How far have we come in 82 years?
March 14, 2011 in Uncategorized
The Empire Annual for Girls, 1929:
“Stories of school life and adventure, topical articles on sport, hints for the practical girl, and several plates in colour and tint”
Page 139: The care of a car: helpful suggestions for the owner-driver
Page 142: Vera’s Adventure with Indians: The story of a plucky girl in the land of snow
Page 166: Speed swimming for girls: hints for would-be Channel swimmers
Page 223: Our great-great-great grandmother’s games: how girls played in the good old days
Plates in tint:
Page 104: “Look, look,” he whispered to Dashoor, “dost thou see that man in the yellow caftan?”
Page 152: “Hi! Paper boy,” she cried – “I mean, garçon!” she added quickly
Soul City information brochure – Stop the abuse against women, 2011
Page 14: What can you do if you are being abused?
Page 22: What is rape?
Page 24: What to do if you have been raped
Page 36: Real life stories of violence against women and girls
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Both of the above were Layla’s reading material this weekend. Both have their place. And girls from both eras would have benefitted somehow from reading both.
We’ve come a long way since 1929, haven’t we? When girls were plucky, maybe swimming the Channel or driving their own cars but still managed to need a lot of rescuing from dastardly foreigners in caftans. Have we though?
We ARE better off now than we were then, I suppose. But some days it doesn’t feel like it.
Having to explain to 9 year old Layla the WHY’s of rape and abuse, I realise that things ARE different. 82 years ago, I guess we wouldn’t have had that conversation.
But reading Soul City’s nifty and informative pamphlet that probably won’t make the slightest difference to those women who’s daily reality is Pages 14, 22, 24 and 36 – it doesn’t feel like we’ve come any distance at all.
shazdart said on March 15, 2011
I have to agree with you, just this morning I was chatting to my Mum about exactly this.
We are still in a patriarchal country where a woman’s value is so underestimated, how do we teach our daughters about their value when Pages 14,22,24 and 36 are the reality out there for so many. xx
youunlimited said on March 16, 2011
Pages 14, 22, 24 and 36 should not have to be part of our kids vocab just yet. Such is life. For every up we have today there has to be a down. Keeping the world in balance and all that shyte.
Sumanda said on March 17, 2011
You’ve been tagged: http://blogs.Parent24.com/Sumanda/blog-challenge
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