Pretty Sweet?: Hegemonic Masculinity, Female Physicality, and the Regulation of Gender in a Vintage Book Series for Girls

Introduction: Vicarious Living through Hybrid Literature

At the beginning of the twentieth century, an innovation in literature for children was the introduction of book series aimed specifically at juvenile readers. Tomes heavily laced with moral lessons gave way to mass-produced and cheaply priced stories of adventure, fun, and friendship, first for boys, and, soon after, for girls (Romalov 87-97). Because publishers wanted sales, they strove to supply books that appealed to the interests of children. Books for boys that were "exciting and entertaining with juvenile heroes and juvenile villains, a great deal of action, some of which was plausible and some not, no sex, a minimum of dialogue and philosophy" were, although deplored by teachers and librarians, "bought by the millions" (Dizer 75). The Stratemeyer Syndicate dominated the production and marketing of book series specifically for children. By making books cheaper and thus more accessible to young buyers, Stratemeyer bypassed teachers and parents.

Nancy Romalov describes the production of series books for girls as an "hybridization" process, whereby "the form and content of the girls' books imitated the boys' books, and the result was an hybrid literature in which girls vicariously could live the adventures of young heroines as 'new women' in a new century" (89). Peter Stoneley notes that the pairing of girls' series with boys' series enabled females to visualize a more adventurous life, but notes that "the apparent physical freedom is often conditioned by an intense and almost inescapable ideological control. There are attitudes and protocols to which the girls must conform at all times and in all places" (94).

Publishers soon realized that they were caught in a difficult situation when it came to series books featuring sport and adventures that were aimed at a young female audience. Athletics, for example, requires displays of physical skill, determination, daring, risk, and independent behaviour, all traits regarded as masculine at the time (Hall 64). Conventional opinions about women at the turn of the twentieth century were guided by deeply rooted cultural assumptions that female passivity and subordination should serve primarily as support for the public activity of males. There was very little public support for female sport competition, and few athlete role models for young women to emulate. For example, a few American women "entered women's tennis, golf and archery exhibitions in the 1900 and 1904 [Olympic] games, but their participation was not encouraged or well publicized" (Cahn 45). When Canadian and American women did begin to compete in a more organized fashion in the Olympic Games, their activities were severely restricted to sports, such as swimming or figure skating, that highlighted female health and beauty (Cahn 45; Hall 68).

Nevertheless, a variety of cultural changes contributed to greater female interest and participation in sport and recreational games. As more women began to attend secondary and post-secondary institutions, schools provided more opportunities for women to participate in organized team sport. An influx of European immigrants accustomed to more varied and extensive sport participation for males and females and increased economic pressures resulting in more women in the workforce led to increased demands for recreational facilities and activities for workers (Hall 27-37; Hill 6-7; Cahn 44).

The Girls of Central High book series for girls provided significant support for the athletic endeavours of young women at a time when a great deal of controversy enveloped women's participation in competitive sporting activities. A girls' book series featuring physically skilled, athletic, and yet feminine young women found ready acceptance in the imaginations of the girls for whom these books were published. As Nancy Romalov observes, "hybridization was bound to result in some degree of confusion, tension and contradiction" (89), and many potential book buyers—teachers, librarians, and parents—disapproved of books encouraging female children to emulate masculine behaviours (Ross 202-04). Notwithstanding the reservations of parents and librarians, book series for girls proved to be wildly popular from their inception. Stoneley notes that "between 1900 and 1910, forty-six new series for girls were begun; between 1910 and 1920, there...