This document discusses the evolution of female protagonists in young adult dystopian novels from the late 19th century to present day. It notes that while early "New Women" in the late 19th century resisted traditional gender roles, they did not seek to redefine women's roles broadly. Not until the 21st century did young women protagonists in dystopian novels more consciously explore navigating nontraditional roles and societal liminality. The document then discusses how novels like Reviving Ophelia and themes of the Riot Grrrl movement captured adolescent girls struggling against the pressures of unrealistic cultural ideals in the late 20th century. Finally, it outlines some typical conflicts young women protagonists in dystopian novels

1. YOUNG ADULT DYSTOPIA
CENTERED ON A FEMALE

2. THE NEW WOMAN
In the late nineteenth and early 20th centuries, Henry James coined a phrase,
the New Woman, a phrase meant to indicate women of affluence and
sensibility who exhibited an independent spirit and acted according to their
own wishes, in short, women who resisted the traditional patriarchy. Although
they tended to resist the societal norms, the did so in what many would deem
a more passive or submissive way; while refusing to marry and follow
traditional female roles, they did not seek to redefine the roles of women as a
whole, rather seeking to focus on their own independence within the spheres
they normally inhabited.
Not until the 21st century did young women protagonists show a more
conscious attempt to explore their liminality (being between states, a state of
transition).

3. THE NEWER NEW WOMAN
Reviving Ophelia
As a therapist, Mary Pipher was becoming frustrated with the growing problems
among adolescent girls. Why were so many of them turning to therapy in the first
place? Why had these lovely and promising human beings fallen prey to depression,
eating disorders, suicide attempts, and crushingly low self-esteem? The answer hit a
nerve with Pipher, with parents, and with the girls themselves. Crashing and burning
in a “developmental Bermuda Triangle,” they were coming of age in a media-
saturated culture preoccupied with unrealistic ideals of beauty and images of
dehumanized sex, a culture rife with addictions and sexually transmitted diseases.
They were losing their resiliency and optimism in a “girl-poisoning” culture that
propagated values at odds with those necessary to survive.
Told in the brave, fearless, and honest voices of the girls themselves who are
emerging from the chaos of adolescence, Reviving Ophelia is a call to arms, offering
important tactics, empathy, and strength, and urging a change where young hearts
can flourish again, and rediscover and reengage their sense of self.

4. Riot grrrl is an underground feminist hardcore punk movement that originally
started in the early 1990s, in Washington, and the greater Pacific Northwest,
noticeably in Olympia, Washington. It is a subcultural movement that combines
feminist consciousness and punk style and politics. It is often associated with third-
wave feminism, which is sometimes seen as its starting point. It has also been
described as a musical genre that came out of indie rock, with the punk scene serving
as an inspiration for a musical movement in which women could express themselves
in the same way men had been doing for the past several years.
Riot grrrl bands often address issues such as rape, domestic abuse, sexuality, racism,
patriarchy, and female empowerment. In addition to a music scene and genre, riot
grrrl is a subculture involving a DIY (do it yourself) ethic, zines, art, political action,
and activism. The Riot grrrl movement quickly spread well beyond its musical roots to
create vibrant “zine” and World Wide Web-based movement, complete with local
meetings and grassroots organizing to end ageism, homophobia, racism, sexism and,
especially, physical and emotional violence against women and girls. Riot grrrls are
known to hold meetings, start chapters, and support and organize women in music.

5. DYSTOPIAN CHARACTERISTICS
Propaganda is used to control the citizens of society.
• Information, independent thought, and freedom are restricted.
• A figurehead or concept is worshipped by the citizens of the society.
• Citizens are perceived to be under constant surveillance.
• Citizens live in a dehumanized state.
• Citizens conform to uniform expectations. Individuality/dissent are bad.
http://facweb.northseattle.edu/jclapp/Children's%20Literature/Discussion%20Questions/Dystopias%20Characteri
stics.htm
What they left out:
Dystopias feel familiar to us but also offer a sense of hope.
An ordinary person, the protagonist is the one to provide the hope.
Dystopias are preceded by an apocalyptic event.
There is an oppressive government.

6. THE DYSTOPIAN PROTAGONIST
• often feels trapped and is struggling to escape.
• questions the existing social and political systems.
• believes or feels that something is terribly wrong with the society in which he or
she lives.
• helps the audience recognizes the negative aspects of the dystopian world
through his or her perspective.
http://facweb.northseattle.edu/jclapp/Children's%20Literature/Discussion%20Questions/Dystopias%20Ch
aracteristics.htm

7. CONFLICTS YOUNG WOMEN IN DYSTOPIA
FACE
• As young people stand up and rebel, they learn their own limitations; it is
questionable to them and to others whether they have the power and strength to
lead a larger rebellion.
• They struggle between the larger concerns facing them and their sexual feelings.
Adult femininity no longer means the awakening of the sexual self.
• The risks and the rewards are not clear. Patriarchal rules no longer apply. The
protagonists must make up their own.
• They are simultaneously faced with the development of identity and an identity
thrust upon them by the demands of the dystopia. But they also must sacrifice their
own needs with the needs of others.
• In a situation in which there seems to be little or no hope, they are looked to to
provide the hope for those closest to them and for the society.

8. BLOOD RED ROAD
Discuss and answer these questions in groups:
What do we know about the story so far? Characters?
Relationships between them?
Setting?
Time period?
Events?
Conflicts?
What should we know in order to understand the beginning of the story?

9. DYSTOPIAN NOVEL AND THE
PATRIARCHY.
Find quotes, passages from Blood Red road that
correspond to a point from either Tyson’s or Liberman’s
articles. How does this novel indicate a typical patriarchy
in many ways.

10. DYSTOPIAN NOVEL AND THE BREAK
FROM THE TYPICAL PATRIARCHY.
• In what way does Blood Red Road diverge from a typical
novel in which the partriarchy rules? What could we find
to argue with quotes from Tyson? What are the non-
traditional conflicts that the story poses?

11. HOMEWORK
• Read Dustlands: Blood Red Road, to page 80
• 1st short paper due