Little Women and feminism (or why boys don't read "girl's books")

I’d rather spoon my eyes out than read little women

This. I read it once as a child, and that was plenty. I think my daughters have each read it once but not warmed to it either. My son has almost certainly not read it, but he did read all Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers and St Clare’s multiple times in late primary, so it’s not all about gender stereotypes.

very interesting post and I can totally see "they want a good story, with characters that seem real."

That's what they tell me Some kids need to be coaxed out of their reading bubbles (as do we all from time to time!); it's a real pity that the gender stereotypes bubble is the one most children fall into at around seven years old. The market for 8-12yos is really healthy right now with some phenomenal books out there, but I think there's a MASSIVE gap for straight teenage boys and lesbian girls. It really upsets me. There's a real lack of three-dimensional male main characters, and trans/nb creep affects lesbian characters badly. Kids need to see themselves, or people they can aspire to be, and we're shutting them out by following trends.

I properly bang on about there being "no such thing as girl books and boy books", but the kids I work with know that I walk that walk to my very soul and I have read the books they read. That's what makes a massive difference in their willingness to try something new. Kids can spot you bullshitting them miles away. They know who loves to read and who can talk with them intelligently about the things they're interested in.

Um, I did say I could go on about this forever, right?

MipMipMip allow me to recommend Longbourn
probs not for kids though

"I have three boys, one is only interested in non fiction, one will read anything but does like YA stuff that usually is slanted towards girls. The other one would probably say 'what's a book?' "

Yikes. And interesting variety of personality there.

I suppose I am biased from what I read and what my friends read.

silentcrow
very interesting post and I can totally see "they want a good story, with characters that seem real."

Excellent article - many thanks for the link. Nice to read of all the men and boys who loved Little Women and its sequels!

DS loved Ballet Shoes. He likes theatre stuff. Also the Swish of the Curtain. Great way to introduce them to some Shakespeare...

I read the Hemingway bull fighting one. What a boring twat he was.

Thank you. It pretty much covers Fiesta:The Sun Also Rises too.

Ugh, I could write for ages on this topic as kidlit is my speciality. But I'm not going to because you'd all be bored senseless. In my experience, children who love books will read anything they can get their hands on, particularly if it's talked about with enthusiasm by someone they respect and who has taken the time to get to know them (I love this part of my job!) That's a luxury of time most teachers don't have now, sadly, though I see amazing work happening in some schools. Kids who struggle with reading can still find things they love, again, if someone takes the time to listen and guide - too many kids are steered towards what adults loved in their childhood (which is my great bugbear with that article). IME "boys won't read girl protagonists" is marketing claptrap and parental prejudice - I've discussed books with dozens of boys and girls and what they tell me is that they want a good story, with characters that seem real. I do work hard to provide a diverse selection - generally by this I mean parity of sex, with racial and disability representation (for an older cohort I'd need to include sexuality too) which takes a ton of research and time (which is massively undercompensated, but highly appreciated). All kids should be able to see someone like them in books. Ask me how much I rage about underrepresentation of lesbians in teenage writing these days

It's worth remembering that reading for pleasure and studying for analysis are two different skills - a lot of people don't understand this. I think it takes a really skilled teacher to guide today's kids through books written in such a different time and society.

Ds1 stopped reading harry potter as soon as the word deatheater was mentioned

Sensitive little soul

I missed out on Little Women because I found the title offputting.
Less justifiably, I missed out on Iris Murdoch and Muriel Spark because their names were so old fashioned to my ear.
And the best character in War and Peace -Dolly-only got through to me after I’d got over the association with Dolly Parton.

Me being a prat? Or internalised misogyny?

I have three boys, one is only interested in non fiction, one will read anything but does like YA stuff that usually is slanted towards girls. The other one would probably say 'what's a book?'

"This is odd - I always thought George was terribly selfish, and they'd never get anywhere if they didn't have Anne looking after them..."

You said it yourself, what boy thinks "looking after" is interesting?

Just for you Lass

Oh fgs sexes.

I must check out the Tom Lehrer.

His Dark Materials was a big hit with my son- far more so than Harry Potter.

I don't think anyone could say the Pullman books don't appeal to both sees.

Anne was my least favorite character

This is odd - I always thought George was terribly selfish, and they'd never get anywhere if they didn't have Anne looking after them...

It's true that I wouldn't have thought of introducing my boys to LW, but we've done the Swallows and Amazons series (all 12 of them), which has a few contrasting (and important) female characters, and Harriet the Spy, and the Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler with of course the famous twist at the end, and Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf, and Mrs Pepperpot, and When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. Among others. So I think they're well au fait with the idea of female protagonists. I have also pointed out sexism in other things.

Am actually wondering now whether to read them Ballet Shoes.

I read pretty much anything as a kid - from the faraway tree to science fiction - I just wanted some adventure, and didn't care if it was a boy or girl character.

For some reason though, boys seem much more invested in this - which is weird - girls get objectified, but manage to be fine reading about men or women. Whereas boys box themselves into masculinity and socially enforce it much more harshly. I wonder if it's two sides of the same coin - girls learn to think of themselves from an external viewpoint, so are more open to these differing viewpoints, whereas boys stay very much the centre of their own world.

Or I could be overthinking and talking rubbish. I'm not sure.

So I always thought George(ina) from the famous five was by far the coolest of them. Apart from her dog, obviously. She clearly was not your stereotypical girl. I would have had no interest in a stereotypical girl character - Anne was my least favorite character. If you want boys to read about female characters you need more like Eleven or Katniss, or a bit less known, Hanna from the movie Hanna (Saoirse Ronan). Same for games, by far my most played character in Diablo 2 was the assassin from the expansion pack who was a woman. I see no reason why "boy's books", i.e. stories that seem to appeal to boys can't be with female (lead) characters. But to actually have boys read "girl books", I think that wouldn't work so well.

I really hate the phrase chick lit

Its made me start calling similar style 'mens' books cock lit

It does not go down well in polite company...or when children are around

God, Hemingway is ghastly isn't he? Mind you, I cannot read Death in the Afternoon without hearing Tom Lehrer singing "When it's fiesta time in Guadalajara..." (the internal Tom Lehrer soundtrack improves the experience of trying to read Hemingway, I find).

Ive said this before but it is relevant

Ds1 (19) had a massive sort out of his 'younger' books about a year ago. Just kept the ones he really enjoyed or were older

Probably talking about 50+ books

Gave them to ds2 (now 15) to look through and he took a large pile

Weirdly all the ones ds2 took had a male protagonist. He didnt take one book with a female lead

Except....one of the books he took was the start of the Zom-B books. Its only right at the end of the book that you find that the hero is a girl called B...his mind was blown

I just thought it was strange that ds1 would read any book as long as it was exciting and ds2 almost without thinking was just picking 'boys' books