You ____ Like a Girl!

One of the things that really bothers me is when someone says you do something like a girl as an insult. Not only is that insulting girls in general, but it's setting an impossibly high standard for boys, saying that they all

have to be better than every girl.

One of the books that made me really angry, and had multiple stereotypes in it is The Dragon's Tooth by N. D. Wilson. It's a good series, but the protagonist’s sister, Antigone, while being a strong character, is pretty stereotyped. Antigone hates martial arts, but likes learning languages, while Cyrus (the protagonist) is the opposite. They are also forced to live in a house that has no furniture, and ugly paint, and Antigone, of course, cares while Cyrus doesn't, but the thing that really got to me was in the second book, The Drowned Vault. They had a conversation where Cyrus had screamed because of a bunch of spiders, and Antigone was saying how high he was screaming. Cyrus then said that Antigone wouldn't have done better, and part of Antigone's reply was “...when I scream like a girl, at least I am, actually, a girl.”

It was really disappointing to me when I read that, because not only was someone implying that it was bad to do something like a girl, but a girl was saying that, and no one seemed to think about the fact that it's insulting to girls, and it ruined the whole series for me.

Along with that, in sports, if you tell someone, “you play like a girl”, it's an insult. If people grow up thinking that playing like a girl is a bad thing, then they really think that girls don't play as well as boys, and if a boy can't play better than a girl, then the boy is a bad player. If a boy believes that playing like a girl is a bad thing, and then he comes across a girl who can play better than him, he'll think he's not a good player, and maybe that's true, but more likely, he is good, and the girl is just better. Then the boy will just beat himself up about not being better, and you don't have to be better than everyone. On the other hand, if a girl is better than a boy, people will just think that the boy isn't very good, and no one will think about how good the girl actually is. Even if boys were usually better than girls, you shouldn't use that as an insult.

If people think it's insulting to have someone say they do something like a girl, then that really means that they think girls can't do things as well as boys. If people then think that a girl shouldn't be able to do something better than a boy, then they won't help girls to be as good as they can be, which will just reinforce the stereotypes. If people really think that women aren't as good at anything than men, then they won't hire women if they can hire men, and that's really no different than when everyone discriminated against African-American people.

On that happy note, I think that I'll end my post.

--Luna Lovegood

3 Book Recommendations That Will Blow Your Mind

Hello there!
Oswin Oswald here. First post EVER. I should be totally honored, right?
I am. Which is why I am going to shower you readers with positive things instead of a lengthy rant.

So today I’m going to give you THREE AWESOME BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS.

But since this is a blog about tackling media issues, I am going to tackle a big one. Each of these books contains a positive female protagonist, a realistic one who isn't a breathing stereotype.

So now, my dear readers, without further ado, I present to you(in no particular order):

1. Nation, by Terry Pratchett

Nation starts back in the olden days. There's a pandemic going on in England that's wiped out the royal family, and almost all of the living heirs to the throne. One of the two still living is a 12-year-old girl named Daphne who's in the middle of the Southern-Pelagic ocean, traveling with a religious captain and his foul-mouthed sailors. The other living heir is her father, who's trying to find her after a natural disaster takes place.
So these two living heirs are nowhere to be found, which is a problem, because one of them has to set foot on English soil within a decent period of time after the monarch’s death. 
Meanwhile, on a Southern-Pelagic island, a boy named Mau is sailing back to his home island after having completed a coming-of-age ritual. He traveled to the Island of The Boys and is heading back home in his adorable little canoe when The Wave hits. (Read as: tsunami) 
He manages to stay alive because he's far enough away from the worst of it, but when he arrives at The Nation(his island), he finds that his entire island has been wiped out. And there's also something that wasn't there before- Daphne's ship. Yep.
Aaaaaand... let the story begin. Mau and Daphne can't understand each other, but they have to learn to because they're all the other's got. Nation is coming-of-age novel filled with humor, insights, incredible realizations and character growth, realistic and lovable characters and also pure awesomeness.
Daphne's the realistic, well-intending female protagonist. She's awkward, funny, practical, brave, but also very, very scared. She doesn't fit any one stereotype and reminds me of real people I've seen around me. All-in-all, it's a fabulous book that everyone should read.

2. Icefall, by Matthew J. Kirby

I haven't read this one in a while, but it's on my shelf and it's a fabulous read. It takes place in a time when vikings frolicked and somewhere near Greenland. Probably.
Solveig, a 13-14-something-year-old girl, is trapped with her siblings in an unbreakable ice fortress. She and her brother and sister(and a lot of restless soldiers) are anxiously waiting for news of their father(the king)'s victory at war. But as the seasons go on and the icy walls don't break, everyone begins to turn on each other. There's a traitor in their midst, someone who seeks to bring down the entire kingdom.
Solveig and her siblings struggle to survive the claustrophobia of being a prisoner of time, and also to find the traitor themselves before he or she gets restless and decides to end it right there.
Solveig is another utterly realistic character. She's scared but ultimately being brave in the end. She's kind but has her limits, and we see her reach them in the book. One of the main themes of this book is self-discovery, because Solveig, the over-looked middle child who isn't pretty like her sister and can't become a great warrior like her brother, feels like she just passes through her father's gaze. Through all the craziness of ice and traitors, she discovers her talent, finds out who she has the capacity to be.

3. The Worry Week, by Anne Lindbergh

This one's a little bit younger than the others, but a great read for everyone. I read it when I was ten or eleven and still love it.
Anyway, it's about a girl named Allegra and her two sisters who are visiting their family's vacation home in Maine when a family tragedy halts their vacation abruptly. Their parents have to go to a funeral and are going to dump their daughters off at their aunt's house in Boston. But they'd much rather stay on the island than at their aunt's house, so they come up with a plan to trick their parents and their aunt and stay at the island on their own.
It's a wonderful book about sisters and adventures and honesty and one of the main reasons I like it is because it's about a family working together and it's really just a lovely story. Oh yeah, and Allegra's awesome too because, again, she doesn't fit any stereotypes. She's smart, but makes mistakes and doesn't think everything through all the time. She's kind and patient with her sisters but gets exasperated with them like you'd expect. So really, if you just want a quick, fun read, this is your book.

Okay, that ended up being longer than I expected. Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this post and will find a new favorite in one of these books(if you haven't read them already!).
--Oswin Oswald