Girls Just Want to Have Fun-damental Rights

I’m a baby boomer who came to adulthood during the first flush of feminism. In those days we went to consciousness raising groups and talked about such radical notions as women in professions and getting help from men with housework and childcare.

We’ve come a long way since those days. Women in the United States are now CEOs, scientists and serious presidential candidates who win the popular vote. Last year our country decided for the first time to put a woman’s image on our currency (what took so long?), a Muslim beauty contestant who wears the hajib strutted in a burkini during the swimsuit part of a pageant, and Mattel introduced Barbie dolls with more realistic and varied bodies.

But, other things came to light over the past year that led me to conclude that, in some respects, we haven’t come very far at all:

1. We learned to our dismay that a large number of American women are victims of sexual harassment in one form or another. Most of them never speak up about it, and when they do they are frequently blamed or shamed.
2. The media reported that women still earn less than men who do the same job, and that their contributions in the workplace are often trivialized.
3. Despite the new Barbies, we haven’t come very far in judging girls and women by more than their looks, regardless of their other achievements. One example; upon her death, Carrie Fisher, an accomplished author and longtime advocate for addiction recovery and mental illness sufferers, was most often praised and remembered for portraying a gold bikini-wearing princess in a movie.

Our girls are still taught from a young age to focus on their appearance more than other attributes, and they are often encouraged to find fault with their bodies. This was made all too clear by two controversies last year, both arising from messages found in popular magazines.  One involved a comparison between the covers of Girls’ Life (aimed at 10-14 year olds) and Boys’ Life (written for 8-16 year olds).  The Boys’ Life cover asked readers to consider careers they might want to pursue as adults.  The Girls’ Life cover promised articles for girls about hair and fashion.  The other controversy swirled around a feature in Discovery Girls (for 7-12 year olds), which asked young girls to think about the shape of their bodies and consider “Which Swimsuit Best Suits You?”  Critics felt the article demonstrated body shaming, and were appalled to see it directed at such young girls.

I was deeply touched by all of these things, and they led me to ponder what role children’s librarians could and should play in changing some of these pervasive and troubling societal patterns. What I concluded is that, while librarians can’t change the patterns singlehandedly, they can definitely be part of the solution.  Librarians exert a strong influence on many children, especially the young ones who are most malleable and who are frequent library visitors and attendees at storytime and other programs. The way we treat these young children and the books and other materials we expose them to can help to perpetuate harmful stereotypes or dispel them. We have a unique opportunity to offer a different and broader perspective to a child who may be getting only one point of view at home or from their peers.

I think it is useful to begin by asking ourselves how we treat young children when we greet them in the library.  Do we perpetuate gender stereotypes without even realizing it, cooing over little girls and telling them how pretty they are, and commenting on the strength of little boys?  Do we steer young boys automatically to truck books and girls to Fancy Nancy?  Don’t get me wrong…I know there are some boys who LOVE truck books, and some little girls who will only wear pink or purple and who dream of being princesses, and there is nothing wrong with that.  I’m merely suggesting that we make sure to applaud diversity in the interests and attributes of the children we encounter, just as we are conscious of and actively promote racial, religious and sexual identity diversity in the books and experiences we expose children to in our libraries.  We should do our best to make sure that the little girl who hates bling or who wants to be a scientist or drive a truck earns our praise and sees herself reflected in our collections and programs.  Similarly, we want to be sure that kind, gentle boys see their version of masculinity celebrated and represented in our libraries.

In the early days of the women’s movement, it was easy to find lists of books for children featuring what were then called “nontraditional gender roles.” Because the gender stereotypes and inequality between the sexes that initially led to the women’s movement still exist in many ways, the need for such booklists is still with us. You can find some online, but librarians did not create them and they are not available at libraries, so I challenge each of you to develop you own and add it to your display rack and your website.

To get you started on your list, here are just a few picture books that celebrate girls in diverse roles and as something other than conventionally  “pretty”:

• Beautiful by Stacy McAnulty, illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff (Running Press)
• Me…Jane by Patrick McDonnell (Little, Brown)
• Not all Princesses Dress in Pink by Jane Yolen and Heidi E.Y. Stemple, illustrated by Anne-Sophie Lanquetin (Simon & Schuster)
• Rosie Revere Engineer by Andrea Beaty, illustrated by David Roberts (Abrams) Ada Twist, Scientist is another book by this author/illustrator pair

And don’t forget some picture books that show boys as kind, gentle and loving, such as:

• How to Heal a Broken Wing by Bob Graham (Candlewick)
• Hug Machine by Scott Campbell (Atheneum)

I think that a young child who is repeatedly exposed to these materials and messages in our libraries is more likely to grow into an adult who is comfortable with a wider range of personal expression and one who is more tolerant and respectful of others.  At the very least, he or she will not despair or feel defective if their looks, personal interests or dreams do not fit what they see most often among their peers or in popular culture.

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Our guest blogger today is Barbara Klipper. Barbara is a retired children’s librarian, author, autism advocate in the library world, and cisgender woman.  She was once a little girl trying to figure it all out who would have loved the help of a caring librarian. She can be contacted at Barbaraklipper.librarian@gmail.com

Please note that as a guest post, the views expressed here do not represent the official position of ALA or ALSC.

If you’d like to write a guest post for the ALSC Blog, please contact Mary Voors, ALSC Blog manager, at alscblog@gmail.com.