Looking for the Panacea: Where Are All the Male Protagonists?

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Where Are All the Male Protagonists?

This post is a part of Contemporary Conversations, hosted by The Thousand Lives and Talking Bookworm.

You know what there isn't enough of in Contemporary YA? Male protagonists.
I know there are a lot of people complaining about diversity in YA, and I feel like that can even apply to gender. There are way too many white, female protagonists.

I guess one of the reasons for this is that there aren't that many male YA authors out there. Especially not male YA contemporary authors. In fact, the only one I can think of off the top of my head is John Green. Oh, also David Levithan. But that's kind of it... ask me to name female contemporary YA authors, and you'll have recommendations spilling at you for weeks.

I suppose it's hard to write from a male perspective as a female author, because obviously you have to kind of change your own way of thinking. But really, I do feel like that's what you do as an author anyway- you're creating a character who usually doesn't think the same way that you do. Whether that's a male or a female, it's still "a different person", so to speak.

And it's disappointing, because I really like reading from a male POV. But at the same time, I kind of second guess that- is it because they're so rare that I like them? Because they feel refreshing and different and unique? I just don't know.

Some contemporary books written from a male perspective:
Looking for Alaska
Paper Towns
Fan Art
Liars, Inc
Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda
The Beginning of Everything
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Some dual POV:
Eleanor and Park
The Sea of Tranquility (NA)
All the Bright Places

Jesus why are all these titles so long haha

Would you like to see more male protagonists in contemporary YA?
Any recommendations of male POV contemporary books for me?

Comments (48)

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Julie · 525 weeks ago

Thirteen Reasons Why and I'll Give You the Sun also have dual POVs, one of them male. :)
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3 replies · active 525 weeks ago

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narapanacea 99p · 525 weeks ago

Thirteen Reasons Why is actually the only book I've ever read as an audiobook, and tbh, I didn't really enjoy it that much. Maybe I should try it again as a physical copy. I never really could get into audiobooks...too easily distracted.
I'm going to read IFYTS pretty soon! My copy is coming in the mail within the next week, I think :D
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Julie · 525 weeks ago

There are mixed opinions about Thirteen Reasons Why so you're not the only one who didn't enjoy it. I loved it, though. :) I hope you enjoy I'll Give You the Sun! It's such an amazing book! :)
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narapanacea 99p · 525 weeks ago

Definitely looking forward to I'll Give You the Sun! I really liked her other book- The Sky is Everywhere, and since this one got The Printz, I'm sure it's just as good, if not better :D
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littlebookstar 68p · 525 weeks ago

Hahaha those titles ARE pretty long. And yeah, it's sad that we rarely get to read from a male's perspective in books. Maybe there are a lot out there that we haven't discovered? Most of the popular books today have female protagonists so maybe they're overshadowing the books that has a male protagonist.
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1 reply · active 525 weeks ago

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narapanacea 99p · 525 weeks ago

There probably are some, to be honest. But I feel like there's still a ridiculous number of female POVs compared to male ones in general in YA. Maybe more will be coming up soon :)
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kaylasanchez2 69p · 525 weeks ago

Oh yes like Julie said - I'll Give You the Sun! WHICH YOU WILL HAVE IN YOUR HANDS VERY SOON *evil laughter*

I keep thinking of books with male perspectives, but they're all sci-fi or fantasy! This is a problem. Hmm... Oh okay one was Skin and Bones by Sherry Shahan - the MC is a guy in a treatment center for anorexia. Crappy book, but it tried!
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1 reply · active 525 weeks ago

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narapanacea 99p · 525 weeks ago

I WILL DEFINITELY HAVE IT VERY SOON. Within the next week, I'm pretty sure :D :D

lol not the best recommendation then hey :P
I feel like there are a lot of scifi books with male POVs! Not so many contemporaries though
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Frannie Pan · 525 weeks ago

I would love to read more books written from males' PoVs! I have to catch up wth some of those you said, like All the bright places and The beginning of everything, but still I wish there were more! At least, more I knew of :P
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narapanacea 99p · 525 weeks ago

All the Bright Places is a really well done male POV, I think! Same with The Beginning of Everything. Definitely shows that female authors are able to write good male POVs :)
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caitdrews 124p · 525 weeks ago

I definitely agree that contemporary has a lot more female protagonists buuuut I read a heck of a lot of male POV contemporaries!! Some other dual ones I've read are
- Zac and Mia
- I'll Give You the Sun
- Some Boys
- Are You Seeing Me

AAAANd I absolutely like Matthew Quick. xD he does a lot of contemporary via boys. Like Boy 21 and Forgive Me Leonard Peacock. Oh, then there's Noggin, It's Kind of A Funny Story, Butter, and Dead Ends, Wonder, Thin Space. blaaaah I'LL STOP BEFORE SOMEONE THROWS SOMETHING AT ME.

But seriously, scrolling through my goodreads, it's like 1 out of every 6 books might be via a guy. 0_0 I definitely think this is a hole and should be filled. XD

1 reply · active 525 weeks ago

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narapanacea 99p · 525 weeks ago

Matthew Quick! I actually haven't read any of his books. Probably should haha
Oh man, I totally forgot about Noggin and Butter- I actually quite enjoyed both of those. Zac and Mia was pretty good too!

Just read Playlist for the Dead, which I had assumed was a female POV, but actually turned out to be male POV haha
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Steph · 525 weeks ago

Yeah, I totally agree with you about the lack of male protagonists in contemporary ya! I love female protagonists, but it's nice to have a male point of view for a change of pace. I feel like while it does have a lot to do with there being more female contemporary ya authors, there are more girls reading contemporary ya too. But that might be a whole chicken or the egg cycle of "less male readers=less male protagonists" or "less male protagonists=less male readers."
I can't think of any books that other people haven't said (which totally says something about how few there are), but I recently read a surprisingly good one called Ask the Dark which is a contemporary ya mixed with thriller. I would love to see more too!
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1 reply · active 525 weeks ago

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narapanacea 99p · 525 weeks ago

Yeah, that's true. In fact, I think there are more females reading YA in general, not just contemporary. I mean, just look at the book blogosphere. I'd say probs 90% (if not more) of book bloggers are female!
My recent post Where Are All the Male Protagonists?

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Soudha Parsan · 525 weeks ago

I agree with you. In All the Bright Places for instance, I love that we got to read from Finch's POV.
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narapanacea 99p · 525 weeks ago

And Finch's POV was so well done too! The author did a fantastic job of differentiating the voices of the two characters :)
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mishmanixon 63p · 525 weeks ago

Great post Nara!
I can't say I've actually thought of this before,but still,I'd love to see more male POVs as well.I've always loved Dual POVs,and I think it would be great if we get an insight on male protagonists.
As for recommendations,What I Didn't Say is a beautiiful love story with male POV,Tabitha Suzuma's Hurt and From where I stand are also narrated by males-but I've got to warn you that they're a bit too dark.
For Dual POVs,try out The Edge of Never,Pushing the Limits,Perfect Chemistry,Forbidden and Real.
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narapanacea 99p · 525 weeks ago

Tabitha Suzuma's books are SO dark! I've only read Forbidden, but dayum, that was ridiculous dark. I should probably give her other books a try at some point- I kind of like the darkness :P
lol woops totally forgot about Katie McGarry's books as dual POV.
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Veronika · 525 weeks ago

I never really thought about this before. I think I prefer female protagonists over males because I can relate to them more, but yet again some of my favorite (non-contemporary) books are from a male's POV. In NA Romances I usually prefer dual POV because it helps me a lot with understanding both protagonists. I don't know if you've read The Coincidence series (Jessica Sorensen), but in that it would be impossible to understand the characters without reading both of their POVs.
Awesome post idea! :)
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narapanacea 99p · 525 weeks ago

I like dual POVs too! Then you can see things from both people in the romance. I don't really like it when they backtrack on each other's timelines though, if you know what I mean (so that we get the same scenes twice, one from each POV). Then again, I like companion books from different POVs e.g. Hopeless and Losing Hope, so go figure haha. I'm so inconsistent :P
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Lucia 94p · 525 weeks ago

Oh yes, I would definitely wnat to read more from male POV. In whatever genre. But to be honest, I cannot even think of one YA contemporary written in male POV only... I read Eleanor & Park the other day, but you already mentioned that and that is dual POV. Also, dual POV is in I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios and male POV in it is quite short but oh so powerful.
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1 reply · active 525 weeks ago

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narapanacea 99p · 525 weeks ago

I'll Meet You There! I need to get onto reading that book soon. Heather Demetrios is so fantastic :D
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cuciereads 19p · 525 weeks ago

I did not know Looking for Alaska was written from a male point of view. Now I am looking forward to reading it even more! :)

Also, I do agree with you. There are way too little YA books told from male perspective and I miss it. I don't understand why this happens... I understand why a female author would also have a female protagonist, but I don't understand why there are more female YA authors...

1 reply · active 525 weeks ago

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narapanacea 99p · 525 weeks ago

I think all of John Green's books except TFIOS are written from a male POV :)
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teamouse133 14p · 525 weeks ago

I was actually thinking about this the other day! I'd definitely like more male POVs in contemporary YA. In fact, just in YA in general. I feel like YA fantasy is dominated even more so by ladies these days. Maybe its a reaction to the notion of there being not enough empowering female figures in books, but there's definitely a big gap for male MCs now.

Although 'Try Not To Breathe' by Jennifer R. Hubbard has a male POV and is amazing. :)

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3 replies · active 525 weeks ago

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narapanacea 99p · 525 weeks ago

Try Not to Breathe sounds really weird from the blurb! The whole psychic thing :P
Sounds like it'd be a pretty feels inducing book!
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teamouse133 14p · 525 weeks ago

It definitely has a lot of feels. I may have shed a tear or two (shh, don't tell!)
The psychic thing really works though. I don't know, read and you shall understand :)
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narapanacea 99p · 525 weeks ago

Added to my TBR! But seriously that cover, so bad haha
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novaxwn 57p · 525 weeks ago

I actually agree with the "it's hard to read from a male POV" thing. Most of the time, I can't connect because of how they're written. I don't have a lot of guy friends and I didn't really grow up with them around me, which is a little sad. I did enjoy 13 Reasons but I have read others where I was like "OH MY GOSH IS THIS REALLY HOW GUYS THINK" and it was really uncomfortable for me.

But I also agree that there SHOULD be more Male POVs. It wouldn't make sense if they're ALL girls, right?
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narapanacea 99p · 525 weeks ago

I actually find it pretty refreshing to read a male POV! I mean, I feel like it's not that different to reading from a villain POV or something- maybe there are some aspects that are hard to connect to, but it's still pretty dang interesting :)
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iskultripscans 74p · 525 weeks ago

It's definitely hard to write a male POV in such a female-dominated demographic, but it CAN be done! In fact, the most relatable, authentic male POV I've ever read came from a female writer, and she had five male POVs in her series - Brigid Kemmerer with her Merrick Brothers saga. SO, SO, SO, SO, SO GOOD. Nothing else can ever come close.
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narapanacea 99p · 525 weeks ago

Brigid Kemmerer definitely does a great male POV! She's pretty good at differentiating all the voices too :)
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jeannius88 122p · 525 weeks ago

I totally agree Nara, there aren't that many male protagonists, much less good ones. But I totally agree, it's because there aren't enough male writers in the YA space either. Great topic Nara!
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narapanacea 99p · 525 weeks ago

It's strange how there aren't that many male YA authors! I guess because the readership is mostly female...
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Romi · 525 weeks ago

Ooh, interesting discussion topic! I think it is unusual that there are many less male protagonists and perspectives than female, at the moment (I wonder, this is probably a turn around from what it would have been 100 years ago, which is doubly interesting). I agree that this can apply to the diversity discussions that have been happening. There are just so many white female protagonists. And I wish there were more intersex and transgender and even LGBT narratives and perspectives, because those are even fewer, from what I’ve seen. They’re about, but the numbers are just tiny, compared to the masses. And also interesting that the male writers are also writing female perspectives, whereas less female writers seem to be writing male… interesting, interesting.

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narapanacea 99p · 525 weeks ago

Definitely most of the YA books I've read have female protagonists- across all genres, not just contemporary. It'd be nice to get a few more male ones out there.
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Shay@TheStoryGoes... · 525 weeks ago

This is such a great topic! I agree that it'd be nice to see more male protagonists just in general in YA. I can see how female authors might be more comfortable writing female characters but, at the same time, I feel like it might be in part because when most people think YA it goes hand in hand with "female main character". As far as more diverse characters go, I definitely think more male main characters count.

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narapanacea 99p · 525 weeks ago

I mean, obviously I don't know that well as someone who doesn't write, but I feel like writing a male character shouldn't really be toooo different from writing, say, a villain. They don't think the way you do, necessarily, but that's sort of your job as a writer.
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Cynthia · 525 weeks ago

I hadn't really thought about it, but you have a good point. Most YA novels are told from a female POV. You are right that most protagonists are white and female. When we talk about gender, we should encourage diversity in both race and gender!
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1 reply · active 524 weeks ago

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narapanacea 99p · 524 weeks ago

I feel like diversity can kind of even apply to characters of different personalities- a lot of protagonists are strong-willed and confident, or even if they're a bit weaker/timid, they tend to make the "right" choices. Where are our villains?! But it's strange because if there's a character that makes a poor choice, everyone hates them, and rates the book down. I dunno, I kind of like seeing characters make bad choices XD
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rbookboyfriends 28p · 524 weeks ago

I actually think sometimes I like reading from a male's POV better because we don't know so much about males as female readers and it's kinda interesting! XD I also like writing male POVs better than females because you can break out of reality ALL THE WAY then. :) But they have to be written well.
Great post Nara! Thanks for sharing! xoxo
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narapanacea 99p · 524 weeks ago

Definitely really interesting reading a male POV! I kind of feel it's mostly the novelty though, since in YA there are so few male protagonists. Who knows!
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thetalkingbookworm 16p · 524 weeks ago

You know what, you are right! WHERE ARE THEY?! Although I will say ever since I started reading some NA, I've been reading more male POV. For example Colleen Hoover. Awesome writer. She has dual POV and all Male pov books. Katie McGarry? All Dual POV books. Honestly, Dual POV are some of my fav. I love seeing from both POVs. Makes the reading experience 360 degrees!

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narapanacea 99p · 524 weeks ago

Love Colleen Hoover! And she actually does quite a fantastic male POV. Ditto Katie McGarry.
Completely agree about dual POVs, especially in a romance- then you can see things from both perspectives :D
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Wattle · 524 weeks ago

I have been thinking lately that I would really like to read some books from the male POV, because I am sick of the flood of female POV books :/ There's just so many of them! I mean, I love a bad-ass female main character, but I also like variety.

Thank you for that little list! I have a couple of them on my TBR already, but a couple more to add. Yay!
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narapanacea 99p · 524 weeks ago

Male POVs are so refreshing! Seriously love it whenever I come across one in YA.
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Laura Plus Books · 522 weeks ago

Even though I'd love to see more male POVs, I'm not too sure that I personally would read them as much as I do female POVs. I wouldn't read them unless I've read reviews and know that the author can pull off a male POV. I just feel like so many authors are female and it's harder for them to do it well you know? Lovely discussion Nara!
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narapanacea 99p · 522 weeks ago

I actually like reading from both male and female POVs. Gives you a bit of variety :)
I dunno about female authors finding it difficult to write male POVs. I mean, it sort of shouldn't be too different from writing e.g. a villain's POV. It's different from your POV, but that's sort of your job as a writer? Maybe...I'm not really a writer so I probs shouldn't judge haha
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