Christy Miller and problems with Christian Fairy tales

Have spent the last day mucking around on Goodreads, and ended writing a feminist rant-review about the Christy Miller Series. It’s something that’s been brewing for a couple of years I think – which I only had the clarity to write about now. For me these books are all tied up in my larger issue with Christian marriage and sexual morality. If this is totally boring for everyone but myself I’m not too offended – hashing out my thoughts on this was good – it got me all worked up and I haven’t felt like that in a while!

After growing up in a Christian community where The Christy Miller Series and other Christian Teen Fiction were read, swapped, borrowed and believed in, it’s only in the last few years that I have a strong critique to make of these books. Robin Jones Gunn‘s Christy Miller and Sierra Jensen series are of the same ilk as earlier novels such as the Elizabeth Gail series – teen stories about a girl growing up and struggling with adolescent issues just like ‘everyone else’, only at the same time discovering a faith in God. It is this journey of faith that influences the decisions the protagonist makes regarding friendships, relationships with boys and dating – learning to trust her ‘father God’ becomes the most important learning curve in life, with His laws and ways becoming the moral compass that guides her decisions. As a teenager I gobbled up these stories with delight, trying to make them fit with my own life, only to find that they didn’t, for a number of reasons.

My biggest problem is that these books are the modern Christian reincarnation of the Cinderella Story; the homely girl blossoms into a pure young woman and gets the Christian boy of her dreams at the end of the story – as long as she follows the rules and stays chaste. Christy, Elizabeth and Sierra are modeled on patriarchal heroines – despite having career aspirations, their overriding desire is to be married, and they wait longingly for the boy their Father God has picked out for them. Further, it is the male (both God and their future Husband) that must take the action. In these moral tales, as long as the girls flee the temptations of sexual experimentation with non-christian boys or *going too far* before marriage, everything turns out okay. Christy even writes letters to her future husband, the one that God has picked out for her, and constantly prays to God for His guidance in helping her wait for him.

My emphasis on these issues may seem an over the top, since alot of the earlier Christy books are lighthearted teenage fun. However the last three Christy books (The College Years) become far more serious in their themes. Despite the author never explicitly discussing sex, or even using the word (and this fact is also problematic), the entire narrative works towards Christy and Todd’s wedding, when (I don’t have the book here so I can’t quote) the Bride will “give herself” to her husband on her wedding day (or night). (I’m not even going to go into the whole “woman as object” problem with this since that’s another whole topic altogether.) The very last few pages of the Christy series culminate in a conversation with Christy’s Dad, in which he tells her how proud he is to be giving her away knowing that she *waited*, that she is pure on her wedding day. I can’t quite remember… but I think some metaphor is evoked about the wind in the trees applauding her on this as she walks towards Todd – the ‘Man of faith’ that God planned for her (arguably since before she was born, or at least, since the first book when Christy meets Todd at aged fourteen). While this idealistic ending might seem like a simple happily-ever-after romance that bears no further examination, I actually feel that Christian Teen Fiction has alot to answer for in its perpetuation of such a narrative. While fairytales are myths which re-inscribe values regarding marriage and monogamy which are often shared by both Christianity and patriarchal society, the narratives of these Christian novels also stand as products of the Faith itself. This being, I feel they warrant a critique outside of ordinary fairytale or fiction. For me, applying the patriarchal fairytale to modern Christian teen fiction is problematic for a number of reasons:

1. The ‘Christian’ novel is changed from a narrative centered around a faith journey with the goal being a closer experience or understanding of God, to a romance infused with religious values, with the goal being the attainment of a God-ordained Prince Charming.
2. Fate and Destiny of romance novels and fairytales are replaced by God – who plans and ordains events and the ultimate happiness of the protagonists. Further, God becomes like a genie who grants the wishes of those who trust him.
3. The books perpetuate unrealistic expectations for Christians regarding romance. In reality, most of us are not going to get married at aged nineteen to the first boy that we kiss or meet at fourteen. While this might seem an erroneous point that applies to all fairytales and romance novels (the ‘that’s why their fantasy’ argument) it is problematic for the Christian in that a force that they attribute as real in their lives (God) is also a present and powerful force in the book. Sure, you might argue, Christians aren’t dumb – they can tell the difference between the ‘real’ God and the God in the Christy Miller Series. But from personal experience, the myths perpetuated in the Christy Miller series (that of God planning the ‘one’ for you) are alive and well in real life. Which brings me to my next point…
4. The books are damaging to young Christians faith. I know this sounds extreme and I’m not usually one for making extreme claims akin to the ones in the ‘letters’ section of The Age, but this time I’ll stand by it. I don’t know how many Christian girls I know who are waiting patiently hoping that they meet their Prince Charming; the Christian boy who God has planned for them. This happily-ever-after marriage belongs to the package of marketable Christianity of the ‘prosperity doctrine’ brand. Bible verses such as the good ol’ Jeremiah 29:11 are happily isolated to prop up this idea: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and a hope.” This verse is applied out of context to just about anything in pop-Christianity. For Christian girls in western patriarchal society, those plans include the fairytale ending with the husband of their dreams. But sadly, it’s not what all of them get. Just like in the secular world, some miss out. What happens then? For non-Christian’s, I guess it’s bad luck and a Bridget Jones (before Mr Darcy) life of one night stands and cigarettes. But for Christian’s, who have a “loving God” calling the shots instead of “luck” – well, it can be faith shattering. Now, I have alot of other reasons for no longer following Christianity, but I think this need not be one. The Christy Miller series, which ascribes its happily-ever-after to God instead of luck, encourages the problematic, counter-gospel message of pop-Christianity; that if you follow God, all your dreams will come true. When they don’t, faith rapidly declines. In this respect, the Christy Miller Series set teenage girls up for a fall.
5. Changing tacts, the books encourage a glorified view of sex, and perpetuates purity myths through fear. One of the things that bothers me the most about Christian marriage is the use of the metaphor of the Church as a Bride and Jesus as a Groom. Sure, this is in the Bible, but it’s used as a metaphor to describe the Return of Christ as being like a marriage, not as a metaphor to describe marriage as being like humanity’s union with Christ. In its inversion, which is constantly used at just about every Christian wedding I’ve been to, this metaphor makes marriage out to be a spiritual union through which the couple attains a closer likening to Jesus. This has to be the most ridiculous myth about Christian marriage. The Christy Miller series, which of course uses this metaphor in ‘I Promise’, is a clear example of the way that Christian romance, marriage, and sexual union are glorified through association with God, who makes the union a holy sacrament. The fact that sex is never actually discussed but only vaguely implied works to create an even more unrealistic and fantastical view of sex – it becomes the culmination of the couples spiritual union – a vision far from the awkward, clumsy and painful experience that the couple’s first time is likely to be.

In conjunction with this glorification of marriage (and sex), the Christy Miller Series, like much popular Christian myth, perpetuates sexual abstinence before marriage through fear. No, it’s not the fire and brimstone fear of judgement, death or eternal punishment belonging to an older, more conservative brand of Christianity, but it’s watered-down equivalent for modern women – fear of missing out on ‘the one’. The Christy Miller series supports a popular idea that sexual morality is the scale on which God’s favour in this area of marriage is measured. Sure, it never explicitly says that the slut will never find a good man, but this is implied in the realization of the opposite – the chaste girl being rewarded. Christy is rewarded with Todd because of her trust in God and her resistance of temptation when opportunities arise. The series skirts around discussion of sex – again quoting the Bible for its explanation – “do not awaken love until it so desires” (Song of Songs 2:7). Sexual experimentation, ‘dating’ (especially of non-Christians) is discouraged lest this interfere with the delivery of God’s ‘chosen one’. Thus, the series encourages sexual morality through a threat specific to its target audience – you won’t get the guy if you sleep around.

Well, I realise this has turned into a considerable rant raising alot of problems I have with religion that extend far beyond Christy Miller. But these books have certainly been an influence on plenty of girls including myself and embody alot of issues that I find very problematic in popular Christianity. The disillusionment I’ve experienced firsthand when God doesn’t work like He does in Christy Miller has contributed significantly to my own exploration and discovery of the patriarchal myths that continue as dominant forces behind pop-Christianity.

white fear

The emptiness of the blank page scares me. But not as much as the fear of what I might put on it, what messy and awkward prose might stain its pristine whiteness if I write. I both love and fear writing. My fears are the same, probably, as any other writer. I fear my own clumsy wording and awkward sentence structure. I fear that I am utterly deluded in my aspirations to be a writer. I fear that the words may stare back at me, accusitory, forcing me to face the pretentiousness of my own writing. But what I fear most is my inability to adequately express my interior thoughts. For days, weeks, months, something will be burning up my insides, screaming at me to be written, but I will hedge. I do not believe that my random whims are worthy of being set out on paper, but more than that, I fear that there is something in me that I long to tell the world, but that I will not be able to do it justice.

I have spent the past two years writing on the same topic. I cannot name, identify or summarise what exactly it has been. But in my fiction and non-fiction, the same sentiments seem to be coming through. Even through the journeys and thoughts of other characters, these are explicitly personal to me. I am seeking to discover meaning, like we all are. But I seem to be going about it in a strange way, by constantly searching for an imperfect role model. For some reason I feel this will help me come to terms with my life regardless of where it leads. I have written about the adolescent and adult journeys of women who have lived a life outside of the mould I have been brought up in. I have been fascinated with the events of the past and the way in which they affect the present. I find something both poetic and real about the idea of the butterfly effect. I spend hours discussing it with my friends, my family, tracing the events that have led to me being the person I am today. What small event changed the course of your life without you realising it? I wonder constantly about this. A person you met, a meeting you turned up to, a night you decided to stay in or go out. The possibilities are endless and to a large extent this is a pointless exercise. Whether you believe in predeterminism or think that everything is random, you could go on forver analysing. Or at least I could. But I haven’t lived very long. I don’t have enough life to examine and I find myself fascinated instead with the lives of others. So far these have been lives that are ordinary and yet I have found something gripping in them. I wonder if this is the process of discovering the history of people you knew before, and finding them changed in your eyes because of it. I wonder if it is only interesting to me and if to everyone else these concepts are basic and not worthy of thought or analysis.

In a week’s time I have to workshop something for my creative writing class and already the clamp of stress is starting to squeeze me. I have nothing to say that hasn’t already been said, so why bother? I do not have the ability of some of my classmates, who can make the simplest, tiniest thing in life become tangibly and amazingly alive through the medium of language. I have nothing to offer, and I feel overwhelmed. Maybe I should open a cupcake shop…

A random image for your enjoyment….