ature--the fairy princess's boy companion who delights in being humiliated and in being put in pain.)
Throughout the rest of Baum's Oz books one constantly en- counters heroic girls and "boys" who are girlish of form and sweet of nature. Prince Rinkitink who is indistinguishable from a girl, for one. In another Baum book, "John Dough and the Cherub", he rings in a new note. The chief character of this book, Chick the Cherub, reveals on the last page that not once has there been any reference to his/her sex. Nobody ever knows whether Chick was male or female and a study of the book shows that Baum deliberately avoided any pronouns in connection with the Cherub. A Chicago newspaper actually ran a contest for the best opinions on Chick's sex!
What faint but definite effect have these books had on the formation of the femme personalities of adulthood?
Sammy was born without riches He worked very hard digging ditches
But he made a fine lass
In a dress with some class
When on Sunday he'd shed his old britches
Sometimes I'm a man and sometimes a lady First my name's Sid and then it is Sadie
I'm woman or man--as the case may be As I vary my personality.
Not in just one sex do I abide
For I look at the world from either side
They met in a park in the summer He begged her phone number from her Later on, when he called
He sure was appalled
To find "she" was Johnson, the Plumber.
Georgia 6-H-1
12.