While most girls were having romantic relationships I became more and more involved in the world of books, and found boys of my age to be numbskulls who couldn't raise their eyes above our budding boobs.
Classics soon replaced romantic novels, and while my friends cried over their boyfriends, I mulled over Madame Bovary, Anna Karenina, and drew comparions between those errant women and my boy crazy friends.
That being said, I wasn't without my romantic inclinations—I had a liking for older men, but had enough sense to know that to become a Lolita would be a sure fire way to self-destruct.
Men in their late twenties, early thirties, reminded me of the heroes in Classics, and also reflected some heroes from Mills and Boon. They were mature, noble, and had refined humor.
Keeping my romantic longings under a tight lock and key, I deliberately remained boyfriendless till I did my masters in history and archaeology.
However I continued to read romantic novels and watched them progress from using plot lines with macho heroes to whimpering heroines, to women who kicked ass and men with a liberal outlook towards life. Feminism had finally stepped into the world of romantic writing, and had positive influence on my young mind.
My favorite Mills and Boon authors, who peppered their stories with humor and gave the female protagonists enough backbone to say "fuck off," were Emma Goldrick, Emma Darcy and Sara Craven
My all time favorite books by Emma Goldrick were The Road, Rent-a-Bride and Bringing up the Babies.
By the time I came to the ninth grade books by Jackie Collins, Danielle Steel, etc., were being casually passed around, and while we got to know what phrases like "giving head," "blow job," etc., meant, yet we remained an innocent bunch, as words like "nymphomaniac," "necrophilia," etc., had even the most jaded amongst us raise their eyebrows.
And though we had lesbians amongst us who hugged too close, toyed with each other's buttons, or wrote letters in blood, we remained oblivious to their orientation, thinking they were just too bonded to their friends, till we came to high school and understood what gay relationships were all about.
Article comments
1 - DrPat
she screamed my name in a loud, truly dissed voice...
Did you mean distressed? Or that she felt "dismissed" or "disdained" by your choice of reading?
Not having had the advantage of attending an all-girls school [grin], I can tell you that my singular "forbidden" read was Nevil Schute's Trustee from the Toolroom. Once I read that, and could see no reason for it to be on the prohibited books list, I never looked back.
2 - swingingpuss
Don't diss me, man!
diss, dis (-ss-)
verb {T} US SLANG
to speak or behave rudely to someone or to show them no respect:
Perhaps she was distressed, and after her scolding, I was dissed:)
Must read the Shute - haven't
What worlds our books weave!
3 - Bennett
After all these years, I finally get the inside skinny on coming of age in an all girls school. Thanks swingingpuss! Fun reading. :-]
4 - Temple Stark
Aaaah, a girls's first love.
I skimmed right over that and read dissed as pissed.
Why did the Nuns instruct about condoms. That's a Catholic no-no or ..... ?
Well read. Well told. Well Well.
5 - swingingpuss
Not only did the nuns talk about condoms but also other forms of contraceptives and before we passed out of school they had an OB-GYN come and talk to us and that lady was a hardcore feminist.
I later taught in another Catholic School for about two years and was told by the nuns there that my school nuns were rather 'forward and controversial in their thinking'.
And by the way Temple not every girl's first love are books:)
6 - Temple Stark
I was just riffing on the "fun" nun stereotypes and wondering.
>And by the way Temple not every girl's first love are books:)
Father ........... forgive me for i have sinned.
7 - swingingpuss
Lol, if you are gonna open the pandora's box... we had a Catholic Boys school next door and were used to seeing priests coming out of the nuns quaters early morning...obviously it was perfectly innocent, confessions followed by breakfast but then again we knew who the favorite priests were as some of them graced our assemblies too often and had beaming nuns looking up to them.
8 - Temple Stark
Pandora's box is very nice. Warm. Overflowing. Effusive. Easy to open really, I'm not sure of all the fuss.
...
Can there be a more hormone-charge area than a Catholic boys and girls school next door?
Give me nuclear radiation fallout any day instead. OK .. maybe not.
9 - Shark
Nice piece, Puss.
(May I call you "Puss"?)
It's very interesting to see behind the Iron Curtain of Adolescent Gender Histories.
I can't remember my first 'dirty' book, (we liked to look at the lingerie ads in the Sears catalog, this was ca. early 1960s!) -- but I do remember the first stirrings in my loins:
Miss Powers, *third grade teacher, South Hills elementary.
(*Wow, is that too early?)
10 - Shark
BTW: Some psychologist might find it significant that I can't remember what I had for breakfast this morning, but I can remember my third grade teacher's name and the precise shape of her butt as she wrote on the blackboard.
Oy.
11 - swingingpuss
Sure Shark, puss sounds just fine.
It is funny how hormones helps us remember certain memories down to the smallest details... I remember a whole bunch of first times...first crush when I was five, my first kiss and I even remember the date when 'it' finally happened ;)
12 - Temple Stark
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The shape of your teacher's behind Shark? Hmmmm. :-)