“Our culture assumes that only men’s stories are universal.” This opening line to an editorial published on The Washington Post’s recently launched newspaper, The Lily, strikes a deep chord in those who read and examine popular works of fiction— particularly if you are a woman.
In her thought-provoking piece, children’s author Shannon Hale highlights some of the disheartening moments she has seen and experienced while on tour for the many books she has published. While on tour for her latest book, The Princess in Black, Hale was asked by a woman when she was going to write a series like this for boys. At another event, a librarian introduced Hale by telling all the girls that they “were in for a real treat” while she only expected that the boys “boys behave anyway”. Another time, a mother is sad that she cannot buy Hale’s books for her boys while a father yanks his son away from one of Hale’s book when he says “I want that one!” The father’s answer? “No, that’s a girl book.”
As such, Hale comes to two conclusions about our current culture surrounding books: “boys are not going to like a book that stars a girl, and men’s stories are universal, while women’s stories are only for girls.”
This a dangerous precedent to be setting up as a society, when the fact of the matter is that kids don’t actually care about “girl books” or “boy books”. It is incredibly important to facilitate conversations surrounding diversity and the inclusion of both genders and non-binary authors and protagonists. Parents and educators should never stop their kids from reading a book like Hale’s wildly popular Princess Academy just because they are boys. Teachers who have had classes read that book even reported that both the girls and boys enjoyed equally (and perhaps the boys loved it even more than the girls).
Men’s stories aren’t the only universal ones, and barring young boys from reading books “for girls” is insulting and stunts the teaching of empathy between all genders.
As Hale eloquently states, “stories make us human. We form bonds by swapping personal stories with others, and reading fiction is a deeply immersive exercise in empathy.” There is no room for that kind of compartmentalization.
Why can’t we all just enjoy stories for all of their exciting content and not the gender of our protagonists or the narrow definitions offered by societal norms?