Letters to the Editor
-
size diff
although, since sizes have changed drastically since the 80s, a size 4 today would be more like a size 6 or 8 back then, making them the same size or larger.
-
I think I might have forgotten there was sex/romance in these books
because I was also reading those Anne Rice, Claiming of Sleeping Beauty books, over and over again. Feverishly, I might add. Dear lord, those books were smutty! My lord. (I wonder where I put 'em...)
I kind of wish my parents had taken a closer look at the books I was reading every "perverted" fantasy I have is because of friggin Anne Rice, come to think of it...SVH couldn't compare to hardcore S&M, pleasure slaves, etc...etc. I really need to find those books...
-
SVH Popularity
And I was in middle school from '86 - '88 (in NY, not in Botswana, for instance). I don't remember any of my friends reading this book, either. Just sayin'... maybe not as popular at it seemed back then. (Or as it seems to this book's promoter.)
Nah. They were popular. Or at least they were from 1990-1995, which was when I worked in an independent bookstore in the Midwest. We sold them hand over fist, as we did the Baby-Sitter's Club (which might have edged out SVH in popularity). The staple from my middle school years, Nancy Drew, we couldn't give away.
-
(Ironic) Lady with a pen
Does no one else find it ironic that this commentary appears under a caricature (the "lady with a pen"), presumably of one of the authors, that portrays the author as quite thin and elegant? If one is so upset with unrealistic portrayals of women, should the caricature not be more realistic?
-
Why update?
I didn't read the SVH books because I was already in college when they came out.
Instead, between 4th and 6th grade I read (and re-read) teen girl books that I found in the school library--most of them were from the 50s I would guess. My favorite was a series by Rosamand Du Jardin (oh how I loved that name) about a girl named Toby Heydon. And there was another series about a girl named Penny Parrish, whose father was in the military (the author's name was Janet something I think). To be sure, the books were dated, but for me that was part of the charm. I don't think I would have liked them so much if they'd been updated to have the girls wearing the same clothes or driving around in cars I would recognize.
On the other hand, I'm pretty sure those books were out of print when I was borrowing them from the library, and I've encountered very few other people who have read them. So maybe I've answered my own question.
-
DeeMac-
Men's pants are vanity-sized now, too. The "waist size" is several inches smaller than the actual waist (men tend not to know this; point it out with a tape measure and they get just as quietly distraught as women do when they have to buy double-diget sizes). Sizes between brands seem to be more consistant than they are in women's clothes, though, where young adult sizes have shrunk and adult/older women sizes have ballooned exponentially. Europe is attempting to move to a centimeter-based sizing system that would be completely consistant across brands. I wish they would adopt that standard here.
-
For all things Sweet Valley...
Go to the Dairiburger: http://thedairiburger.wordpress.com/
Blogger ihatewheat writes some seriously funny re-caps of the SV series and even takes requests. It's snark-O-licious! ;)
-
Robin was the chubby one
Enid was Elizabeth's best friend in the SVH series. Her best friend in Sweet Valley Twins was Amy Sutton, who reappears in SVH but ends up being friends with Jessica in High School. Enid is Liz's nerdy friend.
Robin was the chubby tagalong who Jess couldn't just outright dump, so she pretended to support her candidacy in the exclusive sorority, but then, it is implied, blackballs her. Then Robin loses weight and gets hot and everyone wants to be her friend.
In a later book, Robin develops anorexia and is hospitalized. Her boyfriend is very supportive and helps her work through it.
-
Rember that little thing called Size Inflation!
The girls from Sweet Valley High haven't lost weight. If they were a 1980 size 6 and a 2008 size 4. If anything I'd guess they gained about 10lb. In case some of you haven't noticed there has been a dramatic bout of size inflation in the last 28 years. As someone who shops at a lot of thrift stores, I can assure you that an early 70's size 12= a 1980's size 6= a current size 2. Don't believe me go to Goodwill and try on some clothes from different eras.
-
4 or 6 - what gives?
For girls as tall as I remember Jessica and Elizabeth were supposed to be (from my foggy memory, correct me if I'm wrong), anywhere from a size 4 to a size 8 in today's terms is healthy, comfortable, and slender. The issue isn't size inflation - so what if a size 6 then is now closer to a size 8? Today's 6 is still relatively small; average women are closer to a size 10 or 12! The issue is the suggestion that there is such thing as a "perfect" size. What a horrible thing to suggest to teenage girls, who already have enough problems, to be told that their bodies are only "perfect" if they are a size 4!
-
Body image, marketing and clothes sizing
Just a brief comment regarding being a "perfect size four" versus being a "perfect size six" in the Eighties (I gobbled up every SVH I could get my hands on, by the way): the current size 4 is not actually unhealthy. It will comfortably fit an average height woman (5' 3" to 5' 6", say) up to 140 pounds. The numbers are getting smaller, not the people. That same size 6 was a size 12 thirty years earlier. So in this case, place the blame with the rag trade rather than the publishing house, and you'll be a little more on the mark.
-
there were actual sex scenes in the SVH books?
Shit. Missed those. I was looking for them, too. (I would have been reading these in about the fifth-sixth grade, so any of my grad school friends that read this, cut my former literary tastes some slack.)
Anyway, I'm 5'7" and 135 lbs. I just bought a skirt from Target that says size two on the label. It's BIG on me. I also have a cocktail dress that's from the early 1960s that fits tight through the waist. The label says it's a size sixteen.