“We Didn’t Have Adventures Like That”: The Lure of Adventure Stories and Courageous Females for Girls Growing Up in the United States During the Mid-20th Century

Abstract

Based on oral history interviews conducted with 30 women born in the United States in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, this project presents women’s memories of their girlhood relationship to popular media and culture. Specifically, they told us about a preference for adventure stories including those of adventurous and/or strong real-life females. We conclude with a discussion of how these findings may reflect the social-cultural constraints placed on girls growing up at that time such that adventure stories enabled them to live vicariously and to negotiate a future identity in which they too could lead lives of daring and adventure.