or regard for larger moral or societal matters, except to reflect her own change in personal preference between her youth and today.
What fills this book is a sense of resentment at society, at the threat of social displeasure over the violation of gender norms, at those who write books seeking to encourage social harmony and avoid disruptions, and at the practical encouragement given to women to use their own emotional maturity and skills at dissembling to manipulate men. Yet the author's desire for the well-being of women is in direct conflict with the author's hostility to the skills and focus on decency and morality that are necessary to preserve that well-being. Likewise, the author's intense hostility to self-sacrifice undercuts the possibility for there being anything but dishonest and hostile relationships between and among men and women. The need to communicate boundaries and tun aside wrath and hostility did not suddenly vanish when culture engaged in the regress that the author is so fond of celebrating, and we live today with the consequences of both that regress and with the failure to recognize it for what it is, and to engage in the appropriate measures of repentance and restoration to recover as much as possible what has been lost without abandoning those few good things that have been gained.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
January 24, 2010
Written by an apparently 50-something woman who asserts that the messages in typical childhood books of our generation and earlier "misled" us by fostering passivity, acceptance, etc.. Unfortunately I was never a big reader of "girl books" such as Little Women, Secret Garden (have yet to read them to this day), the Hitty books or most of the others that she cites as examples- my favorites were horse/animal stories and mystery adventures like Nancy Drew & Dana Girls. I did, however find several 'ahah!' moments where I totally agreed with the author and saw parallels to my own experiences in life if not in reading those specific books. Overall the major premise was a little belabored and the section on more recent developments for the better seemed a bit rushed. Still, much to ponder. A good read for anyone studying the history of children's literature or child development.
Want to read
September 1, 2013I've been skimming this online, and it is interesting but does she miss the point with Betsy-Tacy by saying, "Books like this are about what you are, and how that relates to what everyone else is - they are not about what you do."
She describes Rosamond du Jardin's books as offering three guidelines: be beautiful, be manipulative, and be yourself. "It was hard to be yourself and be beautiful at the same time, and impossible to be yourself and also manipulative, but the contradictory nature of the rules was not acknowledged." Come on, Tobey Heydon has a great sense of humor as do most of du Jardin's heroines. Isn't that what makes these books so charming? And really Julia Ray is more manipulative than any du Jardin heroine!
She describes Rosamond du Jardin's books as offering three guidelines: be beautiful, be manipulative, and be yourself. "It was hard to be yourself and be beautiful at the same time, and impossible to be yourself and also manipulative, but the contradictory nature of the rules was not acknowledged." Come on, Tobey Heydon has a great sense of humor as do most of du Jardin's heroines. Isn't that what makes these books so charming? And really Julia Ray is more manipulative than any du Jardin heroine!
March 20, 2019
Thank you, Deborah O'Keefe, for explaining to the world why I don't like Little Women or any books in the series after Anne of Green Gables.
November 18, 2016
Although some readers may view this work as a bit dated, I found O'Keefe's book, which is an interesting historical look at the images of girls and young women in children's books, especially children's books written in the late 1800s to early 1900s, a solid study.
October 17, 2023
Kinda repetitive and I’m not sure it said anything I didn’t already believe. Definitely a rushed positive ending that needed more thought as well. But glad I read it!
July 31, 2008
An interesting topic with some good commentary, but I didn't find O'Keefe to be that good of a writer. Her tone adn formality seemed to shift frequently. Also, I don't know her age, but a majority of the "classics" she referred to I had never heard of.
May 13, 2008
Interesting, but not for me. Recommended reading-- that's all I can say!
Want to read
January 11, 2009I thought I had read this, but it doesn't sound familiar from Constance's comments.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews