Pippi has decided that she wants to try a bit of non-fiction. She says that the characters in the last two books she read were too much alike. They were both girls who made a big deal out of their hatred of having to sew (or spin, or do embroidery.)
That got me to thinking. In order to show that the character in a book (of the two she read, one was fantasy and the other historical fiction) is not your 'typical' girl the girl is often depicted as hating to sew, chafing against 'girl' clothes, wanting to be like a boy. And maybe a lot of girls did want that. But, if it's supposed to be against type, shouldn't there be some girls in these books who DO like to sew, or do 'girl' things.
Just a thought. I'm sure the characters are out there - Pippi is just not coming across them (even Laura Ingalls preferred running around to sewing - it was Mary who worked diligently on her nine-patch.)
For the record - the non-fiction book Pippi picked is "The Diary of A Young Girl, by Anne Frank." I don't remember Anne Frank's opinion on sewing.
No comments:
Post a Comment