Hat tip to Quill & Quire for this one.
According to Glenn Beck, time travel, Nazis, and spies are everything a boy is supposed to like:
Glenn Beck, a conservative political commentator who appears regularly on CNN Headline News, recently welcomed U.S. children’s book author Ted Bell to his show, in order to sing the praises of Bell’s new adventure title, Nick of Time. However, it seems clear from the lack of interest Beck shows in Bell that the whole point of the interview is simply to expound on the need for more manly books for boys. (emphasis mine)
I was annoyed with this interview within the first thirty seconds. It’s really just a thinly veiled diatribe on how he believes books for boys are too femininized now, and that he’s sick of seeing the girls save the day. I spat up my drink when Glenn Beck said this:
When was the last time the heroine did not save the brother, but the brother stood up and saved the girl? It doesn’t happen anymore.
The whole thing reeks of a need to return to outdated stereotypes simply because of Beck’s discomfort with progressive values. He calls for a return to a time where “the boy is the boy.” Gag.
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four comments
The boy can be the boy all he wants, he'll just have to suck it up and deal with the fact my balls are bigger.
Posted by Mary Sue
June 20, 2008, 3:59 PM
How does the girl's role affect whether the boy is or is not the boy? Aren't they, like, separate entities whose strengths are not zero-sum in any way, shape or form?
(There's nothing I love more than manly books for girls, about girls, preferably by girls).
Posted by Thene
June 21, 2008, 2:16 AM
It drives me nuts when people get so binary about gender. Having a sense of honour and sticking up for your little sister - what's masculine about that?
"This is everything a boy likes in a book."
Right, cause they're all the same. Or *should* be, according to this guy.
Posted by C.K. Kelly Martin
June 21, 2008, 9:27 PM
They talk about older books like Treasure Island and Captain Blood and it makes you wonder why they don't just give *those* books to their sons if they're so worried the new girly stuff. If their boys don't like reading the older, stereotyped adventure stories, well then... maybe that's something to think about.
Posted by Eirian
June 22, 2008, 12:11 AM
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