Check out my photograph, Erqi, in GUD Issue 6.

Here’s a thoughtful article about Nancy Drew and feminism. Reading it, I realized that the series itself is a sort of fairy tale. Like any fairy-tale princess, Nancy Drew doesn’t have to worry about economics. As the article notes, she isn’t affected by war or depression; her father (like a king) pays all the bills. “This is static, one-dimensional. Nancy never matures, and at some point the child matures and says Nancy is having the same adventure over and over,” Leslie McGrath, head of the Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books in Toronto’s Lillian H. Smith Library is quoted as saying.

Eventually, we outgrow the fairy tale. Until we get tired of it, however, there is something valuable in having a heroine who is at least active. Even if she doesn’t work, she does do something of value in solving mysteries. Her ever-growing set of skills may be excessive, almost bordering on the magical, but it does show girls that it’s OK– even desirable– to learn about things like first aid or how to change a tire.

On the other hand, it would be ideal for her to have a more diverse set of friends, including women who represent something other than the very white standard of beauty she fulfills. It would also be great for her to have female friends who are not just tomboyish but actually lesbian or bisexual (or even just apparently sexual). These criticisms, while very important, don’t change the fact that Nancy Drew did have some positive impact in my life and in the lives of many other young women.

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