Comments on: Sweet Valley Narrow

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:57:33 +0000

I was obsessed with SVH when I was a kid. I seriously don’t recall all the stuff about “perfect size 6″ and all, but I remember thinking that I wanted straight hair and aquamarine eyes (never realizing, of course, that my eyes ARE aquamarine!)

Now though, I only recall one book form them all clearly, and it’s the one about the carnival, and Elizabeth gets knocked out and the rides turn real. And I think it stuck with me because of the plot. Otherwise, I remember so bloody little from the series.

But hearing that they are pressing the “ideal” of skinniness home like that sickens me. Better the ban the books, I think. And I’m a bibliophile!

By: Headlines: Trouble with an eating disorder? Try an exorcist today! … plus: The whiter the better … plus: 4 is the new 6 « Pretty Little Girls

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:46:02 +0000

[...] Shapely Prose/Feministing: Those fat-assed Sweet Valley High twins lose some of their pesky extra pounds, going [...]

By: i-geek

i-geek — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:44:04 +0000

Krista: “Also, Laura’s mother was constantly hounding her to wear some kind of corseting garment and worrying about her figure. Ma even bragged that when she and Pa were married, he could span her waist with his hands.”

I loved Laura’s retort to this, something about how Pa couldn’t span Ma’s waist with his hands anymore but he still seemed to like her. If I’m remembering correctly, Ma told Laura not to be saucy, but smiled and dropped the corset talk.

I need to go back and reread these books. I liked how everyone, Laura included, acknowledged that even though she was small she was very strong, both physically and mentally. Her strong personality was considered a good thing and she was valued for that, for her intelligence, and for her kind nature, rather than for physical attributes.

By: Ailbhe

Ailbhe — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 17:51:01 +0000

Caroline Ingalls had the girls run out and ask a visiting auntie whether she preferred brown curls or golden curls when they were like FOUR and SIX or so. The auntie said she liked both kinds best. And later Charles pointed out to a miserable Laura that well, his hair was brown, and Laura realised that it could be ok to have brown hair.

So yeah, there were issues about beauty standards then, too.

By: Krista

Krista — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 15:51:13 +0000

I don’t know if anyone else remembers it, but even the Laura Ingalls Wilder books had their small obsessions with size and body image.
In one, Laura compares her waist, which is round, with the antagonist’s (Nelly!), whose is flat.
Also, Laura’s mother was constantly hounding her to wear some kind of corseting garment and worrying about her figure. Ma even bragged that when she and Pa were married, he could span her waist with his hands.

By: Lindra

Lindra — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 13:51:22 +0000

Take it from me — as a blonde, sea-green-eyed classical beauty with peaches and cream skin who happens to fit that exact description except for ’slender’ and ’size 6′: we hated those books too.

Mainly because the twins made us look like bad girls for not being all perfect and altruistic just because we were stereotypically pretty.

By: TWoP Fan

TWoP Fan — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 04:01:18 +0000

Disclaimer: I love SVH. Always have. The description of the twins never bugged, but when Robin lost weight did get to me.

As such an afficiando, I shall list some of the more intersting (hee) titles:

Super Thrillers (ie, murder mysteries the twins help solve, naturally):

#104-106 – Love and Death in London
A Date With a Werewolf
Beware the Wolfman

And the very best:

A 5 part series where Jessica spikes Liz’s drink at the prom so Jess will be crowned prom queen, but Liz leaves with Jess boyfriend and they get into an accident and he bites it. (Seriously, like 8 of Jess’s bf’s die.) Anyway, there’s a whole trial and what not and it comes out that of course someone else hit them, it wasn’t Elizabeth’s fault. However, the whole time this evil girl who looks just like the twins is planning on killing Liz and taking over her life. (I am not making this up.) Then, in one of the super thrillers (Deadly Chistmas) the evil girls IDENTICAL TWIN shows up and tries to kill Liz as well. Which is stupid, because both girls think Liz should be more like Jess, so why don’t they freaking kill Jess?

I think of them as soaps in book form. Plus, I can read one in an hour.

And how sad is it that I did that from memory? Almost as sad as thinking someone will read it and/or care.

By: Kira

Kira — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 17:12:10 +0000

Linz, when I was a kid, beheading and disemboweling Barbies was THE WHOLE POINT OF PLAYING WITH THEM!

We shoulda hung out…

By: lc

lc — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:52:28 +0000

c – of course I remember the Margaret series! They were among my favorite books as a kid as well. “Margaret in the Middle”, “A Place for Margaret”, and “Margaret on her Way” are, I think, the three books in the series by Bernice Thurman Hunter. They’re a Canadian series, so American readers here have probably missed out on them. You can get the whole trilogy for under $11 Canadian on Amazon.ca though

Chartreuse, I LOVE YOU! I am indeed Canadian (though an expat at the moment) and I read them when I was growing up in Canada. Thank you SO MUCH, I am about to go buy them right bloody now.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 06:50:34 +0000

Just fucking sickening.

I think my daughter is a bit like time machine and I sometimes lack a knowledge of what to supply her to read.

She has been choosing materials of her own liking since she was four and preferred reference books and encyclopedias. It has been a struggle for a less ‘classically’ educated me to keep up with her desire.

After exhausting Anne of Green Gables, The Miracle Worker and other classics when she was five she turned to Baby Sitters club books. They served her well for a while but she has grown out of them. I always take notes from these comments when it turns to books but still fall short.

I am scared for her future but am trying to involve her in feminist ideals and critical thinking when it comes to other outside influences. Luckily I come with a whole library of feminist and size acceptance books but she is still exposed to so much terrifying stuff.

Then this comes along and I feel powerless and overcome by more shit I cannot control.