"I Don't Think Books Can Be Girly or Boy-ey": Adolescent Boys' Gendered Notions of Reading

• In Event: 25.021 - Adolescent Male Students and Their Negotiation of Patriarchal Privilege Across Literacies and Literary Contexts

Abstract

Research Purpose
Research is clear: boys are less motivated readers (Baker & Wigfield, 1999; McKenna, et. al, 2012); motivation and choice affect amount of reading (Ivey & Johnston, 2013); reading motivation is associated with competence (Mol & Bus, 2011). However, why are boys less motivated readers? Emerging research suggests adolescent boys are significantly less willing to read novels based on textual features perceived to represent “Girls’ Book” (Author, in preparation). This mixed methods study explores the theoretical perspectives and reading practices of two young adolescent boys in a larger study, considering the boys as individuals and in relation to peers, offering a powerful counter-narrative to essentialist “solutions” to the “problem” of boys as readers.
Theoretical Frameworks
Gender is understood as a “stylized repetition of acts” (Butler, 1988), contingent on time and place for symbolic value. Hegemonic masculinity defines boyhood against girlhood (Thorne, 1993), shapes gender performance or resistance (Connell, 2005), and organizes the adolescent experience (McGuffey & Rich, 1999). Discourse theory (Gee, 1989) frames understanding the ways participants internalized or resisted common notions of “boy-ness” and who boys “are” or “should be” as readers.
Methodology and Data Sources
The original experimental study included 50 sixth and seventh graders (27 girls; 23 boys) in a predominately white working class school in the rural Northeast, randomly assigned to experimental groups (Campbell & Stanley, 1963). This convergent mixed methods design (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007) included a Textual Features Sort using individual textual features of YA novels and a semi-structured interview (Author, in preparation). Control group participants sorted based on “willingness to read;” experimental group participants used highly gendered categories (Dutro, 2001).
This study analyzes the data of the only two participants to consistently resist or reject the gendered binary that structured the experimental sort mat, both sixth grade boys. It uses content analysis of interview transcripts (Hseih & Shannon, 2005) and a comparative analysis of sort decisions to answer the following questions:
1) Why/how did these boys resist and/or reject the gendered book binary?
2) How did they position themselves as readers, both individually and in relation to peers?
3) Were they more willing than peers to read the novels represented by individual textual features perceived by peers to be highly gendered?
Findings
Data analysis is ongoing. Preliminary results suggest these boys possess a more complex understanding of gender frameworks than typically expected in young adolescents. Both participants identified as boys, an identity aligned with institutional records of sex, but rejected the notion that such positioning should limit reading choices or practices. Both boys noted that notions of masculinity negatively influence willingness to read and reading practices among male peers.
Scholarly Significance
This study deepens our understanding of the influence of gender on YA reading practices, including text selection. It problematizes stereotypes of boys as readers, suggesting that the gendered reading gap may be rooted in social constructions of gender.

Author

• Megan Munson-Warnken, The University of Vermont