We all know that Katniss is a different kind of female protagonist—but in a new piece for NPR, Linda Holmes considers the significance of the series’ two male leads, Gale and Peeta.

What Holmes puts her finger on is that there’s actually a lot going on in the books with regard to traditional male gender roles as well. Girls aren’t the only ones getting cues about gender norms from TV, movies, and books. Boys are too, and the message that they too often get is that to be desirable, a male must be violent, possessive, broody, or emotionally distant.

In The Hunger Games, that pretty well describes Gale, who’s a fairly conventional male romantic interest.

And then there’s Peeta. He cooks. He’s emotionally available. He loves Katniss without any expectation that his love will be returned. And he’s kinda helpless, requiring Katniss to save him constantly.

Here’s Holmes:

Don’t get me wrong: In real life, we all know couples of all gender alignments who operate in this way and in lots of other ways, whether they’re male-female or two guys or two women or whatever; there’s absolutely nothing about baking, physical strength, or emotional accessibility that is inherently gendered in real life for real humans with any consistency. But the movies, or at least the big movies, are different. Going by the traditional Hollywood rules, make no mistake: Peeta is a Movie Girlfriend.

I’ve always been Team Peeta, myself, and I love this analysis. I love it even more that The Hunger Games trilogy is giving us not just a complex and strong female protagonist in Katniss, but a sensitive, kind, and emotionally available male romantic interest in Peeta. We can only benefit by challenging young readers to see that gender need not conform to strict stereotypes: that girls can be strong, that boys can be gentle, and that in the real world romantic love comes in all shapes and sizes.