On Friday nights many parents want to have a little fun
together--without the kids. But "getting a sitter"--especially a
dependable one--rarely seems trouble-free. Will the kids be safe
with "that girl"? It's a question that discomfited parents have
been asking ever since the emergence of the modern American teenage
girl nearly a century ago. In Babysitter, Miriam Forman-Brunell
brings critical attention to the ubiquitous, yet long-overlooked
babysitter in the popular imagination and American history.
Informed by her research on the history of teenage girls'
culture, Forman-Brunell analyzes the babysitter, who has embodied
adults' fundamental apprehensions about girls' pursuit of autonomy
and empowerment. In fact, the grievances go both ways, as girls
have been distressed by unsatisfactory working conditions. In her
quest to gain a fuller picture of this largely unexamined cultural
phenomenon, Forman-Brunell analyzes a wealth of diverse sources,
such as The Baby-sitter's Club book series, horror movies like The
Hand That Rocks the Cradle, urban legends, magazines, newspapers,
television shows, pornography, and more.
Forman-Brunell shows that beyond the mundane, understandable
apprehensions stirred by hiring a caretaker to "mind the children"
in one's own home, babysitters became lightning rods for society's
larger fears about gender and generational change. In the end,
experts' efforts to tame teenage girls with training courses,
handbooks, and other texts failed to prevent generations from
turning their backs on babysitting.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!