Boys vs Girls in Olden Times (aka the 60s and 70s)

[magog_83]

I am planning to mock some more old book covers and titles at some point (see my previous one here) because I have too much fun finding them, but today I wanted to briefly share the joys of gender stereotyping that I discovered along the way.

First of all, I discovered that boys have awesome adventures!

If that's not awesome I don't know what is.

Okay, maybe this.

Holy crap, I thought! If that's what the BOYS are doing, I can only SPECULATE WILDLY on the amazingness of the girls' adventures, surely they are leaping from an airship to a plane to the sea to hand wrestle the shark and save everyone.

or doing tarot with Mr Rochester, that's cool too.

Yeah! Sightseeing craziness!

The differences were almost too subtle for me to pick up at times, but they were there.





But you know what? That's cool, because growing up brings its own adventure and soon these ladies will be out there in the world of independent work, finding their vocation.

Just like Christopher here.



I was pleased to discover I was right.



Wait... is that an available man??



OH MY GOD IT IS. SCORE.

At least they're well equipped for THAT role.



The End.

Comments

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

Oh, ugh. And *giggle* Except these books are barely older than me and that makes me want to cry because they are so sexist. But that last cover is hilarious.

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

They are gloriously bad :D I used to read The Chalet School books and I think only about five girls in 60 odd years were allowed to go unmarried, and their husbands were always authoritative doctors who bossed them around. Even 9 year old me was not ok with that crap.

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

LOL. So good to know you had your standards at 9:D

[flossiepots.livejournal.com]

Hah, this is cool. Have you read Hark! A vagrant's cover mocking series?
Gorey covers, conveniently at the top, and if you scroll a lot further down the Nancy Drew ones are even better
http://harkavagrant.com/archivecat.php

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

Apologies, I think it screened your comment because it wasn't an LJ link, very weird :/

Anyway yes, I have seen Hark a Vagrant but I've never seen those particular posts so thank you for the link :D :D :D My friend has linked me Bronte and Tudor ones before I think (I recognise the style). I particularly loved 'The Secret in the Old Attic'! Some of these old covers are just ripe for parody.

[flossiepots.livejournal.com]

Yes that one is good. I like the one where she keeps calling a peacock a cat (obviously straight after she'd got at the mystery juice!).
And when the guys are in the wall and the girls are all OMG WELL GET HELP
"...or we could just walk around?"

[a8c-sock.livejournal.com]

<3 this post.

I like the first one where the shark is so big he doesn't have to bite - he can swallow the guy whole.

I want to know why the pilot of the red plane thinks crashing is an adventure.

OMG! that is Mr Rochester!

Girls can pet bambi whilst boys drive cars.. that's...fair...

Why is a giant wasp attacking Christopher?

Mmm nurses hats.

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

ISN'T IT. As soon as I saw it, I thought of Mr R ;)

I wondered that about Christopher too. In the end I left it captionless because I didn't know where to start, the departmental name? the giant wasp? the epically tall man hiding behind Big Ben? The fact that he's called Christopher Cool and isn't embarrassed about it?? WHERE TO BEGIN?

[a8c-sock.livejournal.com]

He is everywhere...

There's so much on Christopher's cover. He leads such an exciting life! Perhaps he works for a secret department that keep wasps in big ben and fight giants?

[bramble-rose.livejournal.com]

Now, let's not go dissin' Cherry Ames, I LIKED those books *g*

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

I would never diss Miss Ames! Clearly the man is trying his luck and Cherry's expression is saying "Dream on, dude". I read that she enjoyed a variety of careers and never married, is that true??

[bramble-rose.livejournal.com]

Yes it is, even though the love of her life was a Very Handsome Doctor that I think she met during the war ;-) But the part I remember the best is when her entire nurse's graduating class raised their hands to become military nurses (WWII). I was only about 12 when I read them, it was during the Vietnam war.

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

Sadly it is :( It brings you 'the wonderful world of people', and terrible hair-dos apparently. I had tons of annuals growing up, the lady over the road gave them to me and they were all from the 70s, Bunty and Jackie and Princess. Princess was my favourite, with the tale of Grappling Gertie. By day she was the headmistress of a exclusive boarding school.... By night she was a lady wrestler who wore a cat costume! I remember doing a quiz and discovering my Dream Boyfriend was David Cassidy (mum had to explain who he was).

Good times <3

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

I really hope they're not. I still think the attitude persists though. My friend's school had a activity day and the boys ran around and did play sword fighting and had an adventure, the girl activity was learning about fashion :(

I was a little girl who read ALL the pony, ballet and school stories I could get my hands on, along with loads of Victorian children's books :D

[gilli-ann.livejournal.com]

Oh my this brought back memories! I had to smile with recognition. As a kid I spent my summers at a family summer cabin by the sea, and the shelves there were filled with the books my mom and her brothers had bought and read when *they* were kids. Already an avid reader, I gobbled up any book in sight, including those. There was this series that was called "good books for boys", filled with adventure stories, explorers, war and battle tales, spies, big achievements, exciting and dramatic events. And there were the "good books for girls" which dealt with... girls in love. And nurses, I think. The only one of the girls' books I can recall that I thought exciting was one about a girl who was a nurse on one of the Pacific Islands during WWII, and had to deal with bomb raids etc. The girls' books were otherwise boring as heck, while the boys' books were great fun.

So I can corroborate your findings with my memories of those books. Only the boys' books were any fun at all. But I will also say that in hindsight, those "good books for boys" seen with today's eyes were not only sexist, but also incredibly racist and disresepctful and dismissive of other cultures, and quite clueless about doing that. Africans and Asians were stereotypically presented as inferior to the (white) heros, be they explorers, soldiers or spies. Most, if not all of those books were translated and originally of UK and US origin. So I imagine therefore that the same would be true of UK books (and their covers.) Maybe that's another topic to delve into one time....

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

My gran used to have loads of 'boy's' books for my dad and his brother and yes, they did have all the adventures and it was very gung-ho stuff, all mysterious spies and nazis and jumping out of planes.

Re: your other point. The UK had (I believe) a series called 'Boys of our Empire' which I haven't read myself, but I'm guessing presented a distinctly unrealistic view of British colonialism. I noticed a few dodgy covers when I was looking for old boys and girls stories, lots of elephants being shot by men with native guides and ethnic dancing girls and other grim stuff. It would definitely be an interesting one to look at! I don't think I would be able to make it a humorous post though, it might be a bit insensitive (although they all richly deserve mockery).

[gilli-ann.livejournal.com]

Yes, mockery would be what I was looking for. That, and sort of a wide-eyed incredulous wonder at what was completely acceptable and probably taken for granted, not *that* long ago.

[opusnone.livejournal.com]

I think I can rationalize, explain away, or excuse all of the covers except for "The Ideal Book for Girls" - there is something about that one that is truly disturbing. I'm getting some weird cult like vibe off of it. Notice the deer's eyes, even he knows something is going on. His eyes are looking desperately for a salvation that will never come. The pink lady isn't petting him, she's measuring body mass for dinner (notice the pinching of the flesh). And who knows what is really hidden in the green girls basket. *shivers*

I wish I still had acess to my Nancy Drew collection if only to check out the dust jackets.

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha YOU'RE SO RIGHT.

I'm betting that beneath those flowers is some pretty delicious seasoning, just waiting to be used...

Old books are goldmines of hilarity, amongst my pony books waiting to be mocked I have 'The Lost Cow', 'We Met Our Cousins' and 'The Black Stallion and Satan!'. Clearly they subscribed to the Bradley James 'Say What You See' form of literal titling ;)

[readbeforesleep.livejournal.com]

Maybe the deer has rabies? That would be an adventure.

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

Well it is looking out of the picture in a slightly creepy way... D:

[aprileaf.livejournal.com]

The differences were almost too subtle for me to pick up at times LOL. Funny and frustrating at the same time, especially when you realize it wasn't all that long ago.

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

I think you still see it today sometimes, although hopefully in not quite such an obvious way. At least we had Enid Blyton writing adventures for boys and girls, even if Fanny and Bess did the cooking in Magic Faraway Tree.

[dk323.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...that "Boarding School Nurse" cover just had to have a man on there as well. :p It's giving the same message as the next cover with the whole available man thing. *long sigh* Just not right.

I was reading the Boxcar Children and the Laura Ingalls Wilder books when I was younger. The girls didn't have big adventures there, unfortunately. Still I enjoyed the Laura Ingalls Wilder books - I was interested in historical fiction books and those books were set on the prairie, which is what used to be here where I live... at my high school, they even have an area of preserved prairie. I had to help clean it up as extra credit for my Biology class. :p A whole day affair.

I can't quite remember regarding the sisters (two brothers, two sisters...sort of like Chronicles of Narnia, but more based in the real world ;)) in the Boxcar Children...they took part in solving the mysteries...I think. :p

LOL at the sightseeing craziness -- maybe they saw some whales and a shark could have attacked them and they had to figure out a way to defeat the shark... they could get help from that guy who's about to be eaten by a shark.

...on second thought...maybe not. :p

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

I am reliably informed that Cherry Ames was actually pretty cool! Clearly the publishers didn't get the memo and went for the 'romance' angle regardless...

I loved Laura Ingalls Wilder books, they were excellent, even if they were very much of their time of course with regards to adventures and gender differences. Enid Blyton wrote adventures for her female characters though I suppose, so there was hope for girls.

Re: the shark. I've decided they're shark-hunting, as you say, and they're going to use that random man as bait!!

[katie-andrew.livejournal.com]

"or doing tarot with Mr Rochester, that's cool too."

I laughed so HARD. Embarrassingly hard.

Why do we always get things like this? I want the flight adventures!

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

:D :D

I really couldn't think of anything else when I saw that pic. They're either doing tarot or playing snap, it's so hard to say with those cards...

I want the adventures too! Not with the shark maybe, but definitely all the jumping from planes and catching dastardly spies etc

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

OMG, that is so... so... precious.

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

Isn't it just. Those were the good old days!

[entangled-now.livejournal.com]

I never knew boys were having all those adventures. Why did I spend so much time feeding deers, and going sightsighing on boats, WHY!

;_;

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

I know! There was, collecting summer blossoms in my basket and petting passing deer, and all the while spies went un-caught, sharks were spreading terror through the high seas and there were planes up in the sky that needed my help, damn it!

Little did we know :(

[sighnomore.livejournal.com]

Wow. I have to say though, I'd rather feed a dear than be eaten by a shark :|

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

I cannot argue with that. I like to think that man was just lulling the shark into a false sense of security though, before he pulled some amazing move!

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

I know :( Katzgalore (below) linked me this

http://www.feministfatale.com/2010/09/scholastic-books-encourages-girls-to-seek-glamour-and-boys-to-seek-adventure/

which just goes to show it hasn't :(

[sally_maria]

Say what you like about Enid Blyton (and you'd probably be quite right), she did at least have both boys and girls having adventures. There were a lot more adventure stories, and particularly fantasy/sci fi, that weren't that obviously gendered, at least by the later 70/80s when I was reading them.

I'm not sure it's got any better though. Modern children's book covers are every bit as bad - the proliferation of pink is really quite something. If fact, I think if anything they are more gendered - it's not just the specifically labelled books that are obviously aimed at stereotypical girls or boys, but most of them.

When it comes to comics, it's even more so. At least our girls' comics had stories with girls doing interesting and exciting things - they may not have been so jet-setting, but they defeated the bad guys and learnt they were capable people, able to stand on their own two feet. Modern ones seem to be all about cute animals, pretty jewellery and picking up boys. *old codger shakes walking stick* ;-)

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

Enid Blyton was great really. I appreciate her all the more after finding all these. When you think of Famous Five, and Bess and Fanny in Faraway Tree and Elizabeth in The Naughtiest Girl in the School. They all had so much fun! And, for all that I picked these out as the worst offenders, I grew up reading pony, school and ballet stories in which girls went on epic pony treks, captured baddies, played amazing pranks and rescued people. Hell, in The Chalet School in Exile, they all escaped the Nazis and climbed through the mountains to Switzerland!

I'm glad we have awesome stories and comics to offset all the sparkly pink stuff <3 (I can't help but notice the pink sparkliness of pony and ballet stories today though, the ones I read were set in a much more down to earth and not-obviously-gendered world :/ )

[katzgalore.livejournal.com]

All very true and kinda depressing really (but with a funny commentary as usual :)). There's a really interesting, similarly themed post at a feminist site here:

http://www.feministfatale.com/2010/09/scholastic-books-encourages-girls-to-seek-glamour-and-boys-to-seek-adventure/

That's actually where I found the link to that spoof Bronte sisters toy advert.

That article also features a link to a really cool site where they create childrens (and ladies!:D) t-shirts that have cute images of females in powerful professions (http://www.pigtailpals.com/whdoregime.html).

For children only, they have re-imagined girl-only adventure storybook type designs and my favourite is http://www.pigtailpals.com/castlefriends.html. They're so awesome! And the success of the company certainly seems to suggest small but effective progress is being made in educating and empowering the next generation of females :).

Sorry for spamming you with links, I just think they're interesting sites :).

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the links! That's such a brilliant company, I heartily approve of what they're doing. It's so frustrating to see the endless 'pink' themed stuff for girls, and all the fun stuff for boys. I liked Disney Princesses etc as much as anyone else, but that shouldn't be ALL girls have. At least the pony and ballet stories I used to read had girls going on adventures, getting jobs (even in that limited 1960s way) and experiencing the real world and being generally awesome!