Good night stories for rebel girls

I just out this in the charity pile …

My daughter didn’t bother reading it when she realised it was just another annoying boy.

Clever lass.

Yup. I’d have dismissed it as a child as well, if it’s all pink and sparkly. Ironic if the only truly sexist story in the book is that one. Says it all really. In fact, if they were truly about rebellion, they’dve had THAT story in the boy’s book and he wouldn’t have transitioned.

.My daughter didn’t bother reading it when she realised it was just another annoying boy.

Clever lass.

Like others we used that story (which I only became aware of talking to my dd (she's 10) about the short-comings of transgender ideology. Because I hadn't read the book I'd no idea it was there. Once I explained what transgender meant she mentioned the story. Coy was presented as some sort of hero. I asked where were the voices of the girls whose bathroom Coy was now in. There's so much focus on the "oh poor child, must be so confusing and difficult to feel at odds with your sex" that the feelings of all the other children are completely disregarded.

I also hate that I originally wrote this post and where it says Coy I had written the boy and I've edited it because I don't know when and where biological reality can be stated. I am so fucking fed up of this shit.

and sad that my daughter’s natural reaction to it is probably not going to be seen as acceptable as she grows up

Let’s hope that by the time she reaches adulthood, this ideology will have receded. Keep fighting.

I threw that book against the wall in a rage. Then ripped the offending page out.

Your daughter tells it like it is. From the mouths of babes......

Both dds also snorted derisively at the “pink and sparkly” nonsense. I made the mistake of buying this book and then they had another copy as a present. It undermines the impressive achievements of all the women in there, that this tiny tyrant is included, for trampling on the rights of girls. Was the author on glue ? It is a baffling inclusion.

SirVix, I’m with your daughter. Cory comes across as utterly selfish

I also didn't get this due to inclusion of someone, can't remember who.

Glad I didn't, read the screen shot of page on coy, how dare they? Pink cake pink shoes. Going to court to make sure girls have to get undressed in front of boys in school. Hooray! Fuck off.

I’ve said this before but despite hating the story being in there it gave me a chance to talk about stereotypes and remind my girls that pink doesn’t make you a girl. This story is so simplistically written that it is easy for even a young child to see how nonsensical it is and how it doesn’t fit with the achievements or struggles in the rest of the book. Use it to counter the ideology from early on.

Yep. Got his book as a gift for DD when she was 6. Great sized stories for bedtime. Feel sick that they included a boy. Haven’t glued pages together, but we’ve compared the experiences of the accomplished women with the boy included because he likes pink. And I won’t lie to my children and pretend they aren’t going to come across this, time and again. I hope they stay angry

I really like Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls- my daughter has both volumes. When we got to the page on Coy it let us have a discussion on gender stereotypes and how Coy was really a boy and how silly it was they were in the book.

It pissed me right off that they were included but I didn't want to dismiss the hundreds of other stories in there about actual, remarkable women because the woke publishers thought it would be a good idea to include one boy who doesn't behave according to society's expectations.

And I don't know about you, but for me a rebel girl has always been a girl who defies the stereotypes imposed on our sex, not a boy who embraces them.

Yes, why isn't Coy in the Stories of Boys who Dare to be Different?

Argh, children struggle to understand that your gender isn't interchangeable anyway add part of their development. My 4yo dsd recently told me I must be a boy because I like blue.

This story makes it sound like liking pink sparkly dresses = being a girl. How confusing for little girls who don't like pink, do they then start to doubt if they are girls etc?? What's wrong with just liking what you like and accepting that's not affected by sex...

I had the same reaction to that story and so found different books for my nieces that focused entirely on females instead. IIRC I got the 50 women that changed the world type and checked all the stories out beforehand. My nieces would have been beyond annoyed to be presented with a story that glorifies a boy for embracing the very sex stereotypes they rejected.

And I am impressed with the daughter's of PP who correctly assessed this boy forcing his inclusion in female-only spaces as horrible. Well done on not only teaching your girls that they are allowed to have boundaries against males but also to assert them against ALL males, however they identify.

And I don't know about you, but for me a rebel girl has always been a girl who defies the stereotypes imposed on our sex, not a boy who embraces them.

I wish I could like posts on Mumsnet. Some really sensible things said here including the book is about rebel girls, it's for everyone. Coy might be a rebel boy, for liking pink and glitter, but plenty of girls don't like that stuff. Gender stereotypes help no-one. Let's get rid of the boxes and allow people to take joy in expressing themselves however they wish, without the need to impose male genitalia into female bathrooms, changing rooms, refuges etc. Males can dangle but women have to bind? Not in my name.

We don't have that book primarily because it has Margaret Thatcher in it (DH was insistent). We have lots of other, similar books though without any sign of boys in dresses, just fab women. The Kate Pankhurst ones are excellent.

This book already grates me just with its title, it should be "about rebel girls" not "for rebel girls", this sort of thing should be aimed at/read by girls and boys!!

There's a shot of Coy's story from an earlier thread. That's quite a lot on sparkly dresses and shiny pink shoes.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/feminist_book_club/3016794-Good-Night-Rebel-Girls-transgender-included

(Namechanged to avoid outing myself)

DD's school have this book and used it for a class activity recently, with small groups being given one woman each to write about. I didn't know beforehand but I know the school has generally kept away from "gender" matters with their pupils (younger end of primary) and had a pretty sensible approach so far (I did go in to talk to the head a while back, and shared the TT online materials - I think it was before the print version was out).

Anyway DD told me this had happened, but that the children themselves had not been happy about that story as a) "he was a boy" and b) they thought Coy hadn't done anything particularly impressive, unlike the other stories; and apparently the first group to be given that story was eventually allowed to cover a different person (though one group did still cover Coy).

I have wondered whether to talk to the school again about it, but tbh thought the kids themselves had handled it pretty sensibly, and also it didn't seem like school were really pushing the ideology either, it just happened to be in that book, so not sure it's worth making a fuss?

I wish I'd had the sense to (metaphorically) write "and one horrible boy" a lot more, and a lot earlier. I hope I'm making up for it now. It's OK for girls and women to have boundaries.

I'd have bought this book a hundred times over as a present for the ton of kids I know, but I won't touch it with a bargepole with this nonsense in it.

And I don't blame the girls who wrote "and one horrible boy" over the page. I feel intensely sorry for the child in question (I was a gender nonconforming child, too, though thank god transing children wasn't a thing then) but since this child isn't going to see those girls' copy, I think it's a really healthy thing that these girls feel that they are allowed to have boundaries, and to express those boundaries without feeling the pressure to be nice and submit.

Showofhands good on your dd.

Yes, that is what they have written. A boy has forced the girls into letting him use their private space. My then ten year old daughter thought that was horrible, or she wouldn’t have written it.