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Post by Charlotte on Nov 1, 2021 14:18:59 GMT 1
I'm currently reading Land of Ponies by Marjorie Mary Oliver. It's not a bad read, but not sure it's as good as I vaguely remember her other two books were. It's rather depressing so far, and I'm not sure the Mr Seaford plotline is very plausible. Anyway, I was a bit shocked by the blatant sexism when David (who does seem rather a macho type), won't let Flossie ride Gangster because he's not a ladiesΜ horse. Flossie is understandably furious at him. Guess it wouldn't be acceptable to put a scene like that in s book now. I have mentioned an apparently sexist bit in Tessa and Some Ponies in another thread, but can anyone think of other examples of blatant sexism in pony books?
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Post by Claire on Nov 4, 2021 19:38:23 GMT 1
Interesting subject for a thread Charlotte.
On the whole I think pony books were quite ahead of their time in being anti-sexist, especially when compared to other books of the time, for example Enid Blyton stories. Plenty of female heroines taking on the boy's. Probably the worst sexism I can think of in pony books is in the pony books of Lorna Hill (in fact her ballet series is too) especially those featuring Guy who is an insufferable male chauvinist pig who is constantly telling girls what they can and can't do and I think at one point he even spanks a girl!!! (possibly in SO Guy Came Too or Five Shilling Holiday. But probably the worst of the lot is Grey Arrow by Catherine Carey which has an even more sexist twerp of a 'hero' in it. And more spanking! I awarded this book the 'Horse Dropping Booby Prize' - wbich I've only ever given out to a handful of books!
I'm sure other forumites can think of others. I'd be interested to hear everyone's opinions on the topic and if anyone agrees with me that in general horse and pony books are less sexist than others of their time. (I'm talking about the older pony books here of course.)
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Post by tintin on Nov 7, 2021 22:22:31 GMT 1
There was a discussion of the idea of "ladies' horses" in a review of the Maggie Dana book, "Wish Upon a Horse" on here, also "Miss Badsworth MFH" from the early 1900's is a story, a very diplomatic story, about sexism
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Post by darkhorse on Nov 11, 2021 20:57:01 GMT 1
In Six Ponies one of the pony trainers, Richard Morrison, is quite sexist. H is always putting his sister down, telling her that that girls can't do this or that. Also in later books in the series Christopher becomes a bit sexist too. However Josephine PT definitely portrays this as a bad thing, because Richard is the worst of the trainers and portrayed as quite an unpleasant character.
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Post by Claire on Nov 11, 2021 23:13:16 GMT 1
In Six Ponies one of the pony trainers, Richard Morrison, is quite sexist. H is always putting his sister down, telling her that that girls can't do this or that. Also in later books in the series Christopher becomes a bit sexist too. However Josephine PT definitely portrays this as a bad thing, because Richard is the worst of the trainers and portrayed as quite an unpleasant character. Yes and I recall that Richard Morrison had a massive no holds barred telling off by Major Holbrooke (edited out of some editions).
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