"Are there boy books and girls books? Do we embrace this as a professional necessity or do we actively try to fight stereotypes." Use the books, the articles, the developmental assets, and if you are up to it the articles the blogs link to to respond.
I've heard this argument alot. Is there such a thing as a boy's book and a girl'sbook? Is there cross-reading? Should it be encouraged?
Typically, a book is defined into one of these two gender categories in Tween literature according to the gender of the protagonist. This is stated over and over again in discussion groups, textbooks, articles, lecture and daily conversations. It makes sense. Kids, and really readers in general, want a character they can relate to, that they have something in common with or exemplify something they want to be. (Boys LitWire, Sept 22, 2010). This is part of building a positive identity and social competencies, in some aspects, typically because we learn that similarites between individuals (including ourselves and another person) mean they are not so different and we can develop empathy, sympathy and cultural sensitivity in this manner (40 Developmental Assets for Middle Childhood, 2012). If you can't find a similarity or some element to relate to, how can you understand the individual or the context of the situation? How can you figure out where you fit in with society? This theory explains why boys read about boys and girls read about girls. However, why are more girls willing to read about male protagonists, instead of vice versa?
Slowly, as the years have crept on, humans have evolved more and more cultural sensitivity as well as gender sensitivity. It might have started when the first woman went to work, or demanded equal rights, cast their first vote or campaigned for their fair share of "equal rights." However, the social order still has a relatively defined version of gender roles for males and females, even if the lines have blurred somewhay. With more focus having been presented for women's rights, their right to do "manly" things, it has become more acceptable for a girl to read books about male protagonists or male subects than a boy reading about a girl. It isn't necessarily that girls are more flexible, though there may be some truth to that. I believe it is a cultural stigma that is responsible for the lack of cross reading and the development of more Tween literature for girls, than boys.
If a boy is caught reading about a girl, he is shunned and labeled in stark contrast to the macho ideal still being presented to boys as they grow up as the ideal model of manliness. Boys are taught from a young age that taking interest in anything "girly" is tantamount to turning over their "man card." Girls, on the other hand, are encouraged to break gender barriers and attempt traditionally male roles and to explore traditionally male associated literature. Some might claim they are being too masculine, but typically it is encouraged and becomes a sign of strength, equality and perserverence for females. Unfortunately, this severely limits the field of socially acceptable titles of tween boys.
This is further encouraged as researchers and marketers have come to understand the purchasing power of girls in this age category. Male tween characters have been sentenced to "side-kick" or "best-friend" status. They have now become secondary where originally girl characters were defined as secondary (Sweet Valley High: The Great Re-tweening, 2010).
If a boy is caught reading about a girl, he is shunned and labeled in stark contrast to the macho ideal still being presented to boys as they grow up as the ideal model of manliness. Boys are taught from a young age that taking interest in anything "girly" is tantamount to turning over their "man card." Girls, on the other hand, are encouraged to break gender barriers and attempt traditionally male roles and to explore traditionally male associated literature. Some might claim they are being too masculine, but typically it is encouraged and becomes a sign of strength, equality and perserverence for females. Unfortunately, this severely limits the field of socially acceptable titles of tween boys.
This is further encouraged as researchers and marketers have come to understand the purchasing power of girls in this age category. Male tween characters have been sentenced to "side-kick" or "best-friend" status. They have now become secondary where originally girl characters were defined as secondary (Sweet Valley High: The Great Re-tweening, 2010).
While searching through a Children's Literature Listserv archive I read a theory by the post author that children are encouraged to read classic "high level" literature in schools which more often than not, features a male protagonist. They are taught, subversively or not, that women are second class citizens, no matter what rights they have won from their counterparts. Books and topics by or about women are typically not encouraged and in doing so (not encouraging minority protagonists), teachers may be unknowingly imparting a social bias with their uneven curriculum (Boys Don't Read Girls' Books?, 1995). With this method of teaching, teachers are also narrowing the field for male book readers while encouraging the girls to cross-over. Genders often have difficulty sharing, and book titles and genres are no different. There is still no secure middle ground where girls and boys can explore the same titles in the tween category without some sort of censure.
Take for example Hatchet and Are You There God? It's me, Margaret. While Hatchet is a well written book, I did not enjoy it. For me, it was not relatable. The protagonist was male and the subect was survival, becoming a man. Whereas, Are You There God was more relatable to me, the story of a young girl, in a new environment, struggling with faith, bodily changes, friends, school and trying to fit in. Her emotions were easy to interpret because I had experienced many of the same as a tween myself. I did not have that experience, that relatability to the other book. This goes back to my original theory. While the gender lines do blur, and more and more people are encouraging cross reading across the gender categories, there will always be boy and girl books, as long as there are gender identities and gender roles in our societies. Readers want a book to speak to them, to relate to them. In tween literature, this speaks to their desire to grow up and be successful as a grown up, in their given gender role. It is difficult to "get into"a book about the opposite gender role, unless you are able to distance yourself from the protagonist and read the book strictly for reference. No matter the age or the gender, the reader will look into the text and the subtext for markers identifying proper and improper behavior for each role.
