What I researched and why: With all this talk of mean girls, I found myself remembering that all-around wholesome, good girl hero Nancy Drew, the seeming antithesis to the viperous mean girls who are the subjects of books, movies, and, as we have realized, countless articles and studies. I wondered what happened to good old Nancy, if she ever made it beyond the old-fashioned looking hard-cover books I had when I was a kid, if there was even a place for her among all these mean, queen bees.
What I found: I found this article from the Boston Globe titled “Nancy Drew and the Mystery of the Mean Girls” by Melanie Rehak. It traces the progression of Nancy Drew from her conception in the 1930s up until the current Nancy Drew Girl Detective series, all the while emphasizing her popularity and niceness, in contrast to the current fascination with mean girls. (Incidentally, there was also a Nancy Drew movie that came out this year which also featured Nancy as the rare nice girl; many reviews called her “a fish out of water” among the sea of snobby mean girls).
My Interpretation: This article was written only two years ago, so it is right in the midst of the current mean girl phenomenon, which may explain why the author places Nancy’s niceness on such a pedestal, why she clings so fervently to the success of a good girl, claiming triumphantly at the end that “it’s not always the nice ones who finish last.” The author seems to be offering the young girls of today a wonderful alternative to the ubiquitous mean girl model, but the description of Nancy as the “quintessential Nice Girl” is so obviously idealized—she is not only intelligent but has a “sense of fun, and amazing ability to save a drowning swimmer, diagnose and treat an injury within seconds, or escape from any number of treacherous situation, often while dressed in a perfectly matching skirt and heels.” This nice girl image is unrealistic and unattainable. Nancy is also deliberately separated from many real world problems that many real girls face, such as the issues of drugs and rape, which further pushes Nancy, the so-called role model for nice girls, away from the realm of the real and into a cloud-like ideal that is impossible to reach. It is interesting that the ‘mean’ model of girlhood is attacked in this article by citing Nancy’s contrasting niceness, but since this niceness is wholly implausible, it leaves real girls with two very unhelpful models of girlhood—one full of petty cruelty and superficiality, and one that is so idealized they cannot possibly live up to it.
What this adds to our discussion: Reading this article, which holds Nancy Drew up as a role model in opposition to the shallow mean girls who are so popular now, made me think of the excerpt we read from Sharon Lamb’s The Secret Lives of Girls. In it, Lamb talks a lot about the danger of the “good girl” ideal, stating that “Until we accept the darker side of women and girls, including our own aggression, our anger, and our urge to compete as well as dominate, we will perpetuate the myth of the good girl and the good woman that has so oppressed women for ages” (Lamb 179). It is possible, then, to view the image of Nancy, (the “quintessential Nice Girl”) as negative, as an oppressive standard for girls because it is an unattainable “myth” that ignores girls’ natural desires, their “human impulse” for “personal power” (Lamb 179). So even though Nancy may seem like a ‘nice’ alternative to the hordes of biting mean girls, her good girl image, which refuses to touch the “darker side” of girls, ignores their basic human desires for power, and so ignores real girls in favor of the stereotypical “myth of the good girl.” Just as we strive to comprehend why our current culture is so fascinated by the ‘mean girl,’ we should also ask ourselves why the ‘good girl’ is so unattached to reality, why it denies so ardently the natural desires of girls.
9 comments:
While I think that Nancy's smart, no-nonsense way of being is great...I'm still forced to cringe at the thought of her being uber-polite while solving mysteries in a matching heel and skirt set. Now, I'm not suggesting that mean girls are fantastic...or even that they represent feminism trickling down from adults to children (although I do think it's something to maybe think about) I do have an issue with the idea that girls are supposed to be polite and dressed in heels in order for them to NOT be mean girls. I mean, there has to be someone who messes up just a touch, and yet still comes out as a likeable, good role model right? The question, I think, is how can a heroin "mess up" enough to be a human being and still be a good, "non-mean" girl?
This post reminds me of when we were talking about 17 Things Im not allowed to do anymore and people said it was a bad book for young kids. We are now saying good girls are not "good" books for children to read and we are saying bad/mean girls are not "good" books for children to read. What are kids going to read? I personally don't see a problem with children reading about mean girls because it is the reality and I don't have a problem them reading about good girls because it is more innocent and a light story.
I totally agree with Mariko, that we cling to the nice girl just as much as we are fascinated by the mean girl. The article states that a spin-off of the original series, Nancy Drew On Campus, flopped. It placed Nancy in real world situations and showed her not always steadfast self-esteem level. Just as we don't like to see the Saved by the Bell kids in college, we don't like Nancy Drew there either. High school seems like a simpler time, with bilateral tendencies--good and bad. I would like to see more adolescent literature dealing with the balance of both sides, like Flight.
This article sounds like a very interesting find. It seems like the Nancy Drew role models are everywhere. These literary figures seem to emphasize some good things, such as intelligence and bravery, but they can't seem to shake that heels and skirt image. To me, it looks like that's just putting more pressure on girls. It seems to be saying, "First you have to be pretty and fashionable, then you can move on to being smart and whatever else." So, while Nancy Drew may not be a mean girl, I agree that there is more work to be done to find a heroin that doesn't put so much pressure on girls.
Wow this may be a big surprise in an English literature class, but I think we might be over-analyzing something here. The Nancy Drew series is just about a girl solving mysteries around her town. Sure, she may wear skirts and heels and act disgustingly polite, but does that really mean that being nice is a bad thing? I'm still having a hard time dealing with the whole meanness-as-liberation thing. Why can't a woman solve crimes and be polite without making overarching generalizations about her gender. Does every action or piece of literature have to have such grand consequences? I think this happens when we try to force literary theories on works.
Then again, if we didn't do this, I probably wouldn't have a major...
I feel like the question isn't should kids read books about good or bad girls, but they should read about what is reality. The reality is that girls in our culture are basically taught from magazines, music and so much of popular culture that being "bad" is more "fun" and easy than being good. Why would a girl want to strive to be a "good girl" when she can go to the bad side and feel better about herself through material and superficial means. I think that young girls really need to understand what it means to be "good" or "bad" and what the consequences are of both. Being bad seems to be a cop-out way of dealing with much deeper insecurity issues and perhaps this is where our focus should lie.
I think these are all interesting points of view, but I think there is something missing from the discussion: the fellas. What images of females, femininity, and female power are being presented to young men through different media outlets, including children's literature? And how do these images affect how males see the female half of the species. I live in a house with 18 other people and the males among those seem to have thought before living in such close quarters that females did not use the restroom. Not literally (I don't live with idiots), but they get so incredibly grossed out if a female excuses herself to go to the restroom, and yet if a male farts in their face it is alright. I think this can easily be linked to the ideal of the 'good girl' with the matching heels and skirt. At the same time they seem obsessed with the supposed 'manipulative' qualities of the women in their lives. I believe this is also based on a model of female behavior that has been drummed into their heads by movies such as "Mean Girls."
I think that the problem inherent here is that everyone focuses too much on "good" and "bad" as the only two possible stances for a woman to take-- it's like the Madonna/Whore syndrome; there is no middle ground. Although children's literature has become much more realistic over the last few decades, a lot of this kind of thinking still lingers in children's books and in the society at large. It is important to portray girls and women as regular people, part good and part bad, with talents and endearing qualities as well as flaws and the ability to make mistakes. Forcing young girls into choosing "good" or "bad" will inevitably suppress one side of their natural personality and can warp their view of themselves and others.
I think that Paige touches on a really interesting issue that we haven't really discussed. What are the effects of creating stereotypical roles for boys and girls to fill on the opposite gender. When girls are being encouraged to empower themselves and be "mean girls" or "good girls", how are boys supposed to learn what girls are really like? My brother and I are close in age and as a result share a lot of the same friends, so we've spent a great deal of time discussing the topic of "why do guys/girls do that?" Kids who are confused about the opposite gender grow into adults who are confused about the opposite gender and we see women looking for the perfect "Mr. Right" and men looking for idealized women, neither of which exist.
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