Frank Feminism
The Romantic:
The Female Quixote, or, The Adventures of Arabella (1752)
Charlotte Lennox (1730 - 1804)
The Ohio State University Rare Books and Manuscripts Library
PR3541.L27 F4 1752
Another stereotype for the teenage girl is an obsession with novels of a romantic nature, especially narratives containing love interests who are generally an unrealistic representation of real men. In this 1752 parody of Cervantes’ Don Quixote, Charlotte Lennox explores this distinction between real men and those of romantic fiction. While the main character --Arabella-- expects the young men she meets to speak in flowery language and become ill should she not fall as deeply in love with them as they are with her, this is not the case. In the end, it is Arabella who falls ill from jumping into a river to mimic the actions of Cloelia, the legendary virgin of Ancient Greece. Her doctor then decides to explain the flaws of comparing living men to fiction, and she proceeds to begrudgingly accept the less than ideal truth. Even today, book-loving young women say that fictional men are better than real men.
The Honest:
Riot Grrrl Zines (1990-2000, 2016)
The Ohio State University Rare Books and Manuscripts Library
SPEC.RARE.033 Box 1
Riot Grrrl zines were a part of not only the feminist movement, but the self-publishing movement. The focus of these 1990s zines was to discuss feminist issues, political and social, in a way that uplifts women, especially young women. The anonymously written “Bikini Kill #2” discusses how the patriarchy objectifies and oppresses women with topics like fatphobia, anti-female propaganda, and rape, among others. Another zine from this collection, called “Slant Six,” was written by a Vietnamese-American woman named Mimi Nguyen. She wrote this zine to discuss the intersectionality of oppression in the United States and within the Riot Grrrl zines themselves. The cover, decorated with a determined female Asian superhero, quickly points to where more positive representation for women of color is needed. Other unique elements of Nguyen’s work include visuals with Vietnamese writing and citations for her arguments.