ABSTRACT
According to popular psychology, girls were naturally disposed to take a great interest in relationships, especially those with men and children. 1 It is perhaps not surprising then that kith and kin were such a central feature of girls' magazines. What is interesting, however, is the sorts of relationships acknowledged and depicted in different types of magazines. Most notably, papers for schoolgirls focused almost exclusively on friendships and also rivalries between girls while those for older readers were preoccupied with romantic encounters between the sexes, courtship and marriage. In this respect, magazines mapped out the heterosexual career and worked to monitor the boundaries of girls' relationships. This was an ongoing process and one influenced by wider socioeconomic and cultural changes, in particular the perceived implications of the two world wars for relations between the sexes, the interwar suspicion of close associations between girls and between women, hostility towards the spinster, the demographic imbalance and also concerns about the falling birth rate. Magazines depicted girls' relationships both within and outside the family as changing and they offered their readers ways of understanding and managing these perceived shifts in attitudes and practices. Although magazines acknowledged the modernity of their readers and their desire for ‘modern’ relationships, representations of girls within the family, friendships, courtship and marriage were clearly underpinned by patriarchal interests. Most magazines were, however, dedicated to the provision of entertainment and for this reason some identities were more attractive, versatile, and subsequently visible, than others.
