{"id":14738,"date":"2017-02-02T12:01:55","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T17:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=14738"},"modified":"2017-01-10T18:48:04","modified_gmt":"2017-01-10T23:48:04","slug":"girls-just-want-to-have-fun-damental-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/girls-just-want-to-have-fun-damental-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Girls Just Want to Have Fun-damental Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

But, other things came to light over the past year that led me to conclude that, in some respects, we haven\u2019t come very far at all:<\/p>\n

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  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.<\/li>\n
  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.<\/li>\n
  3. Despite the new Barbies, we haven\u2019t 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.<\/li>\n
  4. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    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.\u00a0 One involved a comparison between the covers<\/a> of Girls\u2019 Life <\/em>(aimed at 10-14 year olds) and Boys\u2019 Life<\/em> (written for 8-16 year olds).\u00a0 The Boys\u2019 Life<\/em> cover asked readers to consider careers they might want to pursue as adults.\u00a0 The Girls\u2019 Life<\/em> cover promised articles for girls about hair and fashion.\u00a0 The other controversy swirled around a feature in Discovery Girls <\/em><\/a>(for 7-12 year olds), which asked young girls to think about the shape of their bodies and consider \u201cWhich Swimsuit Best Suits You?\u201d\u00a0 Critics felt the article demonstrated body shaming, and were appalled to see it directed at such young girls.<\/p>\n

    I was deeply touched by all of these things, and they led me to ponder what role children\u2019s librarians could and should play in changing some of these pervasive and troubling societal patterns. What I concluded is that, while librarians can\u2019t change the patterns singlehandedly, they can definitely be part of the solution.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

    I think it is useful to begin by asking ourselves how we treat young children when we greet them in the library.\u00a0 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?\u00a0 Do we steer young boys automatically to truck books and girls to Fancy Nancy<\/em>?\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong\u2026I 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.\u00a0 I\u2019m 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Similarly, we want to be sure that kind, gentle boys see their version of masculinity celebrated and represented in our libraries.<\/p>\n

    In the early days of the women\u2019s movement, it was easy to find lists of books for children featuring what were then called \u201cnontraditional gender roles.\u201d Because the gender stereotypes and inequality between the sexes that initially led to the women\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

    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 \u00a0\u201cpretty\u201d:<\/p>\n