Kenickie wrote: ↑Wed Sep 16, 2020 9:35 pm
Leap wrote: ↑Tue Sep 15, 2020 10:19 pm
In actual books, much like dream sequences I don’t read fight sequences either. Game of Thrones was utterly dull for this. Pages and pages of oh it looks like he’s winning but surprise it’s actually the other one. YAWN. I lost absolutely nothing skipping to the end.
This totally!
I also hate that, in children's books, everyone is male, even animals and imaginary characters. It's totally outrageous in this day and age. In the Gruffalo, there isn't one female character. Why can't an owl or a fox or a snake or a mouse or a Gruffalo be female? I switch round the pronouns when I read but it's quite effortfull.
I never thought about this until I had a kid and put on CBeebies. I became quite surprised at the default males. You sort of don't notice at first, and then when I had a daughter I did, a bit more, as she wasn't really interested in any of the shows. Mr Maker, Mr Tumble, Big Cook Little Cook, Bing, Hey Duggie, Peter Rabbit, Raa Raa the Lion, Old Jack's Boat, Andy's Adventures... in others, you've got central males (Octonauts) with side-character females who support them. Charlie and Lola, Abney and Teal and Nina and the Neurons I was cool with because the female characters actually did things that drove the plot, not just hanging around supporting the main's stories. It reminded me of that old publisher's rule - girls will watch/read anything, but boys won't watch/read a girl. Well, who bloody taught them that, then?
For me, I wanted T to see just as many shows with female main characters as male ones, and instead it was a steady diet of the classic male-main/female side-kick types that I'd grown up with in the 90s. I didn't want him internalising this idea that if a female led the show, it was somehow unusual.
When A came along she didn't really enjoy the shows as much as T had and didn't really have a favourite. She liked female characters a lot but I felt I couldn't show her any. She ended up watching more slightly older stuff and things we downloaded - Teen Titans Go, Miraculous - and now is way more into the Netflix animations (Legend of Kipo, Avatar, The Dragon Prince) which feature not just one, but a whole host of "main" characters, whose gender is irrelevant but are far more defined by their personality and their actions.