Good Girls don’t read

[koyotesdaughter]

I’ve been thinking about young literary heroines. The ones I remember are, if not tomboys, then at least misfits. Anne of Green Gables was our protagonist, not the respectable Diana. Lucy showed us Narnia, not her sensible sister Susan. The Little House series showed us Laura, with her loud mouth and her inability to sit still, not her pretty and

Comments

[after_nightfall]

How about Catelyn then? Good and dutiful daughter who studied statecraft and later thanked her father for the wonderful match he made her. Check. Good wife who helped and supported her husband, and came to feel an affection for him even though their marriage was an arranged one. Check. Good mother who put the wellbeing of her children before her own. Check. Good lady who did her best for her liegemen. Check. She never rebelled and was probably what, say, Walder Frey had been telling his daughters for decades: if only you'd been more like Catelyn Tully, I'd have no trouble marrying you off

[regina_of_york]

Jane is a good example, imo.

Also, what about Elinor from Sense and Sensibility?

[koyotesdaughter]

I was thinking about Elinor. Senses and Sensibility wasn't one of my favorite of Austin's works, so I didn't remember it so well. After glancing back through it, I think Elinor does qualify as a Good Girl.

[regina_of_york]

Elinor is not only a Good Girl, but in the end her more "wild" sister only finds happiness when she learns to be more like Elinor.

Which sounds rather cloying when I type it out that way, lol.

(But if you want a refresher without re-reading the book, try the movie. Alan Rickman as Brandon=LOVE.)

[sodzilla]

I think you're definitely on to something here. If nothing else, the traits that are encouraged in girls and women - such as quietness, diplomacy, empathy, and submissiveness - don't really make for an active or adventurous kind of person.

Whereas the traits encouraged in men/boys - such as fortitude, protectiveness, and a sense of fair play - overlap a lot with the ones encouraged in a hero, so it's easier for a guy to be a Good Boy and still be a hero. Except if he's a 90s comics book character, anyway.*

* = and even then, Captain America gets away with it.

[koyotesdaughter]

Active and adventurous people are great in stories where the protaginist finds trouble. But there are plenty of stories where trouble finds the protaginist, for both boys and girls. In this case, reluctant or ill-suited heros can be just as interesting. I just can't think of many who happen to be female.

[xraytheenforcer]

Huh. Now I have to go back through all my books and see if I can find one, because none come to mind. :(

[koyotesdaughter]

Let me know what you find. I'm still hoping that my reading was just far too limited.

[the_corbie]

Well, I would say most stories about boys are about misfits too, but notable exceptions exist. Frodo, for example, is a very good boy, dutiful almost to a fault. (Which is one reason why The Hobbit is more interesting - Bilbo, initially appearing to be a good boy, is something of a misfit-in-denial, and the story is as much about his realisation of this as anything else.)

[koyotesdaughter]

I always thought The Hobbit was more interesting because, after a weak start discussing the body hair of hobbits, Tolkien managed to stay on-plot a lot more than he did in the Frodo adventures.

But yes, Bilbo is much more of a misfit than Frodo. And the fact that he's middle-aged can be forgiven by hobbits really being an allegory for children, at least in the Hobbit.

[the_corbie]

I do tend to view both as 'coming of age' tales: for all that Bilbo is technically middle-aged, it seems to me that it's suggested this has simply held back his maturity.

I'm trying to think of other examples: the trouble is not that they don't exist, but that many of them are relatively obscure. I think there are a fair few 'good boy' stories but they don't really catch on. Oliver Twist?

[terraprime]

Diane Duane's "So you want to be a wizard" series features a girl who's not tomboy, but who is a bit smart, and who's typically a rule-abiding girl.

I think we need to be a bit weary of "good girls" as a concept too. I just find the term a bit loaded for my own comfort.

[koyotesdaughter]

The term certainly is loaded. Generally they are there in contrast to the girl who talks out of turn or scrapes her knees and tears her clothes while playing or otherwise fails to fit the mold for ladylike behavior. But isn't part of unloading the concept of the "good girl" portraying those who actually do fit that mold, but in a way that displays honest flaws and insecurities? A large part of gender equality, as I see it, isn't just about letting girls into the boys' world, if that's where they're more comfortable, but about demystifying and humanizing those traditional molds, as well. The term "good girl" only ceases to be loaded when we've not only gone outside that mold, but gone deep within it, and shown that these characters are just as flawed as the tomboy heroine

[terraprime]

I see what you're saying. It sounds, to me, like a parallel to the feminist discussion of stay-at-home moms (I'm sure you're familiar with those attending issues). In liberating female characters from the gender tropes of the genre, we might have, without intending to, devalued or marginalized the other spectrum of girlhood/womanhood

[silvertistel]

I was actually having similar thoughts to this the other night when I lay sleepless. :)

Even though Sansa doesn't fit the "Good girl" mould completely, she is still close enough to fit the female stereotype of her time and she can play that role without looking like a misfit, so I'd say she does fit.

As you also know, she's getting a lot of bad reactions from people, as in: they really loathe here for NOT being a misfit or a tomboy.

Hence there seems to be, in many ways, an expectation on women to both conform (being good girls) but also to be misfits to be interesting. A bit of a double-bind there, if you ask me.

I also agree that exploring female characters that are deemed as "good girls" and whose characters are closer to traditional female roles in society are definitely worth exploring. It's sad that not being a misfit often makes the character sit squarely in the "boring" section.