Women’s History Month – Mary Pipher
13 Mar
Mary Pipher, {PhD} is absolutely brilliant. Reviving Ophelia Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls has been with me for well over a decade. I just pulled out my copy and found notes from a paper I wrote on it back in my first or second year of college. I love them. I love reading things that I wrote long ago. At any rate, I recently came across Writing to Change the World at my local library (shout to the old man crew that I hang there with on the regular. fist pump!). The book is perfect. I renewed it, just because I don’t want to give it back until my copy is here. The next day I happened upon yet another Mary Pipher book in the mental health section (of course I’d hang around there). Letters to a Young Therapist: Art of Mentoring – another gem.
How can one woman write so eloquently about writing, therapy and adolescent girls? More importantly, why can’t she be my mom? These are the questions I may or may not address in Week 2 of Women’s History Month. (Please turn off all cell phones and if you need to use the bathroom, you must ask for a pass).
In Ophelia, Pipher uses her years of experience in counseling teen-aged girls to tell their heartbreaking tales and the culture that surrounds them. In fact, she blames our culture for most of their problems, writing that it’s America’s sexist, “girl-poisoning” culture that gets in the way of their search for their true selves. In the notes I found inside the book I wrote “One would think that nowadays things would be easier for young women, since they’ve been born decades after the women’s movement…Things should have gotten better over the years…My generation has grown up in a world where women have had a vast number of opportunities…”
I go on to talk about Britney Spears as role model (look how that turned out. and we thought ‘hit me baby one more time’ was a bad influence). I mention this, and reiterate the words of 18 yr old me, because in the (almost) decade since I wrote them, things have only gotten worse. (Reality TV, anyone? ) It’s sad and it’s terrible and the only thing we can do is share books like these and the wisdom that we’ve gathered with younger generations of women.
So this post is really long and I haven’t even talked about the other two books. Finally, it doesn’t resemble a middle school paper, because those damn kids will use any bit of BS to fill the margins.
In summary (couldn’t resist) Mary Piper is a woman to honor. Her writing is down to earth, uplifting and makes you feel like a real smarty von smarty pants. You put down the book feeling more enlightened than you did before – and to me that’s what a good book does. Next up, I plan on reading The Shelter of Each Other: Rebuilding Our Families.
If you have any interest in any of the above mentioned topics, or if you have a daughter – do yourself a favor and check out Mary Pipher’s work.
Side note, or alternate timeline, if you will. Losties? Hello?
I read Ophelia in a course titled Sexism and the Humanities. It still exists at the community college I spent 2 semesters attending before heading to Rutgers University. Here is the catalog description: Investigates philosophical, mythological and religious origins of sexism and develops the way these create a gendered perspective in all societies. Analyzes definitions of sexism and implications of biological differences. Investigates consequences of sexism and efforts to create alternatives through study of women and men in the arts (art, music, language, literature and popular media).
I had to mention this because that course, like this book, changed my life. After that it was all feminism, all the time. It inspired me to take on Women & Gender Studies as a minor. Not to mention, it helped me become awesome.
In my never-ending pursuit of wanting be Miss Smarty Von Smarty Pants, I’ll be checking out Ophelia asap.
that sentence didn’t even make a little bit of sense. I hope you can figure it out.
I get it! I am the same way, I want to consume all the knowledge that I can.Ha, addicted to knowledge.
Oh and you MUST read writing to change the world too!
Love the last sentence.
I think I need to read Ophelia. Even though she’s only 3-1/2, I have a feeling I will need it soon!
I have never heard of Mary Phiper before, she sounds like a talented and knowledgeable writer, I will have to check her books out at the library.
I totally agree, you would think that women would have it easier now but we definitely don’t. The world now depicts girls as skinny, seductive, and perfect. It is so sad that if you wear a size 4 in womens you are considered fat, which is so not true. It is really sad that girls are having to go to the extremes just to fit into how America wants girls to be.
I really liked your post!
Mary Pipher is brilliant. I read “The Shelter of Each Other” some time ago. Our society for all its so-called freedoms is still repressive to females in the sense that is takes away our inner strength by promoting fake appearances (make-up, fashion, weight/size) and pushing a desire to conform to these cheapened ideals. The older I get, the less I care about the trends and the stronger I feel as a woman. (I think this opinion is more than a penny’s worth…just sayin’)
@ The Editor, okay, you’ll get a dollar! I threw in extra for ‘cheapened ideals.’
@Makayla Thank you! You should check her out!