Expanding Gender Stories

Description

Featured research in blog post for Gender & Society Blog:

"Maya Christina Gonzalez’s new children’s book, Call Me Tree/Illámame Arbol, represents a much-needed, and growing area, of children’s literature. It expands the gendered representations of characters in storybooks, for children and parents alike. The book uses no gender-specific pronouns, and the protagonist, based on someone assigned female at birth (according to Gonzalez), sports a bright green shirt, blue pants, suspenders, and short hair. This character, whom many might perceive as a “boy,” no doubt resonates with many young “girls” and children who do not relate to female stereotypes, or to mainstream racial/ethnic norms of whiteness, but who don’t always see themselves represented in media. Through my research, I have become intimately aware of the importance of childhood tools and experiences that present a diverse range of gendered sensibilities in the world. To young children particularly, whose gender is assumed from birth, so often our world presents itself as black and white, or pink and blue. Call Me Tree offers parents and children—and peers, teachers, and siblings—one pertinent possibility to see a world with wider gender horizons."