Customer Reviews

Good Girls Don't Wear Trousers

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The author points out the situation of gender roles in Sicily. I liked "Good girls don't wear trousers" very much though I did not like the film which was quite different from the book. The novel deals with a serious topic while the film is more or less a kind of comedy. I can also recommend the books that the author wrote after the enormous success of "Volevo i pantaloni", especially "Una ragazza normale" or "Fedra se ne va" which can be probably considered the more mature ones . As I am studying Italian I am actually writing my dissertation about the author. Therefore, I would like to get in touch with Lara and I would be very grateful to receive any information how I could reach her. Thank you very much in advance!

only one word for all of you:thanks.Love.Lara

I bought this book at the request of my mother. I haven't read it. I have a feeling it's very Italian in it's critique of society. My Italian mother loved the book...but she couldn't wait to get out of Italy.

Sorry if this isn't much a review.

In some ways this book is similar to "Like Water for Chocolate" in its account of the burden of hypocrisy and double standards that girls and women have to bear in some societies.

Cardella writes of sexual suspicion, fears and jealousy; but any astute reader will be able to draw chilling comparisons from almost every venue in life. Even in the US, some women still carry this burden inflicted by jealous husbands or boyfriends. This book is a poignant reminder that it should not be so, and every woman deserves to be trusted.

For Anetta, trousers symbolized freedom and independence. Suffice to say, in her Sicilian world, she never got to wear them; but, she grew up surrounded by lascivious relatives whose chronic suspicion and hypocrisy turned her life into a nightmare. Trousers were a sin, but the uncle who slid his hand up her skirt when she was 10 was an embarrassment never to be countered or spoken about.

In our society, we know it as Victorian morality. Boys and men were expected "to sow their wild oats," but the girls with whom they had their fun were beneath the notice of polite company. It's the ultimate repression for women; nothing they say is believable, everything they say is grounds for suspicion, doubt and recrimination.

Cardella does not portray a happy society; instead, she tells how the perennial fear of what a girl might do if left unguarded generates suspicion, which drives at least some to the sins they've of which they are accused, generating further suspicion and fear. Jealousy is a self-perpetuating bitter fear that destroys those who succumb to its fever; it harms everyone it touches.

The tragedy is that it can be triggered by a girl's laugh, prompting suspicions of "Why is she happy and I'm not ?" or the unspoken fear "Why does he make her happy and not me ?" The fact women have a right to be happy, without generating irrational male fears, generated a storm of controversy in Italy. In response, Cardella was banned from her hometown because of this book.

In Europe, where women are often still treated as objects of desire instead of people capable of having their own desires, it has sold two million copies. Obviously, it's found a sympathetic audience among people who need this reminder of the injustices sometimes inflicted upon half of the population.

In North America, it's a vivid reminder of chauvinist attitudes that until the so-called "sexual revolution" were used to intimidate and oppress women. There are still far too many obstacles which limit opportunities for women, but this brief book is a fascinating reminder of just how far along the road to equality we've come in 50 years.

Women make up at least 50 percent of the potential talent of modern society; this story of the iron shackles of prejudice, suspicion and jealousy hammered onto women in many societies helps explain why some regions are perpetually poor. It's hardly an accident that Annetta's most liberated friend is the daughter of an engineer from northern Italy; by the same token, before the book ends, she points out that wealth doesn't assure virtue or compassion.

Those are personal qualities rather than the narrow morals imposed by jealousy or suspicion. Her book is a testament to individual qualities, a contrast to the artificial and shallow virtues professed by people who become hypocritical in their zealous jealousy. She celebrates individual qualities, not the moral hypocrisy of warped righteousness.