Liz Atwood brings us this week's Tween Tuesday:
The new Twilight movie is out, but I won't be going. I'm not really into vampires and my sons think the whole Twilight phenomenon is ridiculous. I guess it stands to reason that tween and teen boys will wonder why girls would be so enthralled with vampires.
A recent article in the Louisville Courier Journal noted the gender bias in today's movies. The Twighlight movies are for girls. Transformer movies are for boys. This isn't really new, but I do wonder how teen-agers going out on a date ever find a movie they both can agree on.
Really, I'm more concerned about what strikes me as gender bias in the summer reading lists. Neither one of my boys is fond of reading, but I try to encourage them to read every day. Now that the older one is heading to high school, summer reading is no longer an option, but required. In his case, he must read a book on mythology (OK, that seems fine for boys or girls), but then the suggested reading lists for extra credit strike me as tween girl fare. The choices are Little Women, The Secret Life of Bees, The Bean Trees, Cold Mountain and Stones in Water.
The first three books are novels about girls coming of age, confronting new love, lost parents and freedom. Cold Mountain, a Civil War tale, is told from both a man and a woman's point of view, although I would argue the heroine is the more interesting character. My son started that, read about 30 pages, and refused to go on. That leaves Stones in Water—about a boy taken captive by the Nazis. I've ordered it from Amazon and hope this will be tolerable.
Have you noticed a gender bias in your children's summer reading lists?