- Q. 3. Is this literary trend really as insidious as it seems? Are silly novels by silly novelists really that capable of turning a reflective, critical, Gap-wearing teenage girl into a nasty clone of the girls she reads about? — Anne De Marzio, Bloomfield, N.J.
Wolf responds:
- They may not change the girl's behavior; but they do posit a model of what the dominant culture says holds value. I know from the girls in my own life that they often feel quite alone these days when they do hold out for kindness or integrity in a social setting. Is this a new problem? No, but in past generations the dominant culture of teen fiction did not make this behavior seem so geeky and aberrant.
Unfortunately, Wolf confirms what I thought when reading the essay the first time. The problem isn't the books, per se, as they merely reflect "dominant culture."
