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jhameiaSo, Sweet Valley Twins are coming back. Not only are they coming back, but they have some updates.
Here're some readings on it from:
Racialicious, Feministing, and the Dairi Burger.
Here's a nifty little image which demonstrates the main differences between the old 1980's version and the new one:
There are, of course, so many things wrong with Sweet Valley, coming from an adult perspective, that one could get started on. For example, how fucking idiotic some of those girls are. How silly adolescents behave. That's starters. As you grow older and stop to think about it (well, hopefully), you realize these girls are terribly, terribly racist.
Then there's the size 6.
It's been upsetting to read how SV has influenced so many girls to become anorexic. Now, I'm not going to say that SV made them that way - they probably had enough problems on their own that if not for SV, something else would've driven them to anorexia.
But the discussions at Feministing and Racialicious (particularly the latter) got me to thinking about the kinds of books I've read, and how they're influenced my perception on racial issues. For some reason, I'm quite sure most of the books I've read had pretty heteronormative, single-race couples. If I read anything with more than one race of people in it, it was either a preachy sort of book, or it was predominantly minority-based (Color Purple, being one example. I read that during lunch break in the Taylor's College library and cried at the end).
But I DO remember one book from my childhood quite clearly. On the front cover, there was a Malay girl standing in the middle, with a Chinese girl on one side of her, and an Indian girl on the other side. While obviously, the Malay girl is dominant, I remember illustrations from the book where they were depicted walking to school together, and holding hands, or doing things together.
So no, I never read no stinkin' Sweet Vally High books in high school...
In secondary school, I was reading actual romance novels, by Johanna Lindsey mostly, but I also tried to expand my reading material. One of the other authours I tried to read was Julie Garwoods' For the Roses, and while I didn't really very many, For The Roses stood out for me.
The book begins with four street urchins in some deadbeat American city getting together and finding a baby girl in a basket. They take an oath to go out West together and stick together as brothers for the rest of their lives. While this isn't totally interesting in itself, I feel the need to point out that the eldest of the boys is black, aptly called Adam, and his mother is called Mama Rose - all the other boys feel an affinity immediately. Another boy's mother is called Mary. So they call the foundling "Mary Rose" and make a solemn oath to stick together and make a good life "for the roses".
Mary Rose grows up your typical beauty and she's discovered by Harrison Stanford that she's the child of an aristocratic London couple (as this is how most foundling novels work out) and she has to deal with being herself in a city where everyone expects to behave a certain way and bla bla bla. That's not important.
What's important, at least in the context of this entry, is that Adam, the eldest brother, is being accused of murder towards the end of the book, and Stanford steps foward to defend him. Adam's accusers all try to use his blackness against him, but his family know him too well. The town, however, is slowly being turned by the racist propoganda, until Stanford points out, quite rightly, that Adam has done his fair share in contributing to the town and in being a good neighbour.
There aren't more romance novels out there which feature black or yellow characters, which I think is a shame. I think "One Red Rose" which features Adam and his hookup story (let's face it, that's really all these romance novels are about... hooking up) is the only one in my entire memory with a black couple in the forefront.
If there're any romance novels you can think of which feature minority characters, please pass the suggestion! I'd love to sink into some good ol' fashioned romance-novel smut.
Oh, and by the way, I never read no Danielle Steele either. I peeped into a few of her novels - *yawn!*
Here're some readings on it from:
Racialicious, Feministing, and the Dairi Burger.
Here's a nifty little image which demonstrates the main differences between the old 1980's version and the new one:
There are, of course, so many things wrong with Sweet Valley, coming from an adult perspective, that one could get started on. For example, how fucking idiotic some of those girls are. How silly adolescents behave. That's starters. As you grow older and stop to think about it (well, hopefully), you realize these girls are terribly, terribly racist.
Then there's the size 6.
It's been upsetting to read how SV has influenced so many girls to become anorexic. Now, I'm not going to say that SV made them that way - they probably had enough problems on their own that if not for SV, something else would've driven them to anorexia.
But the discussions at Feministing and Racialicious (particularly the latter) got me to thinking about the kinds of books I've read, and how they're influenced my perception on racial issues. For some reason, I'm quite sure most of the books I've read had pretty heteronormative, single-race couples. If I read anything with more than one race of people in it, it was either a preachy sort of book, or it was predominantly minority-based (Color Purple, being one example. I read that during lunch break in the Taylor's College library and cried at the end).
But I DO remember one book from my childhood quite clearly. On the front cover, there was a Malay girl standing in the middle, with a Chinese girl on one side of her, and an Indian girl on the other side. While obviously, the Malay girl is dominant, I remember illustrations from the book where they were depicted walking to school together, and holding hands, or doing things together.
So no, I never read no stinkin' Sweet Vally High books in high school...
In secondary school, I was reading actual romance novels, by Johanna Lindsey mostly, but I also tried to expand my reading material. One of the other authours I tried to read was Julie Garwoods' For the Roses, and while I didn't really very many, For The Roses stood out for me.
The book begins with four street urchins in some deadbeat American city getting together and finding a baby girl in a basket. They take an oath to go out West together and stick together as brothers for the rest of their lives. While this isn't totally interesting in itself, I feel the need to point out that the eldest of the boys is black, aptly called Adam, and his mother is called Mama Rose - all the other boys feel an affinity immediately. Another boy's mother is called Mary. So they call the foundling "Mary Rose" and make a solemn oath to stick together and make a good life "for the roses".
Mary Rose grows up your typical beauty and she's discovered by Harrison Stanford that she's the child of an aristocratic London couple (as this is how most foundling novels work out) and she has to deal with being herself in a city where everyone expects to behave a certain way and bla bla bla. That's not important.
What's important, at least in the context of this entry, is that Adam, the eldest brother, is being accused of murder towards the end of the book, and Stanford steps foward to defend him. Adam's accusers all try to use his blackness against him, but his family know him too well. The town, however, is slowly being turned by the racist propoganda, until Stanford points out, quite rightly, that Adam has done his fair share in contributing to the town and in being a good neighbour.
There aren't more romance novels out there which feature black or yellow characters, which I think is a shame. I think "One Red Rose" which features Adam and his hookup story (let's face it, that's really all these romance novels are about... hooking up) is the only one in my entire memory with a black couple in the forefront.
If there're any romance novels you can think of which feature minority characters, please pass the suggestion! I'd love to sink into some good ol' fashioned romance-novel smut.
Oh, and by the way, I never read no Danielle Steele either. I peeped into a few of her novels - *yawn!*
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-19 11:01 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-19 04:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-21 08:11 pm (UTC)Then there's the size 6.
I feel like a bad feminist for saying this, but I strive to stay a size 3. I got some inner demons to work out.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-21 08:29 pm (UTC)But touting size 6 as "perfect" isn't the way we want to go in educating young girls about their bodies. There're some girls out there who're naturally healthy and in proportion at size 8, and they should be left alone. Similarly, there're some girls out there who're size 0, and they're accused of being anorexic... they have problems with self-esteem too as a result!