While girls may be able to relate more to girl books than other books it does not mean that they don't read these other books. Since the supposed audience of books, movies, and other forms of literature are white males, females are not only expected to read these books but they are expected to relate to them as well. This leads to it being more socially acceptable for girls to read boy books than boys to read girl books. This plays into gender roles in today's society. Females are supposed to be able to relate to others and provide emotional support while males are supposed to be the hunters and bread winners. Boy books play into these stereotypes because most focus on action, adventure, and survival and not many personal or emotional issues.
I believe that books that reverse traditional gender roles would be important to help break the barrier of gender conformity. Books that have a boy as the main character but deal with emotional and personal issues may help boys understand their emotions as well as the emotions of those around them. I cannot think of any examples of this type of novel. Adventure novels that have girls as the main character are becoming more common but still are not as common as the traditional male adventure novel. I think that books should have fewer gender stereotypes and should not be marketed so much as girl books or boy books but should focus on the content of the story.
I agree with you. Books today are so categorized into boy's books and girl's books. Just because the girl is the main character of a story does not mean that a boy can't relate to her. It matters on the content, and the theme of the story. Boys and girls go through many similar situations in life; moving, getting pets, some hardships, school. Books should not be so stereotyped. You can even tell by the cover, the colors and the text used. It can be beneficial to have a story targeted towards a specific gender, but there should be more towards both boys and girls alike.
ReplyDeleteI had an experience with separated gender roles just the other day. My boyfriend's daughter (she is 8) was looking for a book at the store. As we're walking she says "Where are all the girl books?", simply because she did not see any pink, glittery book covers. This surprised me and made me think of all the things we are learning in this class and in my TE 250 class. I think the Hunger Games was a great book to help people steer away from the "normal" gender roles. Katniss plays a girl who acts more like a boy than anything. She hunts, fishes, traps, and provides for her family. She played an empowering female character that displays independence from a male role.
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