Coby's Reflection to Mem Fox Chapter 11

In the eleventh chapter of her book, Radical Reflections, Mem Fox talks about the fact that almost every main character in children’s books are males. She says that by the time children are five years of age this fact has instilled certain gender stereotypes into them. These stereotypes range from things such as girls have to be dainty and boys cannot cry. Fox explains that these stereotypes “stunt” human potential and are detrimental to our society.

Mem Fox brings up a very interesting point in this chapter. Her observation has led me to realize how few female heroines there are in children’s stories, cartoons, and other media. The only characters I can think of are The Paper Bag Princess, Princess Mononoke, and Kim Possible. I also agree that when boy see nothing but masculine males in popular media it causes a negative result which may lead to anything between repressed emotions to self hatred. The same goes for girls, when they see nothing but helpless females in popular media they may start to believe that they are not as capable as boys. I agree that the lack of female heroines in children’s stories is pretty detrimental to our society in general. As a writer it is my job to work against this problem and ensure that I do not accidentally perpetuate it.