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From: Megan Schliesman <schliesman_at_education.wisc.edu>
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 09:27:27 -0600
For me, a big part of the issue of how girls and women are portrayed in books is the issue of agency.Do the female characters make things happen (for themselves? for others?) , or are they responding to what other (male) characters are doing?
The good news is that I don't regularly find myself lamenting the lack of agency, and I often myself cheering (I'll add another hurrah for "Babymouse," for "Clever Beatrice" by Margaret Willey, for "Olivia"by Ian Falcolner, Kevin Henkes's "Lilly"...the list goes on and on, actually).
Of course, not every child---girl or boy---is a spitfire or a
go-getter like these characters. The truth is these qualities are not the only qualities that make for strong portrayals of strong girls and women.Just like in real life, there are many female characters in books who are less sure of themselves, or whose personalities are not quite so dramatically dynamic, but that doesn't make them any less strong and inspiring. Think of the narrator of Christopher Myers's "Wings," for example.
Ultimately I find pleasure in characters who are true to themselves, not someone else's idea---including an author's or illustrator's--of
what girls and women are or should be. Alternately, like Morgan, I struggle with books in which a girl or young woman is defining herself in terms of someone else, or never/rarely shown acting on her own behalf, unless working through those issues and arriving at a place of certainty and strength is the entire point.
Megan
-- Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison 600 N. Park Street, Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706
608/262-9503 schliesman_at_education.wisc.edu
www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/
Received on Fri 11 Mar 2011 09:27:27 AM CST
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 09:27:27 -0600
For me, a big part of the issue of how girls and women are portrayed in books is the issue of agency.Do the female characters make things happen (for themselves? for others?) , or are they responding to what other (male) characters are doing?
The good news is that I don't regularly find myself lamenting the lack of agency, and I often myself cheering (I'll add another hurrah for "Babymouse," for "Clever Beatrice" by Margaret Willey, for "Olivia"by Ian Falcolner, Kevin Henkes's "Lilly"...the list goes on and on, actually).
Of course, not every child---girl or boy---is a spitfire or a
go-getter like these characters. The truth is these qualities are not the only qualities that make for strong portrayals of strong girls and women.Just like in real life, there are many female characters in books who are less sure of themselves, or whose personalities are not quite so dramatically dynamic, but that doesn't make them any less strong and inspiring. Think of the narrator of Christopher Myers's "Wings," for example.
Ultimately I find pleasure in characters who are true to themselves, not someone else's idea---including an author's or illustrator's--of
what girls and women are or should be. Alternately, like Morgan, I struggle with books in which a girl or young woman is defining herself in terms of someone else, or never/rarely shown acting on her own behalf, unless working through those issues and arriving at a place of certainty and strength is the entire point.
Megan
-- Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison 600 N. Park Street, Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706
608/262-9503 schliesman_at_education.wisc.edu
www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/
Received on Fri 11 Mar 2011 09:27:27 AM CST
