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From: Megan Schliesman <schliesman_at_education.wisc.edu>
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:55:12 -0600
I wanted to offer up an example of one "headless" book cover that I thought was perfect: Beauty Queens by Libba Bray.
The cover showing the torso of a thin, bikini-clad body wearing a bandolier is everything I would typically hate: it not only objectifies women but suggests violence. And in fact, I walked by the book numerous times when it was on display in our new books carrel here at the CCBC and thought, "Ugh, not interested." (Yes, judging.)
And then I finally read it. Wow. The book IS about the objectification of women but it's a smart, sly, satirical, feminist commentary on that topic and so many other things. It exposes the objectification and then proceeds to reveal the strength of mind and heart and character beneath the beauty queen facade of each of the young women in the story. The lipsticks in the bandolier might have been a clue this was something beyond what the cover suggested at first glance but I didn't notice them. I saw bandolier and assumed bullets. ( It took my eleven-year-old to point out what they really were.)
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison 600 N. Park Street, Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706
608/262-9503 schliesman_at_education.wisc.edu
www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/
Received on Fri 10 Feb 2012 11:55:12 AM CST
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:55:12 -0600
I wanted to offer up an example of one "headless" book cover that I thought was perfect: Beauty Queens by Libba Bray.
The cover showing the torso of a thin, bikini-clad body wearing a bandolier is everything I would typically hate: it not only objectifies women but suggests violence. And in fact, I walked by the book numerous times when it was on display in our new books carrel here at the CCBC and thought, "Ugh, not interested." (Yes, judging.)
And then I finally read it. Wow. The book IS about the objectification of women but it's a smart, sly, satirical, feminist commentary on that topic and so many other things. It exposes the objectification and then proceeds to reveal the strength of mind and heart and character beneath the beauty queen facade of each of the young women in the story. The lipsticks in the bandolier might have been a clue this was something beyond what the cover suggested at first glance but I didn't notice them. I saw bandolier and assumed bullets. ( It took my eleven-year-old to point out what they really were.)
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison 600 N. Park Street, Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706
608/262-9503 schliesman_at_education.wisc.edu
www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/
Received on Fri 10 Feb 2012 11:55:12 AM CST
