Modern Warnings to Our Young Girls

I found that the literature of “Pillars of Salt” was archaic and heavy-handed, however, I recognized that some of the basic sentiments about the “fallen” women in the texts were similar to modern society’s sentiments regarding transgressive women. Though several centuries have passed, our modern culture still has a way of stigmatizing and punishing women who traipse across the boundaries of “acceptable” feminine behavior. And our modern narratives have ways of warning the youths not to “fall” just as the fiery preachings of “Pillars of Salt” were meant to dissuade Puritan youths from transgression.

Just as there were a set of standards for a Puritan woman, there are a set of social norms that are demanded of women today (though they are much looser than those of two hundred years ago). Today’s girls are expected to remain chaste (or at least maintain the appearance of chastity), to behave in a way socially prescribed for their gender, to fit the mold of idealized feminine beauty, and to abstain from large amounts of drink of drugs. If a girl “falls” far from adhering to these norms, she has transgressed her prescribed social boundaries and will be stigmatized for them. This does not mean that she will become a social pariah as in the olden days or will be hanged. However it means that she will face a degree of stigmatization, reprimanding, taunting and that she will be faced with prejudice and labeling. Let’s say a TCU girl goes out at night to have casual sex with several men, and then speaks openly about it or stumbles out of the boy’s lodging in “shacker” wear. Chances are this girl’s reputation will be seriously damaged, and other girls will think ill of her and cast her out of their circle. Boys will treat her as damaged goods and expect her to be a sexual object. She has not been cast out of society, but has been relegated to a tier of society that is considered seedy and shameful.

Other women that are seen as cause for social reprimanding in modern culture are lesbians, overweight women, spinsters, tomboys, ugly women, childless females, alcoholics, druggies, “unfit” mothers, and etcetera. It as is if our modern culture has a range of what is socially acceptable for a female, and women who fall outside of that range are reprimanded and ostracized, or thrown into their own group of “undesirables.” The women in this class make up the “fallen females” of today because they possess traits which isolate them from their prescribed femininity and therefore from society. We are a culture that sees our womanhood, and the socially constructed roles that go with it, as essential to our sense of being. We treat transgressors in a tad more civilized way as did our predecessors. The women in these infanticide narratives are similar to those I have listed above because they fall into the category of a woman who has rejected her social gender role. If a woman commits infanticide, it is a crime that is contrary to her womanhood. Being female means being constructed to breed and nurture, and infanticide is an act that wrecks our idea of what being female is all about. Even if these women did not actually commit the crime, they overstepped their bounds by excessive drinking and blatant sexuality: which are still grounds for condemnation in modern society.

I feel that we have our own versions of the infanticide narratives: messages constructed so as to warn young women not to transgress their prescribed roles or to “fall” into a certain lifestyle. Movies and television shows often teach children that it is a slippery slope between small sins and a life of debauchery. They show characters having a swig of beer at one moment and engaging in prostitution the next. Most of these depictions can be found in Lifetime movies or in shows tailored for the very young. Pre-teen dramas often have plots constructed around a “good girl” encountering a dangerous situation, which she either falls into or escapes and learns a valuable lesson from. Often these preachy shows are directed at teens to impress on them how easy it is to fall into bad lifestyles and to scare them into behaving. Other examples of our modern narratives are the constant warnings parents give their daughters about sex. Girls are constantly warned about sexual activity through threatening them that they will be labeled whores. The idea of being thought of as sexually promiscuous is one that is horrible to a young girl. I remember hearing “warning tales” of girls who were very like myself and who made bad choices and ended up with miserable lives. These stories are our own constructions designed to keep our youths “on the right track.”