Summary Of Miriam Brunell's Boy Culture

Irrespective of the time period, society and its’ members are influenced and judged based on the prevailing social constructs that exist. Cultural and traditional practices, norms and societal expectations are but a few of the elements which come together to form such constructs. As a result of their age, children are thought to inhabit specific places within society and gender is seen as influencing how the children use such spaces. In her chapter “The Politics of Dollhood in Nineteenth-Century America,” Miriam Forman-Brunell examines play from the perspective of middle-class girls and the development of girl play culture. Anthony Rotundo assesses the play practices of boys and the ensuing boy culture in his essay Boy Culture. Together, …show more content…
Girls acting-out social practices with their dolls engaging in adult-like play through imitation observed of their mothers (Forman-Brunell 229). When boys and girls played together with dolls, they typically followed did so in “socially prescribed ways” (Forman-Brunell, 235). However, small nuances occurring during the course of such play suggests girls did express agency during doll play. For example girls often assigned emotions, morals, political and religious qualities to their dolls while playing, most certainly in doing so, the girl(s) used dolls to express their own feelings (Forman-Brunell, 234). Although familial presence did impact how girls engaged with their dolls, the idealized innocent girl playing mother to her baby doll was not always the case. Girls often subverted authority and the expectation of prescribed play by “pushing the margins of acceptable feminine and genteel behaviour” (Forman-Brunell, 235). They acted aggressively towards their dolls offer afflicting punish and discipline upon them, or reenacting funerals not for the purpose of practicing social rituals but instead “were often more interested in the unfeminine events that led to these solemn