Horse Crazy: Girls and the Lives of Horses

Horse Crazy explores the meaning behind the love between girls and horses. Jean O’Malley Halley, a self—professed “horse girl,” contends that this relationship and its cultural signifiers influence the manner in which young girls define their identity when it comes to gender. Halley examines how popular culture, including the “pony book” genre, uses horses to encourage conformity to gender norms but also insists that the loving relationship between a girl and a horse fundamentally challenge...