more they stay the same...
May. 9th, 2013 12:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
orangerfulI know this topic is discussed and beaten to death all the time but I found it amusing that today in my blog feeds I had a female author lamenting the "girly" book covers forced upon her work and a male gamer lamenting a publisher pushing a gender-neutral game as "for girls".
Marketing is a scary thing. I am happy that, as a librarian, I tend to try to market everything to everyone. This is probably because my goal is not to make money but to educate patrons in the joys of reading, researching etc..
I feel bad for guys because it seems their entire existence hinges upon them showing that they are "tough" and "manly" at all times. It feels like they eventually can move beyond that,eventually but only if they are really lucky. Some learn to balance it all, to realize that their manliness is not threatened by reading a book with a "girly" cover. These things don't bother girls, but I guess it's because if we only read things that were "girly" then our options would be woefully limited.
I guess the moral here is think for yourselves. Train your children to think for themselves. To evaluate. Remember that a book cover/game box/movie poster is most likely not chosen by the author of the piece but created by a marketer, scientifically crafted to appeal to a demographic chosen at random, not always demographic the author was trying to write for.
Marketing is a scary thing. I am happy that, as a librarian, I tend to try to market everything to everyone. This is probably because my goal is not to make money but to educate patrons in the joys of reading, researching etc..
I feel bad for guys because it seems their entire existence hinges upon them showing that they are "tough" and "manly" at all times. It feels like they eventually can move beyond that,eventually but only if they are really lucky. Some learn to balance it all, to realize that their manliness is not threatened by reading a book with a "girly" cover. These things don't bother girls, but I guess it's because if we only read things that were "girly" then our options would be woefully limited.
I guess the moral here is think for yourselves. Train your children to think for themselves. To evaluate. Remember that a book cover/game box/movie poster is most likely not chosen by the author of the piece but created by a marketer, scientifically crafted to appeal to a demographic chosen at random, not always demographic the author was trying to write for.
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(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-09 09:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-10 02:20 am (UTC)The fact that almost all men in video games are tough and bulky and reminiscent of Schwarzenegger's Conan is annoying as hell to me. Like you said, girls have been able to jump over that visual barrier so much easier that boys have.
I let Kael watch what he wants. When he gets to pick out a prize for behaving well on a long shopping trip he gets to pick a toy/prize. And sometimes it's My Little Pony. Sometimes is Legos. Sometimes he wants to look at the princess aisle at Target or the "Pow-pows" in the water guns section. He has a sparkly pink treasure chest that has his pirate patch and fake gold doubloons and I think he is absolutely perfect in every way. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-11 07:43 pm (UTC)Also, I don't know what it means, but my friend who teaches 5th grade says that whenever he gives the kids choices of things in different colors to work with (paper, markers, etc) the boys often go for pink. Maybe we are entering a new era!
(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-11 08:04 pm (UTC)Yeah, I noticed the other day when I offered a free iPod case to one of the teen Pages at work, he asked for the pink/purple one. I assumed he was going to give it to his girlfriend but he came in the next day with it on his iPod. Is it an ironic liking of pink?