I was always messing with stories (and making up custom-made stories) for my daughter when she was little, making the heroine go off to university, rescue herself, things like that. And yeah, she remembers those stories and how Sleeping Beauty didn't marry the prince, and she grew up awesome :)
One of my friends just posted up a genderflipped Hobbit cast too. IF ONLY omg.
A 2011 study of almost 6,000 children’s books published between 1900 and 2000 showed that only 31 percent had female central characters. While the disparity has declined in recent years, it persists-particularly, and interestingly, among animal characters.
I'll keep this in mind when I go into children's lit. In January and February I'm writing a female-centered fantasy novel (so y'all won't hear from me for a couple of months lol), but I'd also like to write fantasy and horror stories for kids too.
I heard years ago in children's lit class that girls will read a boy or girl protag but a boy will only read a boy protag. Unspoken was because a boy would not want to be Less Than so fuck that. I offer boys books starring boys and girls. Maybe they haven't yet learned to be bigoted!
I'd like to see a study of 2000-now because that early 20th century lit is going to skew things. YA for example seems to be all girls on the covers...unless it's a low vocab/high interest book aimed for boys. I'm sure publishers have found most YA redactors are girls.
This is also true for movies, which is why Pixar focuses on male protagonists and "Brave" was a risk. The article I read about this also said that sons had more influence on what movies the family went to see than daughters did, which I found very disturbing.
YA novels are probably aimed more at girls because girls are more likely to read novels. Boys read less often for enjoyment, and when they do they prefer magazines, newspapers, and non-fiction books.
The thing about the movies (and books and toys) isn't strictly true. There's been some research and real-world findings showing that it's not the gender of the protagonist that matters; it's the way that stories are told. Basically, directors/producers/writers give self-fulfilling prophecies - they make the storylines and marketing of female-centered stories very, very feminine (because they assume only girls will be interested), but they make the storylines and marketing of male-centered stories more gender-neutral because they assume that everyone will watch it
( ... )
I was never read to as a child (I learned to read on my own very early) but my wife read Dealing With Dragons to me a while ago and genderswapped the main character to a boy to make the story queer. It was SO NICE. I would recommend this kind of thing to people of any age tbh.
Comments 51
Reply
A 2011 study of almost 6,000 children’s books published between 1900 and 2000 showed that only 31 percent had female central characters. While the disparity has declined in recent years, it persists-particularly, and interestingly, among animal characters.
I'll keep this in mind when I go into children's lit. In January and February I'm writing a female-centered fantasy novel (so y'all won't hear from me for a couple of months lol), but I'd also like to write fantasy and horror stories for kids too.
Reply
I'd like to see a study of 2000-now because that early 20th century lit is going to skew things. YA for example seems to be all girls on the covers...unless it's a low vocab/high interest book aimed for boys. I'm sure publishers have found most YA redactors are girls.
Reply
YA novels are probably aimed more at girls because girls are more likely to read novels. Boys read less often for enjoyment, and when they do they prefer magazines, newspapers, and non-fiction books.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment