YMMV / This Girl

• Informed Wrongness: When Pete has an accident and ends up in hospital, Coral drops everything and rushes to the hospital to be with him and Deb, forcing Isabel to cancel her night out because she has no babysitter. Isabel is portrayed as unsympathetic for being furious with her, even though Coral is paid to look after Freddie and Ada, and went out at the last minute without telling anyone.
• Values Dissonance:
  • Isabel, and Coral's mother, both hit their children and are very cavalier about it. At the time the novel was published, this was much more common and socially acceptable.
  • Because of changes in social attitudes about relationships between adults and teenagers, and bosses and employees, a modern day reader is more likely to see Coral and Toby's flirtation as disturbing or inappropriate rather than romantic.
  • Since the novel was published, there is now more public awareness of the plight of families with young children forced to live in unsuitable social housing like Deb and Pete.
  • Isabel is a feminist academic who rejects anything stereotypically feminine and refuses to do household chores. In context of the novel, she's portrayed as privileged and out of touch; but today, mainstream feminism often treats a disdain towards femininity as inherently misogynistic.
  • Nowadays it would be far more difficult for an unqualified 16-year-old to get a job as a nanny. There is much more awareness around safeguarding and employers would expect to see certificates and run criminal background checks before hiring someone to care for young children. At the very least, Coral would be expected to show proof of the right to work in the UK (in her case, a passport or birth certificate) which would have proved she was under 18.
  • In 1980s England, it was commonplace for young people to leave school at 16 and find full-time work, with only the most academically-inclined going on to university. It's now mandatory to stay in education or training until 18, with the majority of students choosing to attend university.