ABSTRACT
Between 1850 and 1915, many different girls were defined and refined through the periodical press, yet these girls remained inherently “feminine” because of their purity and virtue. The girl of the period was as pure and good as the girl of the past, despite shifting ideas of girlhood and regardless of the multiplicity of voices that came together in print to guide the development of the girl towards behaviours that were considered acceptable. This study highlights the complexities of guiding girls towards acceptable conduct as editors and contributors, and the readers themselves, attempted to manage the tension between a traditional feminine ideal and the shifting expectations of girlhood throughout the second half of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century. A web of interconnecting discourses regarding education, marriage, religion, health, fashion, heroism, and purity developed during this period. This web was fragile, yet it contained hidden strength that meant an ideal of purity, decorum, modesty, and virtue was not easily set aside in constructions of fin-de-siècle girlhood. Instead, these qualities were understood as necessary precursors of femininity, and the shifting expectations about girls’ interests and capabilities had to be negotiated within this framework. In girls’ periodicals, these tensions often manifest themselves in a reluctance to fully commit to new ideas. The magazines betray unease about how changing expectations of girlhood could be incorporated into existing ideals, and this uneasiness is reflected by an inconsistent approach to girlhood. Even magazines controlled by a strong editorial presence were often unable to overcome these tensions.
