Always on the lookout for some great new books for my twin boys to read, I was in two city bookstores last Friday when a depressing realization set in…As I scoured the shelves it became increasingly obvious how gender segregated these early readers seem to be. On the boys’ side were books like the Zac Powers and Jack Stalwart secret agents series, Boy vs. Beast and Battle Boy while on the girls’ side were the Rainbow Magic Fairy books, Ivy and Bean, Mermaid and Unicorn books.
Although I know there are definitely cross-over books like The Magic Tree House books (which are, believe it, or not hard to find in Australia), the way the section was laid out made it clear that there were ‘boy books’ and ‘girl books’ and I had to wonder what kind of message this sent to kids (who are, after all, the readers of the future).
Although I’m not the sort who believes we should inflict some crazy gender neutrality on kids, it is kind of depressing that the majority of ‘boy’ books are all about aliens, battles and secret agents while the girls books were all pink and cutesy with themes of flowers, fairies, unicorns and magic…I wonder as these kids grow up how this will affect their reading choices (which, to be fair, vastly improve as they get to middle grade and teen books).
My boys think I should rectify the situation by writing some awesomely cool series aimed just for them (I only wish ideas came that easily!) but all I can do is try to mitigate the situation by opening their minds to a whole range of reading choices. I remember growing up that, though there were obviously some girl/boy-centric books, there were heaps of stories that appealed to everyone. Both my husband and I grew up on Enid Blyton’s Famous Five, Mystery and Adventure series and so when we talk about books that we loved as children we have lots of common ground. I just can’t believe twenty-odd years later, that the gap between what boys and girls read seems to have grown wider – at least among primary/elementary school kids.
Perhaps part of the reason is the perception that it is hard to get boys to read and so publishers have been focusing on ‘cool’ themes to try and encourage boys to pick up a book. Nothing wrong with that…but I have to admit, as a parent, I would love to see books that have broader appeal. Not to mention that the actual writing itself is pedestrian. I fear that the early book market become little more than a production line pushing out a plethora of bland, badly written books.
I feel like there are so many amazing children’s picture books and then there is this huge gap until middle-grade or young adult books (where I think there are some fabulous things going on). Should I be worried that by the time my boys reach that point they will think that books are divided (like clothes) on gender lines (blue for boys, pink for girls…)?
So what do you think? Is reading in these early years getting more gender specific? Is anyone else depressed when they look at books aimed for 6-10 year olds?
Killzoneblog.com
Hrm…interesting that your store divides books by gender. I remember when raising my boys plenty of books that were non-segregated. When they were young it was Dr. Seuss to Magic Treehouse to Magic Schoolbus and so on. All three of my boys got into Brian Jacques’s Redwall series at about age 9 and had read them all within a year or two.
I think it is a matter of the retailers understanding that males and females to tend to tell and hear stories in very different ways. Much the same was as a toy store doesn’t put toy trucks and toy guns on the shelf next to toy strollers and baby dolls. Position the products to be seen by the potential buyer.
Not to say that only boys read boy books or girls read girl books, but one fast way to turn many boys off from reading is to give them a book where the main character thinks and acts in a clearly female mindset, which to the boy will be mostly alien. If he can’t relate, he won’t be a return shopper. Likewise with most women readers I think (although I’d never assume to understand what women in general want or think…24 years marriage and I’m no closer on that one).
As far as stacking the books, I’d like all my gun totin’ back to back combat scene manly man books to be shelved in such a way I can find them easily, cuz I don’t want to wade through no pansie girly sensitive feely stuff to find out if the hero manages to kill the bad guy with that spiffy new H&K 4.6 mm MP7 or just takes him out with a knife.
hah! While the store didn’t seem to deliberately do the segregation it was kind of obvious and I am as puzzled as you are why it seems like there is much more of a divide now – though I guess it is like toys in a store. I find it kind of depressing that the toys are segregated and the clothes are segregated (is it my imagination or is this blue-pink divide in children’s clothing worse than ever?!) and now it feels like children’s books are too:(
Things sure have changed since we boys all read NURSE NANCY books and not just for the three band aids.
Well…if the divide is topical, my guess is that it is market-driven.I read a couple of Nancy Drew books back in the day (the 1990s)(just kidding) (about the 1990s)and I think, if memory serves, that they had the boys’ section divided from the girls’ section back then as well, though it was more of a “Girls Fiction”/”Boys Section” type of thing so that a guy searching for Tom Swift wouldn’t trip over a gaggle of gigglers looking for “Clara Barton, Greenwich Village Nurse” and so the girls wouldn’t risk exposure to yucky boy cooties in general. A customer of course was and is free to browse both.
I take your point, however. The idea behind classification is to enable the consumer shopping for a specific item to get in and get out quickly if they so desire, as opposed to spending time hunting something down. Sometimes, however, it creates an imaginary wall. For example, the classification “African-American fiction” is I think all wrong. It marginalizes a number of authors worthy of a larger audience who more often than not won’t find them.
Anyway, interesting observation, Clare. And twins? Bless you.
I guess I only vaguely noticed some of those things when taking my nieces to the book store – but there are more varied “girl” books too with spy school for girls and such. I like the Rick Riordian novels (The Percy Jackson novels, the follow up Heros series and the Kane Chronicles series)- they fit that age and both boys and girls.
When I was younger, my dad read a lot of sci-fi to me and by 9 and 10 I was reading Heinlein, A.E.VanVogt Bradbury, & Asimov, by myself, so I never paid much attention at that age.
Honestly, I think there are a lot more options for kids and YA now than there ever have been, I’ve been quite impressed.
On the whole I don’t like such divisions, I think it sends up an unbalanced set of restrictions, expectations, and messages.
I found that my daughter enjoyed most of the boy-centric books just as much as my son (dragon slaying and whatnot), but you couldn’t have gotten my son to touch a book about fairies or unicorns to save his life.
I don’t know what that means, exactly. Maybe boys so early on learn that they have to put up a masculine front? Or maybe that young girls are more secure in their femininity (because we’re always dressing them up like princesses) that they’re less concerned that reading the “wrong” books is some kind of reflection on them?
Or maybe that’s just my kids.
I’m shocked, shocked to learn of this segregation in children’s books.
It’s not just books. Have you taken your sons to the movies lately? Because nearly all children’s movies feature a boy protagonist, especially if adventure is involved. Seriously. When’s the last time you can remember a girl protagonist in kiddie flick, especially one who isn’t a princess or other god awful stereotype from the 50s? And would your sons be clamoring to see it? As has been pointed out by others above girls are expected to join in on the boy-centric bandwagon, and not the other way around.
At least books get better for girls (even if movies don’t).
Now days a princess can be male or female. And he or she can marry he or she. I’m getting confused about everything. Society is collapsing. The sky is falling.
Rather than trying a bookstore, go to your local library and ask for some ideas from the youth services librarian who will be more than happy to help. Off the top of my head, authors my eight year old son (who hates Zac Power) has loved recently include Jill Tomlinson, Dodie Smith, Lynne Reid Banks, Kate Saunders, Michael Morpurgo and the incredibly popular Andy Griffiths. And of course there’s always Asterix and Tintin, the whole collection of which should be in your local library. I’d rate all of them, except perhaps Andy Griffiths, as pretty gender-neutral.
Unfortunately bookstores seem to take toy stores as the role model when it comes to displaying books. It’s not that the books aren’t out there.
Hi Clare. Just a note to let you know I wrote a book called BRASS MONKEYS directed right at your boys. It came out last year from Charlesbridge, debuting to a fantastic, thunderous, zen-like silence. (Okay, I added the zen part, trying to make it sound less humiliating.) Having been a boy once upon a day, I tried to get in the rowdy gusto I always liked in adventure stories, but I also wanted to appeal to the girls, the young women. (My life has been full of strong and wonderfully creative women, so that part was a natural.) I think the book has a balanced, grounded relationship between the sexes, but that hasn’t mattered a bit in terms of sales. The book languishes. I languish. The world of literature… Having said that, if your boys could find a copy, I’d be interested in their reaction. And Mom, too.
Terry Caszatt