#genderbias

Interesting back cover of an old Children's mystery book I came across... Another of those 1960s books I rescued from the footpath....

Children's mystery books tailor written for genders!!! I am annoyed, indignant, and amused all at the same time....

A quick Google check of book descriptions in each category, tells me that the books "for girls" are light mystery stories written by women, whose main protagonist is almost always a girl and usually takes place in a boarding school where the heroine solves a mysterious affair.. In one of the books, a female protagonist says something to the effect of how she was able to solve the case because she was wearing jeans!!

*cringing in my seat here*

"For the boys" books are similarly written only by men and are mostly war based with international spy dealings and political intrigues.

This divide between the genders even at the level of children's novel shows how long sexism (knowingly and unknowingly) has been a way of life. How it is expected of each gender to think and behave as per 'pre-defined' norms. And in this case even read as per prescription!!

This divide in today's day and age is far from gone... It still exists in the pink vs blue debate, soft vs macho debate, tears vs no tears debate, home errands vs job debate... So we cannot really place the blame solely on the era in which these books were written and published.

These books show us how far we still have to go in our war against sexism... It's about a change in mindset at every level and strata of the society... Reconditioning human thinking at its most basic level... And that will also happen through books and education only...