the case of Nancy Drew: disempowering the feminine

I would be interested to know how many women really believe that they have equal status alongside their male counterparts in Western society. I think we have been had because popular culture tells a different story.

Today was the first time I was made aware of Nancy Drew. Apparently she is an institution in the U.S. and has been around since the 1930s. Nancy is a fictional 16 year old character, a young amateur detective, and her audience is made up of children and young teens. This might sound innocent enough, however the more I Googled her (thanks Wikipedia), the more disturbing a phenomenon she turned out to be.

She started out well enough - was smart, had studied psychology (at 16?, oh well…..it is fiction), was a fine painter, spoke French, was a skilled driver, a ‘sure shot’, an excellent swimmer, skillful oarsman, gourmet cook, rode like a cowboy and danced like Ginger Rogers. There’s more but you get the idea – in all, my kinda girl.

But over the decades her character ‘evolved in response to changes in American culture and tastes’. Jennifer Stowe believes that she has actually ‘devolved’ and I would have to agree with her. When the books were extensively revised in 1959 Nancy’s ‘outspoken character was toned down and made more docile, conventional, and demure’. From a ‘bold, capable and independent’ young woman, she ‘becomes progressively weaker, less in control’.

By 1990 there is a ‘complete reversal’ of her character and she is often represented as the victim, being chased and threatened, her initial confidence replaced by fear. This is just more of the endemic and insidious disempowerment of the feminine through sexualisation. But what really alerted me was the way in which a once positive feminine archetype is portrayed as being merely decorative through images. I will let them do the talking…..

1930–1959 intelligent, outspoken, authoritative, independent, capable, more interested in solving mysteries than participating in family life.

Image: 'girl on a mission, girl with a 'life'

1959–1979 personality ‘diluted’, loss of independence, more respectful of ‘male authority figures’, agreeable, ‘relentlessly upbeat’ (does that sound familiar?), goes to church ‘as often as she can’, holds her tongue and doesn’t ‘sass the dumb cops’.

Image: 'dumb blonde, cute arse'

1980–2003 now always associated with boys (read: women couldn’t possibly live without men), confusion of identity, focus is now on romance.

Image: 'paranoid, victim - where's the diazepam'

In 1986 still obsessed with boys, ‘always pictured with an attentive, handsome male in the background, often dressed provocatively, in short skirts, shirts that reveal her stomach or breasts, or a bathing suit, more vulnerable, being often chloroformed into unconsciousness, (that says it all) and defenseless. But hey, she finally gets to go to college…..

Image: 'well who needs a brain when you have tits like that'

2004–present now transformed into the Girl Detective series Nancy drives a hybrid car and uses a cell phone. She recounts her mysteries in the first person. The new series is praised as being ‘more realistic’, Nancy is now a less-perfect and therefore a better role model (as if they really care)

Image: 'sexualised tween, lets try plaid instead of the school uniform'

Some believe that Nancy is now just a ‘silly, airheaded girl whose trivial adventures "hold a shallow mirror to a pre-teen's world." Mmmm...funny that.

As Lou Reed would say: stick a fork in their arse and turn them over, they're done'

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