School stories you read as DCs (Malory Towers/Chalet/Trebizon/Sweet Valley!) - fond memories plus in hindsight what impact did they have?

[ForkfulOfEasterEgg]

Inspired by this thread where some of us started reminiscing about school stories we'd read when we were younger and maybe still sometimes -reread--.

So partly a fun thread for discussing these books but I am interested in working out what messages you think you unconsciously took on from them.

The Chalet Shool series of which I was am a massive fan. It is really old - was written between ?1930 -1950 ish so I think I saw it as being part of a different era. Education for girls was seen as very important but all the female teachers were unmarried and stopped work if they married.

All the best characters were reserved the honour of marrying a doctor!

I went to a girls school so it was normal for me to think of girls being educated without boys.

Probably the Sweet Valley series had a bad impact on me. I loved reading these books - for escapism - I knew they were of no great literary value. All the slim girls/make up/impressing boys probably had a negative impact.

Did anyone's mums take a dim view of your reading material? Even if my Mum had read a Sweet Valley I don't think she'd have criticised it from a feminist point of view mainly as she is not a- feminist!

Are there any modern school story series featuring feminist messages ?

[steamedtreaclesponge]

Arg, just wrote a big old post and mumsnet ate it. Will try again...

[steamedtreaclesponge]

So - I didn't read the Chalet School until I was a teen, so I don't think they had much effect on me. Although I was always a bit about the numbers of children all the women (yes, you, Joey) had - no wonder she kept getting ill, with 8 sets of triplets or whatever it was she had!

Looking back at Mallory Towers and the like, I think they were pretty OK from a feminist perspective - the most popular characters were always talented, or nice, or good at sports, and the ones who were only interested in looks or money were generally portrayed as being a bit silly. And they all seemed to go off to careers or university when they finished school, which can't be a bad thing! Not a husband in sight! Although I do think this is partly down to the age group they're aimed at - certainly I was reading them at the age of 7 or so and would not have been impressed with the introduction of boys

[Insomnia11]

I didn't read any of these books.

I remember my parents' friends' daughter outgrowing all her Judy/Debbie magazine spin off story type books and giving a huge box of them to me, which I devoured, at around age 12 or so. All about the nice, poor, quiet, studious girls coming good against the nasty rich bossy types!

It did used to annoy me when the only female character in a story or on TV was a bit pathetic and there for decoration and would always be the one needing rescue or tripping up and causing the baddies to catch up with them, even as a kid. Whenever there were strong females I did identify more with them- however unrealistic. I did love Wonder Woman. I never felt pathetic, dumb, helpless or that I was inferior to a man though, but that was more due to my mum. Though my dad could be a bit sexist and traditional my mum would pull him up on it...Remember he once said to me when I came from playing out, in front of my mum "What are you doing playing football? Girls shouldn't play football." My mum went ape shit at him "She can do whatever she bloody likes....!" My parents were quite untraditional for the 80s though - my mum worked full time, and for quite a lot of her career was the main breadwinner, my dad worked shifts and could often pick me up from school. He was always home from work first anyway and would cook the tea and did his fair share of housework. My mum sometimes had to travel with work around the country and abroad.

I do think female role models are generally more positive in film, books and TV now than they used to be. It helps that a lot of screen writers are women. In fact sometimes I think to be more realistic we probably need fewer kick-ass female characters as not all women are like that! Some do trip over and need rescuing, and I think it's fine to portray that as long as there is a balance.

[nickelbaalamb]

I read Trebizon, most of the blyton school series and Sweet Valley Twins/high.

I actually forgot i'd read the sweet valley ones till recently, so obv didn't have much of an impact...

[Batteryhuman]

Loved them all esp Mallory Towers and Chalet School (kaffe und kuchen anyone?) and thought thats what boarding school would be like rather than the miserable nest of bitches and bullies that it turned out to be. Not sure I've got over the sense of let down yet.

[TanteAC]

I loved Malory Towers and begged mum to send me to boarding school (sounds like it was a good thing she didn't, batteryhuman!)

In fact I loved all Enid Blyton books even the Secret Seven etc which were very sexist! My poor mother was horrified, but she needn't have worried, as I do remember laughing with my sister and saying things like 'Let's climb the tree! Oh no, we couldn't dream of getting the girls in danger!' in what we thought were English accents, then cracking up laughing.

We just took it for granted that in 'the olden days', there was an amusing and preposterous presumption that women and girls were feeble and needed to rely on the men to sort everthing out. Ho ho ho.

Was the first time I met someone who was genuinely sexist (in my young teens). A bit like the first time you meet someone who is plainly and simply racist and unapologetic. Your mouth just sort of hangs open in bewilderment and disbelief...same

[eggspectantmum]

Loved the Chalet School books. Not sure of taking any messages to be honest but would have read them at around 8.

Can I add Ballet Shoes/School series (Noel Streatfield). Didn't do ballet classes as a kid & revelled in these stories.

[madwomanintheattic]

i remember demanding everyone called me george at guide camp. i even splatter painted it on my neckerchief.

and my patrol won all of the competitions, clearly because of my masterful and manly leadership.



that said, i spent most of my (hitherto) professional life being incorrectly addressed as 'sir', so i've only got myself to blame really.

read lots of boarding school stuff, but went to local comp where blowing up tables with gunpowder was more de rigeur than kaffee and kuchen. and, for some reason, joyce stranger - which i suppose was at least a step above blardy magic kittens/ puppies/ ponies.

and then i mainlined all the dross my mother left around. i must have read well over a thousand mills and boon before i hit 13. and a fair few jilly coopers. just because it was there, really. these days i won't go within a square mile of one, despite having had the pleasure of listening to the then chair of the romantic novelist's association discuss feminism during my english lit degree...

i pretty much read everything, tbh. i wasn't discriminate in the slightest. a total book slut.

[Stropperella]

I read Mallory Towers, went to boarding school, had a horrible time and felt completely cheated. I think this is probably why I don't remember any of these sorts of books with any affection whatsoever.

[AnnVeronica]

I read Sweet Valley for years in my teens (none of the others mentioned above). My mum would never have questioned it. She has no concept of feminism.

Looking back now I cannot believe how shite they are!

Jessica is manipulative and cruel to almost everyone but she's always forgiven as she's so blonde and perfect.

In fact, every member of the Wakefield family is model gorgeous. I vividly remember the line, "Jessica shuddered to think what it would be like to have a less than attractive family". As if it's the worst thing ever!

Robyn the cheerleader is a social pariah until she loses a lot of weight and then becomes a popular cheerleader.

Brunette girls might be attractive in an unconventional way, but not being blonde means they're always less desirable?

There's the characters from the wrong-side-of-town, whom always Jessica considers beneath her contempt, but they usually come good in the end and idyllic Sweet Valley life continues...

[AnnVeronica]

Jessica always - should be that way round

I was a bit rambly in my last post, a trip down memory lane!

Looking back now, SVH has limiting and really quite offensive stereotypes and role models for girls.

Being beautiful means being forgiven for shitty behaviour.
Any domestic setup that's not a traditional nuclear family is wholly dysfunctional.
Nice girls save their virginity, only the slutty girls have sex. These are usually the girls who also drink, do drugs and hang out with the local ne'er-do-wells.

I was so glad when my younger sister showed no interest in these books. I'd hate her reading this crap.

[jeee]

The Chalet School, with all its faults, was astonishingly modern in some ways. The girls were expected to prepare for a career (before marrying their doctor). It wasn't snobbish - Biddy O'Ryan remained the daughter of an irish maid and sergeant major, and didn't discover she was actually the kidnapped daughter of Lord Whoever. Elinor M Brent-Dyer wrote about anti-jewish activities in a book published in 1940 (the Jewish jeweller was about to be lynched by a mob of Hitler Youth). She also distinguished between Germans and Nazis throughout the war years - which was actually quite courageous in a quiet kind of way.

I wouldn't say the Chalet School influenced me - but if it did, I can think of worse things to be influenced by.

[alexpolismum]

Oooh, the Chalet School! This takes me back! I remember reading the war years books, too, jeee. Wasn't there one girl called Gertrud who turned out to be spying for the Nazis (although why they would need to spy on a girls' school is beyond me!). I loved the way they had to speak different languages on different days.

And I also found it hilarious that Jo and Madge had so many children.

I don't think they had much impact, really, except on my pocket money, as I bought as many of them as possible. I was a major fan!

[Bumperlicioso]

I loved SVH but they were shite. One vignette that has stuck with me is when one of the girls went to the house of someone from 'the wrong side of the track' and was completely astonished at how pretty and nice the inside of their house was in an 'omg you are so poor but well done for not living in a hovel' kind of way. I don't think the books really acknowledged just how priviledged the Wakefield, they were considered ordinary compared to the Fowlers and Patmans.

They had sororities which are allegedly about 'sisterhood' but I wonder how much they are really?

I'm still going to get the new 'adult' sweet valley book that's just come out

[sethstarkaddersmackerel]

I've just realised that in our house it was my brother who was into St Clares and Malory Towers!

I used to like proper 20s and 30s Angela Brazil-type books from secondhand bookshops. My favourite was called Puck of Manor School but I can't find it on google. Then there were the Dimsie stories by Dorita Fairlie Bruce.

there was always the small impish one who had all the adventures and the wise kind senior girl they all worshipped.

the thing I remember most is the intensity of the girl-girl friendships.

the thing that struck me most re-reading them as an adult is that whenever the (inevitably widowed) dad of one of them comes into the story he is always hot. Generally because the plot involves him marrying one of the nice young teachers.

[sethstarkaddersmackerel]

rofl @ 'marrying a doctor'. Anne of Green Gables married her doctor, of course - not a school story but probably a forerunner of them.

[springlambkin]

SVH were terrible. Full of girls whose waists were small enough for their footbal playing jock boyfriends to get a single arm all the way round

I do remember the Judy Bloom books being fairly empowering though, although I can't remember too much about them now (obviously apart from the one that everyone thought was vaguely soft pornish because it involved a young couple having sex for the first time)

[sethstarkaddersmackerel]

Forever by Judy Blume.
read that one as an adult because we had a flatmate called Ralph and my fellow female flatmates collapsed into giggles every time they said 'This is Ralph' to anyone.
Poor Ralph.

[springlambkin]

I was just going to mention Ralph, then thought it may be childish

[ForkfulOfEasterEgg]

Ooh Anne of Green Gables - love love love those books and the movies which were made for TV. I am thinking that Anne was a feminist - very progressive in her views - she stood up for various causes and herself etc.

One day I will visit P.E. Island. (SGM - have you ever been there? It's just that I've heard that you're Canadian you see )

[ForkfulOfEasterEgg]

My Mum banned Judy Blume books.

But I read some anyway.

[springlambkin]

I remember the Judy Blume book which featured a girl starting her periods because it described some kind of belt, onto which looped sanitary towels had to be attached.

Scared me into starting mine late I think!