Friday, July 06, 2007
Pleasure and Danger … and Gender
Here we are in the thick of summer. For the kids in our neighborhood – boys and girls alike – it’s a time for dirt, backyard firepits and pointy sticks, skateboard-skinned knees and other hazardous delights. How fascinating and strange, then, to have the gender of these dangerous pleasures thrust in our faces this summer, with two pop culture artifacts. One is the wildly best-selling how-to volume, The Dangerous Book for Boys, and the other is the unsettling throwback movie Nancy Drew. Together they take a nostalgic, or maybe just backward, look at boys and girls and the ways they play.
The Dangerous Book for Boys, piled high in every bookstore, is a runaway best-seller, with mid-life men making up a fat slice of the purchasing public. The volume caters to early 20th century nostalgia, with a gorgeous red cover, antique lettering, and marbled binding that evoke Robert Baden-Powell’s 1908 Scouting for Boys. That manual, and many “Boys Own” magazines, came out in a time when gender roles were shifting, and anxious turf-guarding was the result. A hundred years later, turf-guarding is back, even though the activities in The Dangerous Book for Boys will appeal to any kid with curiosity and spunk. Do paper airplanes have a gender, after all? How about secret codes, tree-houses and crystal-growing? This is cool, cool stuff and my middle-school daughters found it plenty strange that somehow it’s “Girls Not Allowed” territory.
Gender nostalgia is also weirdly at work in the new Nancy Drew movie, to which I brought my own childhood baggage of voracious reading. The movie strips away much of what was appealing about the series. Nancy’s two girlfriends, George and Bess, who are essential to the girl-power book plots, are jettisoned in the movie’s opening scene. Despite the fact that this Nancy attends an updated, Paris Hilton-flavored Hollywood high school, the movie evokes an idealized past, with opening and closing credits featuring the distinctive line-drawings from the 1930s volumes. Where the books and the film clearly agree, though, is that what makes Nancy Drew appealing is not that any girl could be her, but that she is the exception we could never be.
She has fantasy fiction’s requisite absent mother, a father rich and busy enough to give her a convertible and get out of the way, and a housekeeper who provides home-baked snacks but never nags. Unlike the boys’ “how to” manuals, whose premise is, “Here’s stuff any boy can do!” the dangerous stuff Nancy Drew does is only possible for girls under the unique circumstances of fantasy. After all, the danger Nancy Drew gets into puts to shame the so-called Dangerous Book for Boys, with its paper water-bombs and tips for skipping stones. Big whoop. You want to talk danger? In the book series, Nancy Drew gets drugged, knocked out, tied up, trapped – all by adults, and mostly men, who do pose a danger to girls in real life ... but in the books Nancy always triumphs. Sadly, that’s what makes it fiction.
Oddly, the main nostalgia in the movie is for her fashion sense; along the way Nancy converts the Hollywood High girls to Campbell plaid skirts and penny loafers. Since her adventurous life is purely fantasy, ultimately, girls are left to long only for modest things they can wear, as opposed to the fun things boys get to do. What would a “Dangerous Book for Girls” look like – what do girls have to be nostalgic about? Housework? Diaper changing?
In fact, HarperCollins is coming out with The Daring Book for Girls this October, and I’m mighty curious to see how this book will package girls’ history. The messages in this summer’s movies are clear about who gets to have fun. My 10-year-old instantly picked up on the fact that in the penguin action movie, Surf’s Up, only boys enter the big competition, and the two female characters are a fussy, discouraging mother and a gentle-voiced lifeguard who spends her time saving boys from themselves. Gee, what fun! Even Ratatouille, which is filled with underdog ... er, under-rodent charm, serves up a female character only as a side-dish. Maybe this is the appeal of Harry Potter – at least a girl is essentially in the mix, and the pleasure of danger, as well as the sweetness of friendship, knows no gender boundaries.
Fantasies about times gone by can tell us plenty about current politics. There are real dangers for girls that don’t warrant nostalgia. And there’s little to long for when we conjure the female past. I guess that leaves the future, eh? In these long summer days, when it comes to reinventing what it means to be a kid - of any gender – there’s no time like the present. Ready to get dirty?
Books & Films • Customs & Rituals • Sports & Recreation • Women & Men • Permalink • Printer Friendly
A random selection from more than 300 Michiana Chronicles -- refresh the browser to see another set:
Joe Chaney -- More essays by Joe
Louise Collins -- More essays by Louise
April Lidinsky -- Pleasure and Danger … and Gender / More essays by April
Jonathan Nashel -- More essays by Jonathan
Jeff Nixa -- More essays by Jeff
Ken Smith -- More essays by Ken
Jeanette Saddler Taylor -- More essays by Jeanette
Chronicles Home | Email:
Leave a note for any of the authors at our WebNote page, or maybe you'd like a copy of our book?
About the series
Michiana Chronicles is a series of radio essays by Jonathan Nashel, Louise Collins, Joe Chaney, Jeanette Saddler Taylor, Jeff Nixa, April Lidinsky, and Ken Smith.
Michiana is the region of north-central Indiana and southern Michigan roughly centered on South Bend, Indiana.
Michiana Chronicles airs on Fridays at 7:35 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on WVPE (88.1 FM), the home of public radio in Elkhart / South Bend, Indiana.
| November 2008 | ||||||
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | ||||||
Recent pieces
Babies! (Listen) -- America faces severe challenges. But look at babies. There are ten million of them – ten million! – and they are uniformly disengaged and unknowledgeable. Yet I can already hear people raising their voices, saying, “Don’t blame the babies!” By Joe Chaney.
Facing Facebook (Listen) -- Hey, everybody … uhh – just give me a sec-ond here [sound: typing]. There. I just had to update my status on my Facebook page to “April is Facebooking while talking about Facebook.” And maybe you are, too? We’re at a clear tipping point, and suddenly loads of people my age have been sucked into the Facebook zone. And while Sarah Palin blasted Joe Biden for “You know, lookin’ back instead of – doggone it -- lookin’ forward,” the surging popularity of Facebook tells us millions are obsessed with looking both ways in order to make sense of the present. By April Lidinsky.
Let It Rain (Listen) -- As our bad luck would have it, we descended upon the Windy City when it decided to audition for the next Noah's Ark thing. After living in Seattle for a year I considered myself something of a rain professional, but this weekend in Chicago was in a whole different league. By the time we made it from the train station to our hotel, our clothing was already drenched. By Jonathan Nashel.
A Dog’s Life (Listen) -- As an adult, Henry was full of intricate knowledge about the ways of humans. Before I picked up a jacket or a leash, he could often tell that I planned to take him for a walk, and he’d be standing by the door swatting the air with his tail. He always appreciated the time we spent with him and hoped for more. A good dog is capable of infinite hope, and which of us has earned the friendship of such a creature? How can we live up to the example he sets? What kind of a world is it where such a being can grow old and pass away leaving little trace except what we preserve for a time in our hearts? By Ken Smith.
Bikes & Cars in Michiana (Listen) -- So the next time you’re standing at the gas pump worried about the future, notice that cyclist spinning by. She’s a thing of beauty: resilient, adaptable, self-sufficient, and courageous. Part of the next generation of real American freedom and independence. More importantly, she knows a secret that many Americans have forgotten lately: that it’s possible to be surrounded by danger and threats at every turn, working and breathing hard…and still be happy. By Jeff Nixa.
Being Shallow (Listen) -- “What are you going to wear?” said by a companion before sallying forth on a joint excursion is a bonding experience. Those of us who don’t need our mommies to buy Garanimals® for us sometimes care about putting together an ensemble. We follow Balzac’s dictum, “Carelessness in dressing is moral suicide.” Think of it in the oxymoronic term of making contemporary art history. It might be shallow, but it frees our hands from holding the hurts. And, if your hands are free, you can use them to accessorize! By Jeanette Saddler Taylor.
The Nursing Home -- At the nursing home I met a ninety-six-year-old woman who is still sharp-witted but more or less bound to a wheelchair. Like so many others who live at the facility, she propels herself with her legs, taking little steps and rolling along that way, steering with her hands. I met her by the entrance to the dining room. She was waiting for dinner. “All it is around here is wait,” she said, smiling wanly. “Wait for this, and wait for that. I’m getting tired of waiting.” She could be my guide to the underworld. By Joe Chaney.
Eat it Over the Sink -- Thank goodness – it’s finally juicy-luscious harvest time, when, without apology, even grownups can get down and get messy. Whether you’ve got a sunset-colored peach exploding nectar down your chin, or thick slices of a homegrown tomato spurting slippery seeds out the sides of your BLT, now is the time for my favorite piece of wisdom: “If it’s messy, eat it over the sink.” By April Lidinsky.
Looking at Dinosaurs -- Everyone loves dinosaurs. You show me a four year old, a middle-aged crank, and even an old fogey and the one thing they have in common is a love of dinosaurs. Now, why? As explanations go, the best I've heard is that dinosaurs are big, scary, and dead. The dinosaurs at the Field Museum in Chicago are particularly astonishing, and I've happily given in to my little boy's endless fascination with these beasts. We've gone many times this summer to look at Sue, the T-Rex that greets you at the door, and her many cousins. One of the things I find most endearing about the Field Museum is its absolute, take-no-prisoners approach to the subject of evolution. By Jonathan Nashel.
A Tourist’s View of History -- Even though we vow not to treat the city as a mere checklist of landmarks, we ride the elevator to the top of the Washington monument, gush at the Hope diamond, and nod appreciatively at how little wiggle room John Glenn had in his Mercury 7 space capsule. Sure, we're passing Tourism 102: Monuments and Museums but only with a grade of B. We lost points for running the kids ragged in the Washington heat. By Ken Smith.
Ice Cream Man -- “He liked driving the truck,” she said. “He drove a semi?” I asked. “No, an ice cream truck,” she said. “Tasty Cream. You know, those old US mail vans painted yellow and white with a cooler inside?” TQ nodded, “Yeah, he was good at it. He drove real careful, and he’d always take us other drivers out for beers. Spend a whole day’s pay on the guys.” “That was a waste,” said Kim. “Was not,” said TQ. By Jeff Nixa.
Getting Together -- I read somewhere that the 4th of July holiday is the most relaxed holiday of the year for folks: none of the stresses of Christmas or New Year or Thanksgiving. It’s summertime, and not only is the livin’ easy, but it’s also a time for celebration of family through the age-old institution of the family reunion. Mine is no different; we had a “cousins-gathering” one summer Saturday at the farm where my mother was reared. It’s near Lebanon, Kentucky, and my older sister, the knower of these things, tells me that it has been in our Mother’s family for about 175 years. By Jeanette Saddler Taylor.
Categories
Archives and syndication
- By author
- By category
- By date
- RSS 2.0 syndication
- RSS for iTunes
- Technorati Profile