I found this extensive study about reading in the journal Teacher Librarian (2005) that I'll be talking about more in upcoming posts, because it really covers the spectrum of boys' attitudes toward reading, why some boys read and others don't, and what can be done to get more boys into books and other forms of literacy. Here are just a few of the report's findings:- 41% of boys consider reading to be boring and 45% consider it to be nerdy, 23% think that it is cool. I always though nerdy was cool, so that's a pretty sizable majority.
- Older boys who had lost interest in reading usually think it is no longer relevant, or not something they can share with their peers. The "sharing" with peers (and family) part plays a significant factor in some of the other data, too.
- Boys who do read are "more likely to have a father who reads at least sometimes." Um... yeah... that's exactly what I've been trying to tell Generation Dad out there. Remember.. the future... the economy... if you don't think reading is going to give your sons a competitive edge, you've completely dropped off the planet.
- Boys who read are powerfully influenced by parental guidance and modeling. Translation: Boys who read tend to be good kids, which may make them "nerdy," but it definitely makes them "cool."
- The biggest difference between boy readers and non-readers appears in the proportion of those who have friends and parents who read.
- And one for my friend Michael (and I'll come back to this point in a moment): Boys and girls enjoy action and adventure, science fiction, and nonfiction similarly.
- "Home and school see reading as an interest more appropriate for girls than for boys." Okay. This was an extensive study. It shines a light on this scary reality: schools tell boys that reading is for girls. Yikes.
Now, I'm going to stick to my guns on something I said yesterday. But I will admit that Michael Grant is absolutely correct when he points out editors are all former young readers, and that a heck of a lot of them are grown-up girls. But I'm still going to insist there is no keep-the-boys-out-of-here attitude coming from the top of the publishing pyramid for two big reasons:
First, the reason boys are not writing books is that boys have bought in to the idea that reading is a feminine pursuit. So we have a chicken/egg conundrum here. It's not because the grown-up girls who edit, agent, and publish YA won't let the boys over to play. See... the thing is that studies I've quoted here before (from Gurian, among others, and hinted at above) show that girls enjoy reading books about boys... you know, boy stories... just as much as boys do. But boys don't enjoy reading girl stories very much at all (as a general characteristic of the population).
So, and second, here's today's next very interesting study to give us something to think about (and, hopefully illustrate my point that the chicken... er, rooster... did actually come before the... uh... ovum):
This is from the journal Gender and Education (Sept. 2008). This study measured engagement in Language Arts by examining the differences between 12- and 13-year-old boys and girls in terms of the story elements they gravitated toward and showed some kind-of interesting results. The study showed that boys and girls both wrote about pretty much the same things when crafting their own stories; that boys were no less likely to be introspective and examine feelings. If there were any thematic differences in the study, it was that boys were more likely to deviate from their plot or leave an unresolved ending than the girls were, but that neither gender showed more or less effort or length in their work. Both genders wrote about death, but girls were more likely to write about grief, while boys were more likely to write about running away, fighting with enemies, or riches and treasure (which none of the girls wrote about). Most boys wrote stories in third person with male protagonists, and most girls wrote stories in third person with female protagonists.
To me, both of these studies point out some kind of surprising ideas: that, generally speaking, boys have about the same attitude toward reading and writing as girls do, but environmental pressures push boys away from the pursuit.
It is definitely okay to recognize that innate gender differences manifest themselves in contrasting modalities for learning and self-expression, but it is not okay to perpetuate the myth that some non-biological, non-physiological pursuits (like reading and writing, as opposed to, say, fighting, lactating, or hunting) are exclusive features of primarily one gender domain.
4 comments:
Another good point to your overall well-said posts. I have to think on this a while. It's easy for me to say, well of course people think girls read way more than boys, when you look at the shelves at B&N everything is pink and purple. But when you look at the website things are more evened out. My sister and her ex read. like. maniacs. Therefor their two older children read. like. maniacs. Both teens must have clothes from Abercrombie, both participate in sports, and hang with the cool kids, or whatever, yet both read a lot. They don't even notice it. My nephew never really talks about reading, but he never talks about all the video games he plays, or the girls he likes, or...he just doesn't talk - to adults. My niece, on the other hand, will ramble on and on about THE GRAVEYARD BOOK and THE HUNGER GAMES and THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH. She's an expert rambler...wonder where she got that from.
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Great post Andy--I will be printing this out and reading it in English 12, as we are covering a unit on Gender roles in education. I see it my classes all the time: guys don't see reading as a "cool" pursuit. When they read books like Ghost Medicine, The Road, Fear and Loathing, Alchemist, Into the Wild it does change their perspective. I find it interesting about the peer relationship. When a book gains interest in a peer group, then the boys all read the book and get into it. I've seen it with that god awful book I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. But this semester I've also seen it with Fear and Loathing, Party Monster, and Choke. If their buddies are into reading and they see male teachers who are into reading, it suddenly becomes something alluring and a meaningful pursuit. You've given me a lot to think about. The average enrollment at US universities since 2000 is 57% female. So, you're right, Dads who aren't reading to their sons are setting them up for a mediocre future.
Great post. I’ve enjoyed the series.
I think the best way to determine what types of books boys enjoy is to conduct a study where boys are interviewed after they’ve completed a book to get their reaction. Reluctant readers often do not know what they like. They know what they are attracted to, and the two are not necessarily the same thing. In that sense, they can end up discouraging themselves from reading by continually selecting books that they are attracted to, but don’t end up liking. (Presuming they are given the choice at all.)
Similarly, I wonder if you can judge what boys like to read by evaluating what they have written when doing a fiction writing assignment. Reluctant readers are more likely to not complete and/or fail such an assignment than they are to complete an assignment in a form that can be evaluated for comparison to the works of others. The more functional reluctant readers may try to write a story that satisfies the requirements of their teacher, rather than what they might enjoy reading themselves.
Still, food for thought.
I've been told bluntly that we don't really try to sell YA to boys, that girls are our readership. It was in the course of me whining about covers that actually made it impossible for a boy to carry one of my books across campus without getting beaten up. There was some give on the final covers but the message is still clear: YA is for girls.
Middle Grade is much more gender neutral. Why? Because we all keep the sex and language out of MG and keep the violence toned down. So we're not pushing anyone's buttons.
But by the time we're talking about 14 year-old boys our competition isn't just other books, it's movies and games and comics, and those media have levels of intensity-- sex, violence and language -- with which editors and teachers and busybody scolds like common sense media are uncomfortable.
That said, we are able to get some very intense stuff published as witness MARBURY or GONE or FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH. But this trend has developed pretty recently. I don't see much marketing being directed at boys still. And without naming names some of the marketing I have seen presents books in an environment that might as well be the local Claire's store.
Schools and parental influence are hugely important. But so is marketing. When we make it clear that we are marketing YA to girls it sends a "go away" signal to boys. We've all seen the trailer for IRON MAN 2. 90% of boys (and I include myself) see that trailer and think, "Oh, man, I have GOT to see that." If you want to sell YA books to boys you have to try, and right now no one's really trying.
Parental influence can establish an early pattern of reading. But teens have this irritating tendency to abandon established patterns and go in search of something uniquely their own. You can raise your kid to listen to Sinatra but when he reaches puberty he's going to switch to Hollywood Undead. That's where marketing becomes vital. There's a love story in IRON MAN 2, but it's Whiplash cutting that car in half that sells the movie to boys.
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