Packaging Girlhood by Sharon Lamb & Lyn Mikel Brown

Author:Sharon Lamb & Lyn Mikel Brown [Sharon Lamb]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780312352509
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

GIRL TYPING IN BOOKS FOR GIRLS

If you are still searching for girl protagonists, the good news is that there are lots of them these days. They may not be winning the awards, but they’re out there. Children’s literature is the best place to see the early introduction of female “typing” that will follow your daughter through high school. She can be the “girly girl” in pink and bows; she can be the “power girl,” the one who wants to have it all: good grades, high heels, painted nails, and basketballs; and she can be the resister—a clown sometimes or an aggressive girl—who basically says, “To hell with it. I’ll find my own way alone or as one of the boys.”

Angelina Ballerina (written by Katharine Holabird and illustrated by Helen Craig) represents the girly girl. Not actually a girl but a cute little mouse. (In other words, a small, meek animal.) Angelina loves ballet. In the introduction to this series we see that she wears ruffly dresses adorned with multiple bows, and a present of a pink tutu is a life-changing experience. As in much of children’s literature, older women are presented in this work as opposers of little girls’ dreams. In the story we meet her mother, who is pictured cooking and sewing and who doesn’t want her to be ambitious. Above all, she wants Angelina to keep her room tidy. A neighborhood lady is angry because Angelina dances in her flowers. After her father gets her a tutu and ballet lessons, she is good. How does the book present “good” for us? She keeps her room tidy, gets to school on time, helps her mother bake, and sometimes lets boys catch her on the playground. The first three are the typical ways girls are supposed to be good, but why in the world would she let boys catch her on the playground? She does not want to oppose the boys’ wishes? She does not want to make them feel bad for being slower than her? Help your daughter to open the back door and let this mouse escape!

Olivia is a pig in the book with that title by Ian Falconer. That’s something. At least we know she can be dirty and squeal. We’re told that she’s good at many things. That’s a big hint we’re dealing with the “power girl.” The embodiment of girl power for advertisers is a girl who can “have it all.” She doesn’t have to give up makeup, boys, or fashion. She can do all that just as she does sports, leadership, and drama. Olivia puts on lipstick and high heels, loves the Degas painting of ballet dancers, and has to try on everything—so we are reassured that she is not too unlike other girls. She also builds the Empire State Building as a sand castle and does a Jackson Pollack–like picture on the wall. But while Olivia has a few good qualities, we’re too often reminded she’s a typical (read stereotypical) girl.

In Olivia Saves

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