Let’s be real—reading in school doesn’t suck. In fact, once in a blue moon, DCPS picks a book that actually captivates us. However, we have not read a single book this year that has portrayed a woman as anything more than a prop. 

As much as I truly appreciate the same old stories of perseverance and overcoming obstacles against all odds, these books tend to have exclusively male protagonists.

The sophomore year reading list at this school is, to put it bluntly, wack. This entire year, not one book we have read has focused on the stories of women. While these books are representative of other aspects of diversity, I am getting tired of reading about men who had to overcome the same overwhelming challenges of toxic masculinity.

Just to reiterate, I’m not saying any of these books are bad. “The Other Wes Moore”, “The Things They Carried”, “Night”, and “Hamlet” are great books. But while they have solid messages, they overlook female stories. Actually, in each of these books, I can think of numerous examples of women who are totally dependent on men, and end up falling apart without them. 

You’re probably wondering why anyone should care about this—after all, it’s only one year of our entire lives. However, high school is when we start to truly decide what our values and thoughts on important issues are. This is heavily impacted by the books we read. If we keep feeding these androcentric stories to students, how are they going to understand the importance of women in society and in literature?

Let’s think of the female English teachers who have to teach these stories repeatedly, or the girls sitting in English classrooms listening to these stories and trying to find a message to identify with. For us, nothing ever changes.

Fortunately, one totally plausible solution should come to mind for DCPS: update your curriculum! Personally, I find that books about women that have been written in the last decade can have a more powerful impact in the classroom than the same old books about men with daddy issues (yes, I’m talking about you, “Hamlet”). Maybe by reading more inclusive books we can also inspire the guys in our generation to not end up like most of the degenerate male leads of the “classics”! 

Please, folks, let’s end the cycle of girls in school only reading about dead moms, abused wives, and crazy girlfriends. Instead, let’s focus on stories of female empowerment!