Reading books to prevent gender‑based violence from childhood
Sharing the reading of picture books from early childhood is educationally relevant and can play an important role in developing open and critical minds around the theme of gender, fighting prejudices, and preventing gender-based violence.
To explore this topic, we interviewed Greta Persico, a researcher at the Università di Milano Bicocca interested in gender imaginaries in texts for children and responsible for the research project BREATHE on education and gender issues.
What role can the reading of picture books play in relation to gender imaginaries?
There are picture books that challenge gender stereotypes, and proposing them to children means showing them that people’s stories and destinies are not necessarily confined in predefined gender cages but can be creative and diverse. Picture books serve to broaden the scenarios and gender imaginaries of children and the adults who read the books with them. Additionally, reading a picture book offers the opportunity to critically reflect on aspects that certain books, on the other hand, present in a more stereotyped way, reproducing social imaginaries and expectations regarding genders. This does not mean such books should be censored, as they represent an opportunity to develop awareness, identifying stereotypical content and elements that can thus be criticized and questioned.
How can picture books be selected for children?
It is interesting to select picture books that attempt to challenge stereotypes by proposing different scenarios. To do this, we need to pay attention to both the linguistic dimension—i.e., the words used and the narrative—and the graphic and visual dimension. For example, it is useful to pay attention to the adjectives assigned to female and male characters in the stories, the descriptions given, and the roles attributed to them. Who is the protagonist? What function do they have in the story? Regarding the visual and image dimension, it is useful to consider which colors and types of clothing are associated with male and female characters, in which settings—both indoor and outdoor—the characters are placed, and what professions, roles, and actions the male and female characters perform within the story. Training to adopt these reading lenses helps develop increasing awareness useful to understand which implicit gender models a certain book conveys.
How can such stereotypes be challenged through books?
Children’s literature today is extremely rich with texts that challenge gender stereotypes and help overcome them. There are texts that tell of children who love to dress as mermaids, dads who take care of babies, and mothers driving buses, strong adult men who enjoy crocheting, and young girls confronting hairy monsters; male friends hugging and crying together, scientists making important discoveries, and stories in which it is not necessary to know whether it is about a boy or a girl because anyone can relate. Moreover, there are picture books that address the dimension of gender by going beyond the binary: these books not only work on challenging stereotypes but also on deconstructing the binary, heteronormative, and cisgender assumptions that characterize our society. They show how gender identity can be expressed in many different ways and is not necessarily confined to the two poles of male and female gender identity. Adults are then needed to consciously choose what to offer children, and in doing so, be aware of their own gender models, stereotypes, and prejudices, which they may carry even unintentionally. Initially, it can be helpful to seek advice in bookstores or libraries: literature is now so vast that it offers quality texts for all tastes and ages.
Are there tools to practice selecting picture books?
There are many useful tools, including the interactive catalog Leggere Senza Stereotipi, which helps develop identities curious about differences and imaginaries free from gender stereotypes. This is a project of the Associazione di Promozine Sociale SCOSSE, which since 2012 has provided an observatory on publishing for children and an ever-updating bibliographic selection.