Where the "Bad" Girls Are (Contained): Representations of the 1950s Female Juvenile Delinquent in Children's Literature and Ladies' Home Journal

Abstract

Despite the national panic over juvenile delinquency in the United States in the 1950s, the female juvenile delinquent was—and remains—largely ignored. When she is noticed, her actions are psychoanalytically perceived as so contained, particularly within her relationship with her father, that her agency is perceived as limited and, therefore, supposedly less worthy of attention. Nevertheless, this paper examines the representations of female juvenile delinquents in 1950s issues of Ladies' Home Journal and in three books for children: Hal Ellson's Tomboy (1950), Anne Alexander's The Pink Dress (1959), and Elizabeth George Speare's The Witch of Blackbird Pond (1958).