Some generalized snark

[ilovejunk]

Reading through the books I've come across a few odd things that show up over and over, but haven't really been pointed out thus far. So, I figured I'd make a post about them.

1. I can't help but notice AMM seems to have a hardcore "zomg TV is the entertainment method of SATAN!!" stance. Seriously, it seems like nobody ever watches TV in this series

Comments

[cassandraclue]

2b)i went to private school and my area was heavily saturated with private schools. my school was in 2 private school athletic leagues. i attended two private schools, both quaker, and within 20 minutes of each other. the fact that stoneybrook had 2 private schools never seemed weird to me. what is weird is that there's no catholic school.

3)the sitters mention wearing makeup a lot, especially stacey, claudia, and dawn. only kristy, mal, and jessi never wear makeup, so i don't really know what you're talking about. yeah, they freak out about ma's makeover, but that was just dawn and kristy being psychotic.

4)stamford might just not be that happening. i know kids from the area (fairfield county) where stamford is and where stoneybrook is supposed to be, and they all went to new york for entertainment.

5)the newtons have one.

[cassandraclue]

btw, princeton, new jersey where ann grew up has 7 private schools according to wikipedia. stoneybrook is heavily based on princeton. but seriously, where are the catholic schools?????????

[glitterberrys]

There are no Catholics in Stoneybrook, apparently, judging by book 56. Kristy (or Mary Anne? I can't remember, SOMEONE) was scandalized that the racist Lowells assumed Mallory was Catholic because of their huge freakin' family.

[rugger_green]

I was just thinking this. It does seem odd that Catholicism is nonexistent in Stoneybrook. I get that it's supposed to be WASPy, by geez.

[glitterberrys]

6. Also, ever notice that "sophisticated" actually means "big boobs?" Kinda wonder who Ann M met in NYC...(and my god, if we're going by her criteria, I am ULTRA-SOPHISTICATED, being both stacked and a Manhattan native...)

[cassandraclue]

yes!!1 alexandra carmody filled out her bikini top nicely, after all. mary anne is always noticing people's boobs in bikinis.

[ilovejunk]

Mary Anne always creeped me out a bit with the boob thing. Especially in the early books she can't seem to describe anyone without also saying how big their boobs are! It's very odd. Even as someone who is attracted to women I can easily describe my friends without talking about their boobs or drooling over their long legs.

[lizwinlove]

I always saw the books as kind of a---stream of thought rambling type of thing. There were always details, not just the boob thing, that seemed wierd to be included. And if I weren't censoring myself and just saying whatever came to mind, then yes, boobs would enter the picture. Especially if they were like, really small ones on a big girl or really big ones on a small girl and didn't seem proportional. Or, for instance, in a tv fandom I'm a part of I keep meaning to mention how the main female character has very noticable breasts and since it's a kids show there is never cleavage, but she's definitely got a lot larger boobs than most tv teenagers. And I was going to point that out to wonder if it had to do with Canadian children's show casting directors casting teenagers with more realistic bodies than the American purtianical casting directors do

[joincidence]

I think Jamie Newton had a swingset, as did the girl that pranked Claud - Betsy someone?

As for the Stamford thing, Stoneybrook seemed to have quite a lot in it. When I was that age, I lived pretty close to a huge city myself (second city in the UK) but only went there probably once every holiday, if that.

[joincidence]

Yes, I think you're right!

[author_by_night]

I can't help but notice AMM seems to have a hardcore "zomg TV is the entertainment method of SATAN!!" stance. Seriously, it seems like nobody ever watches TV in this series, and if a poor kid tries to turn a TV on for five seconds they're stopped and forced to play ridiculous games.

In one of the books, Nicky says that all that would happen if you fell down a tree is you'd fall into a roll. Mallory(?) said "you watch too many cartoons." Did anyone ever honestly think that at eight? I also read in Ann's biography that she thought they had too much violence.

When AMM/ghosties want to make someone, such as Cokie, seem particularly evil, they just have them pull out a pot of lip balm and suddenly the mark of the Beast appears over their heads. At my school, I'm pretty sure by 8th grade all the girls wore makeup except for the complete tomboys and the girls whose religions forbade them to wear pants or cut their hair.Um - I wasn't any of those, and I never wore make up until college. ;) Though to be fair, I was protesting preps, so that

[janerunner83]

Yeah, I didn't wear makeup for a long time, either. One reason is that school started sooo early, so I just didn't plain care. It wasn't until college that I started wearing it, and after college that I knew what I was really doing. Sure, I wore nail polish, but mascara? Forget it.

[kumquatwriter]

ZOMG, Full House Icon Love!

[janerunner83]

:D

[bean138]

Maybe all the black families are rich and sent their kids to private school? (Maybe that's why everyone is racist against Jessi... she's poor AND black. ZOMG.)

(On a tangent, I live town with a similar demographic to Stoneybrook and we have five black kids in the high school. All of them are imported (program that brings kids in cities to suburbs))

So Stoneybrook has two private schools, but they don't have a shopping district? I only remember them mentioning a movie theatre Bellairs... my friends and I lived at the movie theatre when I was 13, but then again, we didn't discuss children for fun. But I know why they never go to Stamford - they would have to ask for rides and since creepy Charlie will only do it when he is getting Janine out of it, they'd have to ask their parents... another ZOMG.

I recall that Jaime Newton has a swingset...

[bean138]

movie theatre AND Bellairs... ugh, typos

[ilovejunk]

I know in the book with Mallory and the Arnold twins she drags them to some shopping district with a bunch of little stores. And there's apparently some restaurant that Logan works at (apparently there are no child labor laws in BSCland), although that may have been in the mall, I can't remember. But both of those places are mentioned pretty rarely.

[lizwinlove]

To be fair...Jessi's family shells out a LOT of dough for her to take those ballet lessons. They probably are rich, but it was private school or ballet. XD