I have a very strong opinion on this, as we face institutionalised sexism (based heavily on gender stereotyping and this kind of "casual" enforcement of gender tropes) at all stages of our life. I think that it's the responsibility of publishers, and particularly those for children, to not feed into this dangerous, damaging marketing ploy.
It's as much about the content as it is about the presentation: if we promote one thing as representative of a specific gender (whether it's the colour pink, or whether it's Batman), we're contributing towards the gender divide. We're separating "boys" and "girls". As a child, there's not one way to represent yourself and your gender. So please, let's see this reflected in marketing and advertising.
Peter Klein - 9 years ago
My purchases would be based on the child's interests as opposed to the gender label conveyed by the cover design. For example if a girl liked pirates and I found a pirate book that with an entirely blue cover, I'd still purchase it for her.
Sarah Stewart - 9 years ago
When buying books for my female cousins aged between 9 and 12 years, I'm more inclined to go for a book that's cover appears more gender neutral because they tend to enjoy comical books. From my experience buying this genre of children's books they tend to not appear as obviously aimed at a particular gender, but use more neutral colours and images.
I have a very strong opinion on this, as we face institutionalised sexism (based heavily on gender stereotyping and this kind of "casual" enforcement of gender tropes) at all stages of our life. I think that it's the responsibility of publishers, and particularly those for children, to not feed into this dangerous, damaging marketing ploy.
It's as much about the content as it is about the presentation: if we promote one thing as representative of a specific gender (whether it's the colour pink, or whether it's Batman), we're contributing towards the gender divide. We're separating "boys" and "girls". As a child, there's not one way to represent yourself and your gender. So please, let's see this reflected in marketing and advertising.
My purchases would be based on the child's interests as opposed to the gender label conveyed by the cover design. For example if a girl liked pirates and I found a pirate book that with an entirely blue cover, I'd still purchase it for her.
When buying books for my female cousins aged between 9 and 12 years, I'm more inclined to go for a book that's cover appears more gender neutral because they tend to enjoy comical books. From my experience buying this genre of children's books they tend to not appear as obviously aimed at a particular gender, but use more neutral colours and images.