I am a great fan of Enid Blyton, but that doesnt mean that I loved all her characters. Inspite of being a woman author, she stuck to the gender roles. There was atleast one character in all her series which was a typical girly girl, and she would play mom to the other kids. But Wendy in Peter Pan takes this mothering role to an entirely new level.
Peter Pan is seeking a girl so that she can be a mother to the Lost Boys. In other words, someone who will tell them not to fall for poisoned cakes, someone who will tuck them to bed, tell them bedtime stories- if Grimm bros could compile a fairy tale collection, i am sure boys can tell stories too, and, wait for it, someone who will darn their stockings. Eww! I agree that the character is created in 1912, when lets face it, most women were housewives. But wasnt 1912 also the year of Amelia Earhart?
Recently, my colleague and his wife have a baby. He was telling us how it needs to be fed every 3 hours. And each feeding session is around an hour long. So he was stressing how motherhood is a triple duty full-time job. But at what point in the evolution chain did women become solely child-bearers and child/home-rearers and just gave up doing anything else?
Funnily enough, Peter Pan's author portrays boys as completely devoid of any common sense too. For instance, when Peter Pan wants his shadow back, he doesnt look around for a gluestick, but tries to stick it with a SOAP for god's sake. This otherwise lame Wendy stands up to Peter Pan in their first meeting saying he is not the captain in her house, and so he should behave himself.
What strikes me odd is that the Darling kids forget all about their parents. Only Wendy has a hope in her heart that her mom will never forget them and will always have a window open for them to fly back in. Personally, that scene was the cutest in the book, the real "awwww" scene Vs all of Wendy's irritating motherliness.
In one of the scenes Wendy points out that she thinks Peter is the "father" of the Lost Boys and she the mom, and a hint of romantic feelings towards Peter. How Peter returns it is immaterial, when Peter asks that Wendy should visit him once in a while, its Wendy's mom who says that Wendy will come and do Spring Cleaning for Peter. And not just Wendy, Peter ends up taking all of Wendy's female descendents to do spring cleaning for him. Gulliver's travels made me realize that what we read as children's stories could actually be allegory/ political satire. If this is not some sort of a bonded slavery then please explain what it is!
Dear children's authors, it is bad enough that girl kids are given dolls and boys Lego kits, but please dont reinforce the notions through stories too. I am no "feminist" in the political sense of the word, but I know girls can make excellent engineers too. Dear adolescent book authors, you dont have to tone down Nancy Drew's sarcasm to make her "acceptable" to readers, if we can love Chandler Bing surely we can learn to appreciate Nancy Drew? And dear Adult book authors, there is so much more to a woman's life than being a beautiful blonde and attracting the man of her dreams.
Peter Pan is seeking a girl so that she can be a mother to the Lost Boys. In other words, someone who will tell them not to fall for poisoned cakes, someone who will tuck them to bed, tell them bedtime stories- if Grimm bros could compile a fairy tale collection, i am sure boys can tell stories too, and, wait for it, someone who will darn their stockings. Eww! I agree that the character is created in 1912, when lets face it, most women were housewives. But wasnt 1912 also the year of Amelia Earhart?
Recently, my colleague and his wife have a baby. He was telling us how it needs to be fed every 3 hours. And each feeding session is around an hour long. So he was stressing how motherhood is a triple duty full-time job. But at what point in the evolution chain did women become solely child-bearers and child/home-rearers and just gave up doing anything else?
Funnily enough, Peter Pan's author portrays boys as completely devoid of any common sense too. For instance, when Peter Pan wants his shadow back, he doesnt look around for a gluestick, but tries to stick it with a SOAP for god's sake. This otherwise lame Wendy stands up to Peter Pan in their first meeting saying he is not the captain in her house, and so he should behave himself.
What strikes me odd is that the Darling kids forget all about their parents. Only Wendy has a hope in her heart that her mom will never forget them and will always have a window open for them to fly back in. Personally, that scene was the cutest in the book, the real "awwww" scene Vs all of Wendy's irritating motherliness.
In one of the scenes Wendy points out that she thinks Peter is the "father" of the Lost Boys and she the mom, and a hint of romantic feelings towards Peter. How Peter returns it is immaterial, when Peter asks that Wendy should visit him once in a while, its Wendy's mom who says that Wendy will come and do Spring Cleaning for Peter. And not just Wendy, Peter ends up taking all of Wendy's female descendents to do spring cleaning for him. Gulliver's travels made me realize that what we read as children's stories could actually be allegory/ political satire. If this is not some sort of a bonded slavery then please explain what it is!
Dear children's authors, it is bad enough that girl kids are given dolls and boys Lego kits, but please dont reinforce the notions through stories too. I am no "feminist" in the political sense of the word, but I know girls can make excellent engineers too. Dear adolescent book authors, you dont have to tone down Nancy Drew's sarcasm to make her "acceptable" to readers, if we can love Chandler Bing surely we can learn to appreciate Nancy Drew? And dear Adult book authors, there is so much more to a woman's life than being a beautiful blonde and attracting the man of her dreams.
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