Figure 1.--This illustration is from "Every Girls Story Book" shows a boy skillfully catching a trout whilke the girl passively waiting to net the fish. We are surprised to find these gender sterotypes in girls' books. I am not sure wjo the illustrator was. |
Often but not always it was the boy characters that were the most valiant. We find this a little surprising. As the author, did not dealve into girl's literature nmuch as a boy in the 1940s. As an adult, I was somewhat surprised to find that even in girls' books, it was the boys who took the valiant or dominant role. The girls in many of these books are depicted as the weak figure needing to be resuced, or at least taking a back seat in the plot or activity depicted. This is not only the really adventuresome activitives, like fighting fierce giant squid on the story book gender page. We note the same trend in more mundane activities even when fishing for less dangerous species. Note that the boy here us dong the fishing while the girl is only netting the fish once caught. Of course we have just begun our assessment and perhaps the prelimaray material we have found here is misleading. Also there may have been chronological shifts in plot lines. Hopefully our HBC lady readers will set us straight in this regard.
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