male/female role models

[dtbonett]

No: HPFGUIDX 85275

Dennis wrote:
> I think they happens when an author begins their book with the wrong
goal in
> mind.  Instead of, "I'm going to come up with the best possible book
I can,"
> they think, "I'm going to come up with a book with a female lead."
> 
> I think this is focusing on the wrong goal from the off

Thank you, Dennis, for this very perceptive comment.  I do indeed
think that this is the problem with many books written nowadays.  Not
just about girls either.  You could switch that to "I'm going to come
with a black lead" (I am black) etc. etc.  My kids who all love to
read have had trouble in school with being intensely bored with the
required reading (which is indeed dull, I have to say; I tried some of
the books myself and hate them too).

Dennis: Instead of fruit
> or daggers, might I be so bold as to throw a couple of books I enjoyed
> *with* female leads, "Anne of Green Gables" and anything from the
"Little
> House on the Prairie" series. 

Mirror adds:  There are plenty of other books (including or maybe even
especially fantasy) with girls as the heroes such as Alice in
Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, all of Charlotte Bronte, Pride and
Prejudice (a favorite of Rowlings and not past the understanding of an
intelligent 12 or 13 year old) plenty of the fairy tales (a favorite
of mine was East of the Sun and West of the Moon), the Narnia books
have girls in starring roles (Lucy is certainly the heroine whenever
she appears and later books usually have pairs, such as Jill and
Eustace, with Jill being equally important).  What about princess
Eilonwy in the Chronicles of Prydain? Pippi Longstocking was very
popular with my sons, if you are talking younger kids.

I identify with the girl sometimes in a book and with the boy
sometimes (or women or man) and feel severely annoyed when people
suggest that there is something wrong with someone who doesn't take
only their own sex/race or whatever as their only role models. This is
a VERY silly modern idea--I thought the idea behind literature was to
 make you understand others, not to build a little ghetto for
yourself, reading only about people exactly like you, doing the
current politically correct thing.  

Mirror