Hello.

I am Rosie and I am currently interning in Special Collection’s and Archives researching the domestic within the Femorabilia collection of women’s and girl’s magazines from the 20th century. Over the coming weeks I will be sharing my journey, what I learn (the archives are freezing), problems I overcome (Liverpool Lime Street being closed), and how much fun I am having putting my undergraduate degree into practice whilst gaining new skills for my CV.

This week I would like to talk about mischief, inspired by my local MP who today shared this summer’s Reading Challenge supported by The Reading Agency, encouraging children to read six books over the school holidays. The theme this year is ‘Mischief Makers’ inspired by popular comic The Beano.

Now, I am only in week one of my internship, so I cannot answer all questions just yet, nor can I tackle the larger issues of gender relations, but why only The Beano? Why is this the magazine thought of for the theme of mischief when there are plenty of other magazines that could accompany it?

My main task this week has been to get to know the collection inside and out. The difficulty with this has been simply that there is so.many.magazines. Reading for the domestic within 1970s Jackie, and later on for how the domestic linked to mischief has really helped me to keep focused, and resulted in this post.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines mischief as:

‘Misfortune or bad luck’

When looking at Jackie, it may not have considered its idealised young and trendy reader to cause mischief, but its readers and fictional characters most definitely suffer from serious bouts of bad luck. In particular, Jackie represents mischief as something boys do or, when the girls are the ones making mischief, it causes problems within the domestic setting of the home and relationships. When the problem caused by the mischief is solved all is well again in the domestic setting, and this is the narrative often told in the fictional stories and the non-fiction real life reader’s experiences and letters. We could consider this representation of mischief as a deterrent, a guide to the reader of how not to act.

This reader’s true experience story ‘I Can’t Forget Her’ follows the story of Robbie who falls for Indian Aisha and then causes mischief within her family and their traditions. Robbie suggests that her parents and their traditions are ‘inhumane’ and that they should run away together. The story ends with Aisha returning to her parents as she has a ‘duty’ to them. This suggests that improper relationships (ignoring the slightly politically incorrect undertones to this story – it was the 70s) will bring bad luck and that without the influence of the male Aisha would not have undertaken any bad behaviour. The story also reveals to the reader another domestic environment and its traditions, opening the Jackie reader’s eyes to a world beyond their own.

(Jackie, May 19th 1979, p.6/7)

On the other hand, the letters pages shows the girls’ mischief as being humorous and something to laugh about .The tone of Jackie is one of speaking with a friend, and being able to share experiences. The ‘Dear Samantha’ feature follows a pattern week upon week of girls writing in to say how they have suffered from bad luck, particularly in relation to their relationship with boys, or within the home.

(Jackie, June 2nd 1979 & Jackie, May 26th 1979)

As the ‘Tight Fit’ letter from Leigh shows, an illustration often accompanies. This allows the reader to visualise herself in the situation. Furthermore, the looks of disgust on the figures faces displaying how this although funny would be an embarrassing and unfortunate situation for another Jackie reader to find herself in.

Then there are also letters highlighting how the reader’s male siblings or friends are bad at domestic tasks, leaving her with potential feelings of superiority and finding someone who does not know about potatoes, or how to make the perfect cup of tea, in the same way she does, humorous. You are mischievous for not being able to carry out domestic tasks in the same way the Jackie reader can.

(Jackie, May 12th 1979 & Jackie, May 19th 1979)

 We may assume that Beano is the chosen reference point for this mischievous reading challenge due to it being an intergenerational text that is still in print. Nevertheless, as Jackie shows, the theme of mischief is evident in a variety of magazines, including ones for girls. Why should we not be remembering and showing girls today the magazines that shaped their forerunners lives, highlighting just how far we have come in terms of opportunities for girls and their domestic lives?

However, I have not just spent this week reading magazines I promise. I have also been researching and coming up with ideas for future blog posts for both this one and the Femorabilia blog as well as the Twitter  and the possibility of an Instagram. I have also began to learn how to catalogue new additions into an Excel spreadsheet, which proved trickier than first anticipated when it wants to turn all numbers into dates and the condition of magazines is completely subjective. One person’s poor is another’s fair.

 

I look forward to updating you on more lessons learnt next week.

By Rosie Steele.