New Yorker Cartoonist Whitney Darrow’s 1970 Children’s Book Emphasizes The Differences Between Boys And Girls

Up until the 1960s men were men, women were women and children’s books steadfastly reinforced that boys are boys, and girls are girls. Not just anatomically, but in professions, expectations and capabilities.

“Because he was naughty, dear.”

Whitney Darrow Jr. (August 22, 1909 – August 10, 1999) was one of the New Yorker Magazine’s most accomplished cartoonists publishing over 1,500 cartoons in the magazine from 1933-1982. During a six decade career, Darrow also illustrated many books including four hilarious compendiums of his New Yorker cartoons. Unlike many early New Yorker cartoonists Darrow wrote his own cartoon captions.

In the 1960s and 1970s Darrow also wrote some scholastic age books, solo and with co-authors. These include: Unidentified Flying Elephant (1968); Fun On Wheels (1976); Bony (1977); Walter The Homing Pigeon (1981) and our focus today, the difficult to find I’m Glad I’m A Boy! I’m Glad I’m A Girl! (1970, Windmill Books).

How far have we gone in a little over 50 years?

Let’s put it this way: there is little chance a modern day publisher would print this book now.

Short captions accompany each illustration emphasizing the differences between boys and girls. They represent stereotypes of the time for what is appropriate in aspects of masculinity and femininity. And each sex should be glad of those differences.

But I guarantee there are millions of Americans today who would heartily approve these sort of books, over the gender dysphoria literature being promoted to youngsters in many school systems.

There was no such acronym as LGBTQ+ in 1970. Few gay people lived “out” in the open. It was a serious crime in many places to engage in gay behavior. It wasn’t until 1973 that the American Psychological Association would remove homosexuality as a mental disorder.

Transgender – no such word. A person feeling trapped in a body of the wrong sex was also classified as a mental disorder. Doctor Harry Benjamin in 1966 published The Transsexual Phenomenon popularizing the term transsexual.

Here are a few pages from the book. Innocent at the time, probably incendiary today.

What do you think?