Still cross about stall at primary school Spring Fair...WWYD?

Do your school do class stalls? I think it's a good challenge for the kids to come up with a few words to summarize the book. "Ancient Egyptian adventure" "Facts about volanoes" "Comedy about families" or whatever. A goal of this is for the child to read the book that they choose and having a genre will increase it more than the very general b, g labels.

they don't get that selves all worked up about principles

My DD was furious that her teacher told her she couldn't be a builder when she grew up. (She'd meant 'a person who builds things' ie an engineer, but it was the principle of being told 'girls can't' which had enraged her). She mentioned years later that she'd been disappointed in me, that while I'd reassured her the teacher was wrong, I'd not taken it up with the school. (Turned out ok. She's doing an MEng now).

IME children have clear ideas of fairness and certainly can be very bothered by principles. I'd be a bit worried if I had one that wasn't.

Whenthereshope - why on earth would you want these 'concealed' books identified as boys or girls books? If choosing a preferred book matters then don't wrap them or follow Hesterton's suggestion for categories .
I have no issue about individual children choosing or preferring any particular type of book. I have an issue with children being told that certain subjects are for boys and others for girls.
Can you genuinely not understand how small incidents like these add together to form the unwritten 'rules' about being a girl or being a boy? It creates totally unnecessary inequalities for both boys and girls.

Thought I was highly strung until I started reading mn. Can't believe this would bother someone. If you don't like it, don't buy one! I for one would prefer them to be labelled. My Son prefers diggers to fairies, most kids do follow that "norm". But for those who don't the kind women had conveniently named them so your child can choose... how kind of them! Kids don't do irony, they don't get that selves all worked up about principles, so just give them the 30p and let them be kids.

"And to those saying: what’s the problem - your DD could have chosen a “B” book! - the whole thing is as ridiculous as supermarkets labelling apples as for girls and bananas for boys, even though a boy could of course buy the apple. Why label in the first case? And this kind of pervasive sexism really is why there are multiple inequalities in adulthood."

Exactly this. What is it about a book that 'makes' it a 'boy' or a 'girl' book? Same with colours and styles of clothing, to be fair: jezebel.com/5790638/the-history-of-pink-for-girls-blue-for-boys

I think we need to challenge gender stereotyping whenever we encounter it.

DS was on his primary school council in Y6 when they were discussing the school fair. Teacher suggested the prizes for one stall were a blue teddy for the boys and a pink for the girls.

DS pointed out that this was gender stereotyping and the teacher suggested something else. I imagine there was a bit of eyerolling in the staffromm later because I am "that" parent.

*het up about it.

Not at all Dixie. She's always enjoyed being a girl, knows she's a girl, celebrates being a girl and speaks up for girls/women as a teen - has boundless career ambitions.
She would just shy away from from the pink stuff and never really got too get up about it.

When my dd was little she would have picked the B book because she knew (and I knew) she hated pink and princesses and would want the chance of a more interesting book to her.

And what were the messages being fed to her about her sex and her identity through this? That she was somehow less of a girl, that being a girl was something that didn’t fit her tastes/interests/abilities, that she had to throw out society’s concept of girl wholesale in order to have a chance at getting something good. Perhaps you think otherwise but I’m not of the opinion that that is a desirable state of affairs.

I'd be interested to see what books were removed and what were left on thea bookshelf, DS is only 3 so Mr Men books excluded, I don't think we've reached any where there is no male or no female character

Smiths

Another vote for Hesterton’s idea. Dare we think we have a solution?

“Another way it could be done is in four or so bins with genre:
History
Fantasy
Action adventure
Animals
Others”

It was out of order for the volunteers to decide what books are for girls and what for boys.

(My mum mixed up our stocking fillers by mistake one Xmas. How me and my sister laughed when my brother exclaimed, in appalled tones, "GIRLS' BRIEFS?!?")

some books make it bleeding obvious they are 'meant for' boys or girls

Don't put these in a lucky dip stall then! They're probably not very good.

I'd have kicked off. Well, I'd have done what you did, OP. If you'd kept quiet and carried on dishing out the boy and girl books as instructed then you'd have been part of the problem. Well done for your small act of rebellion.
As for upsetting the ladies who set the stall up - well, you were as polite as you could be under the circumstances, and if you challenge ingrained attitudes you're going to get some resistance, because people don't like change.
As for the kids' feelings - well, it's a 30p lucky dip. The whole point is that you might get something really good or you might get a half-chewed copy of Topsy and Tim with crayon all over it, and learning to deal with the latter is probably a good life skill.

my son would be a bit fucked off with a book about princesses, he really likes cars and dinosaurs

My DD would have been too. Actually, I'd have hoped that books about cars and certainly dinosaurs would have been in the G+B category, along with nearly everything else.
She'd probably have chosen from either that category or the B ones while discussing the idiocy of the labelling, as would happen in clothes and toy shops. She's had quite clear views on gender stereotyping since a yr 1 teacher told her 'girls can't be builders' . This sort of situation isn't a problem for a child like her, just a bit annoying. It's a problem for kids who are only encouraged to conform to gender stereotypes.

DS1 did a tombola once, and won a hello-kitty skipping rope which the volunteer hurridly offered to swap for me - DS1 was already halfway across the playground yelling to his little brother what he had, and that skipping rope was used until poor hello kitty got smashed off the plastic handles. DS1 is oblivious to this stuff though. DS2 however, is a pink lover - but only at home, because at school, the teachers and kids have taken the mick out of him for his tastes.

I miss his old nursery where all the kids wore and played with anything, without comment.

I quite like the sound of a mystery book. The best option would be to go for well known books that are known to be enjoyed by both girls and boys. Julia Donaldson, Shirley Hughes, Mog the cat etc are loved by both girls and boys. David Walliams, Roald Dahl, Wimpy Kid, Tom Gates, Famous Five etc are the same. For non fiction I would go for How to Draw type books.
However as this was a 30p stall I am assuming it was donated stock - so you are stuck with what you get. This would be better to do with teenagers as an experiment in trying out different genres and why some books are considered boy books or girl books.

Have we all seen the video? Doesn't sound like it from some of the comments?

Whilst its a lovely idea, there is SO much potential for this stall to go wrong - me and my kids are avid readers, and don't read within classic gender genres but I'd still avoid a total book lottery as I might be eclectic in my reading but I do have taste, thanks ;-)

I'm one of those saying offer to do it yourself because the PTA will (I'm also certain) have moved to gender specific + boy and girl because a) parents/children complained with little Johnny got a book about ballet and little Jenny got a book about Man U b) some books make it bleeding obvious they are 'meant for' boys or girls - it's a lot to ask children (who are defining what sex/gender mean) to actively go against the rules society has spent 5 years beating into them, when many adults can't. I bet that for every complaint that they need to be more gender neutral on the books stall, they get one that they need to be more compartmentalised (on sex and ages, for example). They are stuck as a lottery always means some people are disappointed, and disappointed 5 year olds cry. SO if you present another complaint, they'll sigh, maybe agree, but weigh you up with all the other complaints. If you present a solution - and offer to help with the hard lifting that solution involves - you'll get a yes. Remember that those running the PTA are volunteers, fitting it into their spare time too...what you're asking for is a lot of work, and people will naturally take the line of least resistance!

We have a 'pick a prize' type thing at my PTA, stereotypically 'girl' prizes are in pink sparkly paper, 'boys' in something blue with cars on and everything else in a brightly coloured paper.

Yes, I think there is policing of masculinity.
Sadly I know a family where the 4 year old little lad wanted a buggy, but there was no way his Mum or Dad were having their son pushing a buggy - despite the fact the Dad pushed one! Later the same lad wanted a handbag. That was also met with horror and in the end he was allowed a bag with a picture of a car on it - not really what he wanted.

It seems okay for girls to like dinosaurs or trucks or anything really - there are girls football teams and girls can go to Scouts, but it's not okay for boys to show they like ballet or dolls or prancing round in high heels.

It's widepread but I think gender stereotypes are especially strong in certain areas and amongst certain groups - and if your parents hold them, it's going to be hard for children to avoid them.

It's one of those things that is really hard to get right to appeal to everyone.

I think maybe one option would have been to have left the G and B on the books but to put a sign up to the effect that they have been nominally distinguished but we know children like different things so all children are free to choose any book type.