Library Fangirl

The fact is, women have been reading, enjoying, and relating to books with male protagonists for centuries without our femininity being “threatened,” and yet the idea of a boy having to read a book with a female protagonist (or at least one that hasn’t been handily rendered gender neutral by the glossy label of “classic literature” like “To Kill a Mockingbird”) is seen as too much for their boy brains to take.

Again — male protagonists are seen as the default, and thus provide acceptable reading for all genders. Books about girls are seen as being “for girls,” with the intrinsic femininity of such stories inevitably drowning out any other worthwhile lesson, theme, or idea a boy could possibly derive from them.