When I went to library school we were taught to cater to boys when we selected books for the juvenile section of our public libraries. We were told to stuff the shelves with books filled with male characters, male characters, and more male characters.
Here’s the logic:
Girls already love to read and need no further encouragement. Besides, they’re not picky and will read books with male protagonists, male villains, male supporting cast, etc.
Boys, on the other hand, don’t like to read. So to even the playing field we need to bend over backwards to encourage them. And since boys won’t read books with female protagonist, or too many female characters, we need fill the shelves with boy-appropriate books.
To make this logic more logical, we were also taught that the content of the library should reflect the interests of its patrons.
So a library situated in a hipster part of town should be loaded with hipster content. One near the beach should carry an abundance of books with a nautical theme.
But a public library situated next door to an all girl’s school still needed to focus on books with boys as the main characters. Just in case one of the poor little fellas wandered in off the street and accidentally managed to open a book and read a few words.
Why, if he saw a girl’s name on the page he might slam the book closed and run, screaming in terror, never to again open a book.
Sigh.
Come on, people, give boys some credit! They’re tougher than that, and more intelligent.
Unless the real goal is to teach boys, and girls, that the female half of the population isn’t important.
In that case, job well done!