Feminist Voices in Children's Literature

In searching for works of both literary and social criticism of children's literature I found the pickings to be slim. Should We Burn Babar was one of the few books that I found that was really taking a look at the social memes, especially around oppression, that are being passed through children's books.

One of the books I did find didn't exactly fit in to this part of my project, being about Young Adult Novels, but I decided to use it for lack of an abundance of options. Waking Sleeping Beauty: Feminist Voices in Children's Novels by Roberta Seelinger Trites focuses on the critique of the feminist themes in Yong Adult Fiction.

For personal reasons I found this book particularly compelling as I am in the beginning stares of developing a Young Adult novel. It was interesting to follow Trites as she applied feminist theory to the characters and story lines of so many novels that are thought of as empowering to girls. Her chapters are broken down into different themes such as sisterhood, gender roles and mother/daughter relationships. What I got out of this book, in large part, was a list of books that I want to read or re-read with her critiques in hand.

In many ways it is hard to apply the complexity and depth of her ideas to the picture books that are currently my focus. Her commentary around gender roles, and identity outside of the comparative opposites that our culture assumes about gender certainly apply, as I have touched on in previous discussion about gender stereotypes. But often the level of relationships where so many of the oppressions of a patriarchy are brought to light are not conveyed as boldly in picture books, due to length.

I think that the power of reading her critiques, and how I can apply it to my own reading and research, lies in the assumed back story of these books: The unspoken cultural norms.

It is interesting to think how to relate complex ideas of gender, identity, culture, relationship and oppression in short form fiction, for a young audience.

A couple of interesting omissions, or places that she put little, if any, focus were around transgender and genderqueer topics, as well as sexuality outside of the hetero model. In the past ten or fifteen years (the book was written in 1997) it seems as if the awareness around sexuality and non-binary gender and how they relate to feminism have come to the forefront. It feels like this book misses out a lot by not addressing these issues as well.

I look forward to revisiting this book while working and my own novel, as well as finding the time to read some of the books she critiques with an eye to the points she raises about them.