[LMB] (OT) Gender: New question

[CatMtn at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/25/2007 12:04:51 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
suzettepetty at hotmail.com writes:

I don't  think I've ever had issues with the gender of a protagonist. It's 
kind of mind  boggling to me to think of books in terms of "boy books" and "girl 
books,"  except in obvious circumstances (like the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys 
series. It's  almost like they drew a line on the floor: mysteries for girls <---, 
  mysteries for boys  --->   I suppose I should go back and  read one or two, 
just to see if they were as girl unfriendly as I presumed  they were.  )



M:
 
I don't recall the boys' books being "girl unfriendly," but more "girl  
nonexistent."  It didn't stop me from identifying with the most interesting  
character, usually whoever did the most exciting things.  I never wanted to  be a 
boy, but that might possibly have been because I was encouraged to try  anything 
I wanted to do--playing with all kinds of toys from erector sets to  dolls, 
hunting, fishing, and majoring in a science; so I didn't envy boys the  way I 
would have if forced into what the list women seem to feel is a more  
traditionally feminine role.  I'm still feeling rather stunned that I seem  to have had 
more freedom to choose my own way in the 1930s and 40s  than a lot of girls 
and women are talking about having many years  later.  I wasn't the only female 
in my town and college who had  that freedom; I was not even one of the more 
extreme ones.  
 
One point I'd like to make, though, ladies of the list--do me a favor and  
please lay off the guys on the list.  Most of them are, as far as I can  tell 
without having met them in person, almost painfully politically  correct in 
their attitudes toward women, and it seems unfair to attack all men  when the men 
in the group you're complaining about them _to_ are  about as nice a bunch as 
I've ever known.  I get the feeling that several  of them feel like they're 
being attacked personally, and IMO, they  don't deserve it.
 
Mary



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