Absolutely, yes. A little balance would be awfully nice.
You may want to reexamine the center of the discussion. The fact is that there are many books available for boys--including both prose and graphic novels, and magazines and all formats. But we'll focus on my own focus: prose and graphic novels. The selection has not dwindled, and there are books of all types and genres that should and do appeal across the board. The perception of available books has changed.
The "we need more boy books" contingent argues as if it is a zero-sum game:
If there exist "girl books" (in particular books with female protagonists), there must therefore be insufficient books for boys. This is the "women in the lecture hall" phenomenon noted above. and If boys truly are not reading as much as girls are, therefore it must be because there are not enough books of the right boyish stuff.
The perception of imbalance is merely that--and a fear that publishing must be doing something wrong if catalogues are not sufficiently tipped "toward boys" (what "toward boys" really means is up for debate--I merely present to you what some publishers look for in a "boy book"). There are more books in print than ever before--but the percentage of those that are "boy's own adventure" books is no longer as high as it once was, and the demarcation between "boy books" and "girly books" is no longer as clear. The lecture hall looks different, even though it has become a stadium.
The more complex discussion you can engage in is:
1) is it true boys aren't reading enough (in that their verbal skills are insufficient to prepare them to succeed in personal life and the international community)?
2) is it true boys won't read books with strong female characters or certain types of plots?
3) is it true boys will only read boks with a high violence content or what paddybrown categorises as "disparaged as meritless trash or borderline autism"?
4) Are male readers feeling a lack of books to read? (Or are they merely disgruntled at having to look through so many other books to find what they'd like, just like, say, a hard sf reader trying to find the Elizabeth Moon books buried in all the high fantasy novels down at the local chain bookstore?)
5) if even more "high boy appeal" material is provided than already widely and easily available, will young boys actually read it, instead of reading, say, Harry Potter and Scott Westerfeld, Catherine Fisher and Ysabeau Wilce, or other YA authors of thriller or adventure stories considered marginal or insufficiently boyish?
The company for which I work, by the way, is almost entirely a male-run business, with primarily males at the top and all but two or three women in strictly subordinate roles. You will find that the topmost echelon in publishing is still dominated by men, though there is, in fact, a strong female presence in the industry deciding the day-to-day shape of their lists. Clearly "female business" does not equate to "she-woman man-haters club, no boy stuff allowed." Because, if you examine your argument, children's publishing and primary education are almost entirely female businesses, but children's publishing and primary educators are the very people declaiming that "we need more books for boys."
Have a read through the comments to this entry for other male and female points of view, if gender of the writer is a useful way to weigh the arguments. Also some of the people I have been discussing this with in the industry are such manly men that they actually solely edit books about fast cars, vroom vroom.
I'm interested in hearing more of your perspective. It's very welcome here, but you'll likely get my usual longwinded reply.
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Date: 2007-12-14 06:39 pm (UTC)You may want to reexamine the center of the discussion. The fact is that there are many books available for boys--including both prose and graphic novels, and magazines and all formats. But we'll focus on my own focus: prose and graphic novels. The selection has not dwindled, and there are books of all types and genres that should and do appeal across the board. The perception of available books has changed.
The "we need more boy books" contingent argues as if it is a zero-sum game:
If there exist "girl books" (in particular books with female protagonists), there must therefore be insufficient books for boys. This is the "women in the lecture hall" phenomenon noted above.
and
If boys truly are not reading as much as girls are, therefore it must be because there are not enough books of the right boyish stuff.
The perception of imbalance is merely that--and a fear that publishing must be doing something wrong if catalogues are not sufficiently tipped "toward boys" (what "toward boys" really means is up for debate--I merely present to you what some publishers look for in a "boy book"). There are more books in print than ever before--but the percentage of those that are "boy's own adventure" books is no longer as high as it once was, and the demarcation between "boy books" and "girly books" is no longer as clear. The lecture hall looks different, even though it has become a stadium.
The more complex discussion you can engage in is:
1) is it true boys aren't reading enough (in that their verbal skills are insufficient to prepare them to succeed in personal life and the international community)?
2) is it true boys won't read books with strong female characters or certain types of plots?
3) is it true boys will only read boks with a high violence content or what
4) Are male readers feeling a lack of books to read? (Or are they merely disgruntled at having to look through so many other books to find what they'd like, just like, say, a hard sf reader trying to find the Elizabeth Moon books buried in all the high fantasy novels down at the local chain bookstore?)
5) if even more "high boy appeal" material is provided than already widely and easily available, will young boys actually read it, instead of reading, say, Harry Potter and Scott Westerfeld, Catherine Fisher and Ysabeau Wilce, or other YA authors of thriller or adventure stories considered marginal or insufficiently boyish?
The company for which I work, by the way, is almost entirely a male-run business, with primarily males at the top and all but two or three women in strictly subordinate roles. You will find that the topmost echelon in publishing is still dominated by men, though there is, in fact, a strong female presence in the industry deciding the day-to-day shape of their lists. Clearly "female business" does not equate to "she-woman man-haters club, no boy stuff allowed." Because, if you examine your argument, children's publishing and primary education are almost entirely female businesses, but children's publishing and primary educators are the very people declaiming that "we need more books for boys."
Have a read through the comments to this entry for other male and female points of view, if gender of the writer is a useful way to weigh the arguments. Also some of the people I have been discussing this with in the industry are such manly men that they actually solely edit books about fast cars, vroom vroom.
I'm interested in hearing more of your perspective. It's very welcome here, but you'll likely get my usual longwinded reply.