Comments on: Princesses, Pigsties, Pirates and a Publishing Problem

By: Kickass Princesses, Part 1 | Hannah Chutzpah: Firing from a Double-Barrel

Kickass Princesses, Part 1 | Hannah Chutzpah: Firing from a Double-Barrel — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 14:57:36 +0000

[…] a double-whammy of bad female role models and massive under-representation. There’s only one female character to every 1.6 male characters. One of the few regular traditional roles for girls in children’s literature is that of the […]

By: Miranda

Miranda — Thu, 19 May 2011 08:57:53 +0000

Children’s books, and books in general, are not here-today-gone-tomorrow entities; they persist. Just wanted to say that I think this is an *excellent* point. One of the reasons I like TreasuryIslands so much is that it calls to my nostalgia for the books I loved as a child. Books *stay with you*. So this is very important. One book which stayed with me was Rita the Rescuer, little girl turned SUPERHERO.

By: Miranda

Miranda — Wed, 18 May 2011 16:40:45 +0000

In reply to Pet Jeffery. Sorry the numbers are so small! Editing fail, pic came out a bit small there!

By: Vee

Vee — Wed, 18 May 2011 13:09:46 +0000

The graphs show the ratio of male:female characters, so should be read as “For every one female character, there are [this many] male characters.”

The horizontal dotted line represents a 1:1 ratio where there is an equal number of male and female characters (note how the bars are closer to the dotted line during the 1920s and 1990s). The higher the bar, the more males to females, and the greater the gender disparity.

Hope this makes sense!

By: Libby

Libby — Wed, 18 May 2011 12:59:43 +0000

In reply to Pet Jeffery.

No problem.

The graphs represent the ratio of male to female characters. The vertical axis is number of male characters for every one female character (depending on the title of the graph). Ideally all the bars would stop at the dotted line, meaning a ratio of 1:1.

So, for example, the fourth graph shows that in books published between 1960-69 with animal central characters there were three male protagonists to every female one.

At least, that’s how I understood it. I do hope I haven’t got it terribly wrong!

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 18 May 2011 12:46:33 +0000

In reply to Pet Jeffery. The graphs are the ratios of male to female characters. So the number on the Y axis is the number of male central characters for every 1 female central character. A value of 1, the dotted horizontal line, would be equal. Taller bars mean more male central characters.

By: Libby

Libby — Wed, 18 May 2011 12:05:20 +0000

In reply to Freya. Oooo, I've not come across that one, but I do like her novels. *runs to Amazon*

By: Pet Jeffery

Pet Jeffery — Wed, 18 May 2011 10:56:49 +0000

I don’t understand the graphs, and wonder whether you could explain them. Is a tall bar closer to gender equality than a short one, or vice versa? I suppose I’m asking what the numbers in the vertical axis mean.

By: Freya

Freya — Wed, 18 May 2011 08:46:29 +0000

I just wanted to chime in with another awesome feminist children’s book: The Wrestling Princess (and Other Stories) by Judy Corbalis. It has some fantastic heroines (some princesses, some not) who see nothing weird about wrestling, fighting dragons, driving forklift trucks or piloting helicopters. Worth a read if you can track down a copy!

By: TI on Bad Rep | TreasuryIslands

TI on Bad Rep | TreasuryIslands — Wed, 18 May 2011 08:21:43 +0000

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