Many of you know that in addition to writing this newsletter, I work as a children’s book author. What some of you may not know is that I come by this trade via an absolute obsession with middle grade literature, and a belief that books written for 8-13 year olds are some of the most important pieces of art to create and consume.
One of my favorites in this category is Holes by Louis Sachar.
Holes tells the story of Stanley Yelnats, a boy who gets sent to a gruesome prison camp in a hot Texas wasteland where he’s forced to dig holes every day. It’s funny; it’s intelligent; it’s awe-inspiring; it’s engaging. Truly: a 10/10 read for anyone, kids and adults alike. There’s also a movie starring the guy from Even Stevens who became Catholic. I don’t remember it much. But when I heard there was going to be a new TV reboot, I was moderately intrigued.
Then I heard that it wasn’t just a TV remake: it was a gender-swapped remake.
In other words, all of the boys at the camp would now be girls. Stanley is now Hayley. I’m not sure what they plan to do about the kickass warden (female) or the bandit Kissin’ Kate (female) but I’m assuming they will be played by men. I heard this news shortly after hearing rumblings that Greta Gerwig1 approached Meryl Streep to play a female version of Aslan the lion in her Narnia reboot. This isn’t confirmed, but seems entirely plausible. We are, after all, living in the world of Ghostbusters reboots and Ocean’s Eight.
What both of these gender-swapping attempts display to me is a smugly profound misunderstanding of how we can actually utilize storytelling to empower young girls.