Reading: feminine noun?

Abstract

Building on some international research that emphasises the importance of presenting male models of readers to encourage boys to read, this paper is an exploratory study of reader models in painting and literature. Through a web search among sites linking reading and painting, some 250 paintings depicting men and women reading were analysed. The aim was to observe the frequency of female and male presences but above all to analyse the ways in which they are portrayed and any differences. Finally, we chose some famous texts from children's literature containing characters who read and we also examined the ways in which female and male readers are portrayed. Within the limits of the sample, the results show that there is a tendency to represent more women or girls readers. Furthermore, in the representation, the characteristics attributed to male and female reading change: female reading is mainly related to the theme of pleasure and the search for one's own identity, whereas male reading is more related to study and information. In future studies, it would be interesting to understand whether these different representations influence boys' and girls' relationship with reading.