Inquiry: Miriam Forman-Brunell: BABYSITTER: AN AMERICAN HISTORY

Babysitting is really a 20th Century phenomena, that only took off in the Depression. But society’s ideas about the babysitters were often at odds with the reality, and these differences reflect a cultural battlefield that existed over the development of a teen girl culture. Did you know that for decades babysitters have tried to organize? Or that many teen girls have always been very ambivalent about babysitting? Why have babysitters been shown to be the victims of so many slasher films? Why are there so many apocryphal stories about bad babysitters? What do the answers to these questions say about how our society looks at teenage girls? Tune in to Inquiry tonight when we speak with MIRIAM FORMAN-BRUNELL about her complex and fascinating book BABYSITTER: AN AMERICAN HISTORY. Professor Forman-Brunell is also the co-director of the educational website resource CHILDREN AND YOUTH IN HISTORY, which can be found at: http://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/