Kristi Valenti has a must-read column this week on how boys tend to be reluctant readers and how that applies to the comics industry:

There have been times where I’ve received the message in subtle and not-so-subtle ways that, because I’m a woman, superhero comics (Hi, Dirk!) are not made for me. As such, I’m starting to understand something of the “boys club” bunker mentality that some mainstream comics readers exhibit after a discussion with local teen librarian Jennifer Bisson (her opinions, she was careful to say, were her own, and didn’t reflect that of her employer). Apparently, not only do boys have a more difficult time early on learning to read, of those who do read for pleasure, many stop when they reach the preteen years (she expressed this as the age in which boys catch up in social skills with girls: I’ve heard this expressed by others as the age in which boys get interested in girls). She theorized that the reason that boys stop reading is because, early on, reading is feminized: not only are educators at the elementary level primarily women, but librarians, as a rule, are too.

Go check out the whole thing. It’s fascinating reading.

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