Male Versus Female Protagonists In Books // Let’s Talk Bookish

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books and Dani @ Literary Lion where we discuss certain topics based on prompts allocated for each Friday of the week. You basically share your opinions and get into the conversation by visiting each other’s posts. You can find the September schedule here or here.

Today’s Let’s Talk Bookish topic is Do you prefer male or female protagonists?, which was suggested by Mahita @ Amateur Teen Writer.

First of all, I cannot believe it is September already because August felt like a blur! What did I even do last month? Anyway, I am so excited to discuss something that I haven’t really touched on before on my blog: book protagonists! I haven’t really paid any explicit attention to which gender my protagonists are when reading a book, so I am excited to see what I come up with when I dissect my reading experiences!

WHEN IT COMES TO BOOKS DO YOU PREFER MALE OR FEMALE PROTAGONISTS AND WHY? DO YOU NOT HAVE A PREFERENCE?

When I was younger, AKA my high school years mostly, I used to gravitate towards female protagonist-driven stories. I could relate to them more and they were just way more readily available than young adult books with male protagonists anyway.

But since I started university, I have been branching out more and I find myself reading more books with male protagonists. I can’t really remember anything special that acted as a catalyst to this shift, but I am guessing a book probably just landed on my lap and I just went for it.

Now I don’t have a preference whether the protagonist is male or female. I make my choice based on the story itself rather than focusing solely on the gender of the narrator. And I am actively choosing books that diversify my reading in terms of sexuality too, so I like going for books with narrators and protagonists that challenge me and my experiences now.

HAVE YOU EVER NOT READ A BOOK BECAUSE THE PROTAGONIST WAS MALE/FEMALE?

I used to. When I was younger and I didn’t really know any better, I went with society’s norms of reading the books that were meant for girls and not really picking up books that were meant for boys. Like, I would choose Nancy Drew books over Hardy Boys books, which I immediately regretted after I randomly picked up my first Hardy Boys book.

I remember that when I was borrowing books from the school library, I used to be hesitant to borrow books that obviously had male protagonists on them though I was interested in the story because I never saw any of the other girls doing it. I am sure there were some girls reading those but I never saw them and I was so worried about being the odd girl out.

It is funny how I never realised this until I looked back at myself and questioned my high school reading habits. The biggest factor that probably helped me break out of this self-imposed reading bubble was probably joining Bookstagram. Meeting people who read for the simple joy of reading was such a life-changing experience to me that taught me to be unapologetically me in my reading space.

DO YOU THINK IT’S IMPORTANT FOR CHILDREN TO READ PROTAGONISTS OF THE OPPOSITE GENDER FROM THEM?

Yes! Growing up for me, boys felt like an alien species with alien thoughts and actions, but looking back I feel like reading more young adult books with male protagonists would have taken some steps in breaking that imaginary barrier.

It is funny that during my young adult years I read quite a number of middle-grade stories featuring male protagonists but my young adult reading was almost always female leads! I loved those middle-grade stories and I still enjoy them, but where were all the young adult male protagonists in my library? That was the time when we were trying to figure out boys (still are!) and things get confusing and messy, so I would have really liked more young adult books with great male leads in them!

DO YOU FEEL LIKE CERTAIN GENRES HAVE MORE OF A CERTAIN GENDER OF PROTAGONIST THAN THE OTHER?

Well, I think it’s fair to say that we have a significant amount of female protagonists compared to male protagonists overall because there are more female writers than male writers. But I see that changing day by day and I love that that is happening!

As much as I love relating to a female protagonist’s experiences and thoughts, I can’t imagine not being able to find books that someone cannot relate to, so I love seeing the gender diversity that is cropping up in the book community in recent years. This is an important step in the book community that I feel so lucky to witness and live through right now!

Who are your favourite book protagonists?

My previous Let’s Talk Bookish posts:

• August 27: Having A Blogger Identity Crisis
• August 20: What Is One Book Everyone Must Read?
• August 13: Can Books Be Effective Horror?
• July 23: Does Having a Positive Message Automatically Make a Book Good?
• July 16: What Are The Best Ways To Get Over Reading Slumps?