Children’s interests in the books they read could be influenced by their day to day experiences. The differences in what boys and girls prefer to read as well as the content within the materials serve to perpetuate gender stereotypes. Differences in reading preferences between boys and girls may not be due to any inherent difference in the sexes, but rather due to societal expectations and gender roles.
Ray Nicolle, an early reading specialist, stated that boys prefer books with “real action, violence and villains” rather than the more romantic books better suited for girls (Langerman 132). Though his statements were more speculation than anything else, and lacked substantiation, further studies revealed that he was not wrong, albeit this was one of the only claims he made out of a rather sexist bunch that had any truth to it.
A study by Kropp and Halverson (1979) found that girls preferred stories with a female lead characters engaged in “female activities,” and stories with male leads and masculine activities were the least popular; for boys, they found the opposite was true (Langerman 133). This is most likely because children enjoy stories and characters that they can relate to. Female children would find female characters more easily relatable than male characters and vice versa. Children also tend to read more books by authors of the same gender (Langerman, 133).
In an article by Glenda T. Childress (1985) the author theorizes that the gap between reading preferences in children of different genders is due to the Freudian concept of the “latency period,” in which children around the age of 8 begin to identify with the common gender roles and interests modeled by people of their own gender and shy away from those of the oppo...
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...e to read said “feminine” literature and boys prefer to read said “masculine” literature. (Davila 205).
Of the books with male-only characters, many harmful aspects of hypermasculinity were emphasized, such as that males must not be emotional, must excel and are responsible for the well-being of those around them (Langerman 134). In accordance with this, boys also prefer to read books that were more violent and included more physical action, as well as stories about war (Mead 17).
Girls are also twice as likely to choose biographies about famous people, implying that they’re far more influenced by the media than are boys (Mead 19).
Boys are more likely to judge a book by its cover and choose to read books that had “wide margins, large print, ample amount of white space, and were relatively shorter compared to others,” as well as stranger fonts and pictures (Mead 23).
In the 18th century, reading novels served as a pass time and a diversion from household chores for the women. Though formal female education is not developed, the female characters are seen having a keen interest in books, something that was earlier frowned upon for the sentimental content of books might be destructive to societal values. At the time, books were meant to teach and reflect upon the socially acceptable ideas of romance, courtship, and marriage. We find Miss Wharton asking for books to read from her friend Mrs. Lucy Sumner, “Send me some new books; not such, however, as will require much attention. Let them be plays or novels, or anything else that will amuse and extort a smile.” (Foster, 192) Mrs. Sumner sends her novels which she considers “chaste and of a lighter reading” (Foster, 196). We can thus construe that books and novels in The Coquette though meant for reading pleasure, also play form part of the female
My childhood has been just like every kid growing up in the 20th century. It revolved around the Disney story’s that were filled with magic and dreams. From Cinderella to Sleeping Beauty, my beloved children 's stories were controlled by male characters. At a young age this taught me that women are not as useful as men. These stories made me learn what it means to be a boy, girl, man, or woman. The ratio of males to females as main characters was so outstanding it lead me to question how these stories impacted how I view men and women.
"Reading." The Gale Encyclopedia of Childhood and Adolescence. Ed. Jerome Kagan and Susan B. Gall. Online Edition. Detroit: Gale, 2007.
Young children are typically raised around specific sex-types objects and activities. This includes the toys that that are given, activities that they are encouraged to participate in, and the gender-based roles that they are subjected to from a young age. Parents are more likely to introduce their daughters into the world of femininity through an abundance of pink colored clothes and objects, Barbie dolls, and domestic chores such as cooking and doing laundry (Witt par. 9). Contrarily, boys are typically exposed to the male world through action figures, sports, the color blue, and maintenance-based chores such as mowing the lawn and repairing various things around the house (Witt par. 9). As a result, young children begin to link different occupations with a certain gender thus narrowing their decisions relating to their career goals in the future. This separation of options also creates a suppresses the child from doing something that is viewed as ‘different’ from what they were exposed to. Gender socialization stemming from early childhood shapes the child and progressively shoves them into a small box of opportunities and choices relating to how they should live their
Throughout most of literature and history, the notion of ‘the woman’ has been little more than a caricature of the actual female identity. Most works of literature rely on only a handful of tropes for their female characters and often use women to prop up the male characters: female characters are sacrificed for plot development. It may be that the author actually sacrifices a female character by killing her off, like Mary Shelly did in Frankenstein in order to get Victor Frankenstein to confront the monster he had created, or by reducing a character to just a childish girl who only fulfills a trope, as Oscar Wilde did with Cecily and Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest. Using female characters in order to further the male characters’
In his article, “The Gender Gap at School,” David Brooks scrutinizes common gender roles and introduces the idea that biological factors may play a role in human development. He begins his essay by analyzing the three gender segregated sections in any airport, which include the restrooms, security pat-down areas, and the bookstore. He goes on to explain that the same separation occurs in the home. Brooks includes a study given to nine hundred men and women who were asked to name their favorite novel. The study determined that men preferred novels written by fellow men, whereas women favored books written woman.
A study conducted by Lenore Weitzman in the late 1960’s found that many children’s stories had very few female characters and when female characters were present they abided by typical gender roles. However, when books featuring female characters that stepped out of these traditional roles started being published, children were able to develop new ideas of what roles were acceptable for women to fulfill (Feely). Similarly, Carson McCullers uses Miss Amelia, Cousin Lymon, and Marvin Macy to display how those who abide by gender roles are seen by their communities as well as how those who do not are typically viewed. For example, Cousin Lymon exhibited more feminine characteristics and was generally seen as a gossip and a nuisance by the townspeople. Marvin Macy, on the other hand, was a very handsome, masculine man who was described as an “evil character” (McCullers 27) that had a horrible reputation, yet he was still adored by many women in the town.
(2012), they aimed to discover how varying social contexts effect preschool aged girls and boys in their masculine, feminine, and gender-neutral activity choices. In collecting data, Goble et al. (2012) used a time sample approach, where a child was observed for 10 seconds, and then the primary activity participated in was coded for on a checklist of 29 activities, featuring feminine, masculine and gender-neutral activities. In the end, Goble et al. (2012) found that both boys and girls prefer their respective gender-typed activities, but that this changes, and opens up the types of things they play with, when they are in other social contexts. For example, girls were seen to participate in more masculine activities when they were playing with boys, and boys showed more participation in feminine activities when they interacted with the teacher (Goble et al., 2012). These results help to guide the present
Due to traditional stereotypes of women, literature around the world is heavily male-dominant, with few female characters outside of cliché tropes. Whenever a female character is introduced, however, the assumption is that she will be a strong lead that challenges the patriarchal values. The authors of The Thousand and One Nights and Medea use their female centered stories to prove their contrasting beliefs on the role of women not only in literature, but also in society. A story with a female main character can be seen as empowering, but this is not always the case, as seen when comparing and contrasting Medea and The Thousand and One Nights.
conceptualizations of gender in literature are situated in a culture and historical context ; the
Starting at a young age, girls are discouraged from being interested in science and math. They could be deterred from their parents, their male peers, and even their teachers. Often parents internalize gender roles, and therefore, it can be more difficult for the female to break the gender role; possibly running the risk of either disappointing her family or disappointing society because that’s who set up the traditional gender roles. Parents are more inclined to promote “assertive behavior” in their sons and “emotional sensitivity in their daughters” (Tindall and Hamil 2004). As a result, boys tend to be more assertive in the classroom, and girls tend to display more passive behavior. As the children grow, and boys begin to notice this behavior of their female peers, they may express concerns regarding the sui...
Fisher, Jerilyn, and Ellen S. Silber. Women In Literature : Reading Through The Lens Of Gender..
Throughout American Literature, women have been depicted in many different ways. The portrayal of women in American Literature is often influenced by an author's personal experience or a frequent societal stereotype of women and their position. Often times, male authors interpret society’s views of women in a completely different nature than a female author would. While F. Scott Fitzgerald may represent his main female character as a victim in the 1920’s, Zora Neale Hurston portrays hers as a strong, free-spirited, and independent woman only a decade later in the 1930’s.
Throughout literature, authors employ a variety of strategies to highlight the central message being conveyed to the audience. Analyzing pieces of literature through the gender critics lens accentuates what the author believes to be masculine or feminine and that society and culture determines the gender responsibility of an individual. In the classic fairytale Little Red Riding Hood, the gender strategies appear through the typical fragile women of the mother and the grandmother, the heartless and clever male wolf, and the naïve and vulnerable girl as little red riding hood.
Many people think that boys in our culture today are brought up to define their identities through heroic individualism and competition, particularly through separation from home, friends, and family in an outdoors world of work and doing. Girls, on the other hand, are brought up to define their identities through connection, cooperation, self-sacrifice, domesticity, and community in an indoor world of love and caring. This view of different male and female roles can be seen throughout children’s literature. Treasure Island and The Secret Garden are two novels that are an excellent portrayal of the narrative pattern of “boy and girl” books.