"girling"

I really enjoyed this past week's article on "Girling" at the Parlor Piano. I really enjoyed reading the excerpts from the "daughter's" journals in order to gain perspective on how people felt about the daughter of the family functioning in a way to keep the emotional well being of the family. I think for many of the daughters, the piano took on a new life. It really functioned in their world as not just an object but something they could confide in. We talked a lot about escape, and how the piano served as this for the girls. I still think so much of this holds true today. I found myself drawing so many parallels between this article and my own life during class. I too felt as though I was "girled" at my piano. In my house both my sister and I were encouraged to be artists and although my parents probably won't admit it, I think it was almost expected that we would do something in the arts, so that we could "express ourselves." I was always the musician, and my sister was always the visual artist. So when I found my escape in playing my piano, my sister would spend countless hours locked in her room drawing. Through this article, I found it so interesting that this expectation of providing the family with entertainment. And the expectation that as women we would tend to the "softer" more "aesthetic" aspects of life at least for my family has not changed too much. I was always expected to play for the family when we had dinner, and especially if my family had friends over. Me at the piano was kind of a novelty to them. I do appreciate that I was not alone in this experience growing up. In this article there were so many girls who experienced the same things as me. Again another feeling that the Victorian's were maybe not so far off from who we are and what we have developed into today.