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lhsi writes:
"The Independent will no longer review any children's books that are aimed at a specific gender. Katy Guest, the literary editor for the paper, notes that 'brothers and sisters shared the same toys, books and games, which came in many more colours than just pink and blue, and there was no obvious disintegration of society as a result'. Some publishers, but not all, have previously said they would stop printing books for a specific gender.
'Happily, as the literary editor of The Independent on Sunday, there is something that I can do about this. So I promise now that the newspaper and this website will not be reviewing any book which is explicitly aimed at just girls, or just boys. Nor will The Independent's books section. And nor will the children's books blog at Independent.co.uk. Any Girls' Book of Boring Princesses that crosses my desk will go straight into the recycling pile along with every Great Big Book of Snot for Boys. If you are a publisher with enough faith in your new book that you think it will appeal to all children, we'll be very happy to hear from you. But the next Harry Potter or Katniss Everdeen will not come in glittery pink covers. So we'd thank you not to send us such books at all.'"
(Score: 1) by hottabasco on Monday March 17 2014, @08:34AM
You state "In fact, there is no credible evidence that boys and girls are born with innately different enthusiasms":
I would say that is a questionable statement. Take a look at 'The Way Men Think: Intellect, Intimacy and the Erotic Imagination'. Plenty of references to research in there, pointing to exactly the opposite
(Score: 1) by LowID on Monday March 17 2014, @09:46AM
Of course there are differences innate, statistical differences between the genres. Those differences just happen to be not aligned with the cultural conventions and stigmas attached to those same genres, which:
1) are the product of several millenia of culture that deemed women as non-persons, and worthless as anything other than property (and let's not get started by any non-conventional genre which were considered downright evil); and
2) do not necessarily apply to any specific individual of any particular genre.
Under those circumstances, I deem cultural expressions aimed at breaking those conventions as preferable over those that simply reinforce those old, misaligned cultural trends.