Books over Looks?

In an column written by author Lisa Bloom, her Don't Dumb Girls Down article discusses the ways in which adults consistently approach little girls and proceed to call them words like "cute, nice, adorable, beautiful, well-dressed, etc".  She sees this as particularly problematic in a society where girls at younger and younger ages are beginning to wear make-up, develop eating disorders, and lose self-esteem. 

What does she say is missing?  "A life of meaning, a life of ideas and reading books and being valued for our thoughts and accomplishments."  This directly connects to this week's reading from The Girls History and Culture Reader: The Nineteenth Century.  The two essays we read directly spoke to the early 19th century education techniques and standards for young girls in the United States.  In Chapter 2, the essay "Grown Girls, Highly Cultivated" discusses female education in the Antebellum Southern Family, namely for the family of Elizabeth and William Wirt.  In raising their first daughter, the couple emphasized a diverse education that focused both on intellectual development and housewifery.  They hoped to raise their daughter Laura with "female gentleness and delicacy, with masculine learning & genius-- simple yet elegant-- soft and timid, yet dignified and commanding" (pg. 34).  The outcome of this formalized version of learning was deemed unsatisfactory by the parents and in educating the younger children they changed their educational curriculum and focus onto purely domestic issues (while allowing their daughters to seek more 'masculine' education during leisure time). 

Two hundred years later, we find the women in American expected to be educated by those same standards of promoting "female gentleness and delicacy, with masculine learning & genius-- simple yet elegant-- soft and timid, yet dignified and commanding" (pg. 34).  Still in a culture that is media-saturated and capitalist/consumer oriented, girls cannot escape other informal types of education.   It is important that we take the initiative to speak to girls about important issues in current media, to ensure that girls receive positive messages along with the negative messages.  Sadly, I have to agree with Bloom when she says that she can't impact the larger community, but can only work at changing opinions and attitudes at the individual level.