ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 focuses on the Sweet Valley High (1983–2003) series, which merges girls’ series with the romance genre. Defined entirely by her heterosexual relationships/romances and her romantic viability, the ideal girl’s appearance requires constant body work and beauty rituals. The series literally disposes of Other girls: nonwhite, poor, sexually active, or disabled. The ideal girl(s) attempts to discipline nonideal girls toward the ideal through reform, and those who refuse reform – who fail to recognize the ideal girls’ superiority – are eliminated. The series centralizes heterosexual romance in a way that “undoes” feminism – through narrow beauty standards, the importance of appearance to the ideal girl’s status, and sexualized passivity.
