Why Is The Stanley Women In Constant Conflict To Fit In

To what extent are the Stanley women in constant conflict to fit in?

Purple Threads is a memoir written by Jeanine Leanne. It follows the Stanley family from the perspective of one of family members, ca young girl called Sunny and shares their experiences being an Aboriginal woman in the 1960’s. Throughout the book, Jeanine Leanne highlights the conflict the Stanley women face in order to overcome all the pressure put on them to conform to societal expectations and uphold their individuality and remain “purple”. However, Leanne also illustrates the opposing side of this through the inclusion of certain concepts and scenes in the memoir that depict the Stanley women trying to fit in to society and live up to the “norms”. Leanne highlights

Fitting in is to feel you belong in a particular group and feel accepted by those in it. For the Stanley women, fitting in wasn’t an innate instinct, they believed in the importance of staying true to your own beliefs, values, and culture. Through the Stanley women’s defiance regarding the idea of fitting in, Jeanine Leanne conveys the significance of not allowing anyone or anything to change how you think and the way you feel about yourself. At the exposition of the book, Auntie Boo’s views on marriage and men were made abundantly clear, (“men are like snakes on legs”) and (“Ya can’t trust ‘em”). It is also mentioned that she stayed single her whole life, which was uncommon at the time, hence making Aunty Boo’s dislike towards men a controversial opinion, therefore it is a good example of one of the Stanley women challenging society’s expectations and upholding their principals. Furthermore, the Stanley women all share a lack of belief in Christianity which was a prominent factor in the white culture. This idea is supported when Sunny says, “I know youse hate church”, “you said churchy people were all gammon.” Instead of denying the