>In the later books (those that I have read, far
>from all) she is completely reduced to a generic mom character who
gives
>out hugs and brownies. Calvin, on the other hand, gets to stay
somewhat
>interesting. The message seems to me to be that it's okay to be a
>nerdy girl, but you damn well better conform when you grow up.
Anne replied:
Either that's the message, or it is that the only choice for women when
they reach adulthood is to be this sort of generic mom, regardless of how
nerdy/intellectual/unfeminine they were in their reckless youth. I guess
this means that until adulthood soon-to-be-women are "allowed" to behave
in a less-than-feminine way, but once they become sexually active adults
they must conform to a traditional role.
My 2 cents:
Ever read "Reviving Ophelia"? It was on the best-sellers list for
a while. Fairly depressing, but it gives some insight into why Meg
would have behaved so (were she a real person :) ). It presents
case studies that basically covers what Anne wrote, although the
authors claims are that the pressures to conform start in
adolescence, about the time so many girls math scores drop and so
many get eating disorders. Not a science fiction book, and I was
depressed for a week after reading it, but fairly insightful, even
though it seems to raise more questions than it answers.
Back to lurking (and what they pay me to use this terminal for :) )
Bonnie
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:06:16 PDT