refining these impatient ores

[lotesse]

I am taking the day off. The Boy is off, and my class this morning was canceled, and amazingly enough I don't have any major deadlines to meet for the next two weeks. Of course, then it will be the end of the semester - but today is mine, at any rate, to do whatever I like with! At present that means reading fic. Later I think it will mean going to the movies. Paul, maybe, or something else. There's Metropolitan Opera this weekend, and I'm excited about that!

Watched How To Train Your Dragon again last night - I am in total imminent danger of picking it up as a new fandom. It's so many things that I liked in kidlit - moppetty little boy makes good, and the sweetness of the animal friend story. Not to mention the lovely lessons in anti-disablism and nonviolence and forgiveness and the ability to befriend those who aren't exactly like yourself. And Hiccup is a great protagonist, between the sarcasm and the quick wits and his underlying sweetness.

I would not be at all surprised to find myself writing it. Or at the very least offering for yuletide next year.

Comments

[ilthit]

Well, it was based on a kids' book, and publishers still think that if you have a book about dragons it's a "boy book" and so it has to have a boy protagonist. I think I read something about that being J.K.'s reason for writing about a boy wizard rather than a girl. Interestingly, HTTYD was also written by a woman. One of my favourite kids' book series (very juvenile, like the original HTTYD actually, but I don't know, I like it) is The Little Vampire, and that's another fantasy series starring a boy written by a woman.

So, you know, I blame kids' book publishers, but it's not like they're wrong. I think I read that there have been studies showing that boys won't see girl movies, but girls will see boy movies, and any kids' movie starring a girl is in danger of being pegged as a girl movie. It's all down to socialization, though. I don't know much about kids, I've known boys who like My Little Ponies and I watched a young boy once who was quite happy to watch the Tinkerbell movie, probably just because I, as the resident adult, didn't act like that was weird, and there was no one else around.

[thistlerose]

Yeah, I've heard that too and I believe it. Rather, I believe that that's what the publishers and producers think. I just wish like hell that parents and teachers would do what they can to counter this idea that girls can only be protagonists if the target audience is female.

I read a lot of fantasy/adventure books when I was younger, and while I loved most of the male protagonists, I was drawn more to the girls - like Eilonwy, Eowyn, and Aravis - and wish they, or women/girls like them, had had starring roles.