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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

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Original poster

'Herstory' for 5 year olds - does this book exist?

37 replies

sethstarkaddersmum · 30/06/2010 11:02

I decided to tell dd a bedtime story about the Suffragettes the other night and it really caught her imagination. She lay there for ages shouting 'Votes for women!' instead of going to sleep.

It got me thinking - I would like a book I can pick up at night for a bedtime story the way I do with my books of fairy tales and folk tales, but with female role models for dd so that she does not end up like the girl being discussed on another thread right now who chose Cheryl Cole as one of the most important women of our time.
When I was young I loved the R.J.Unstead 'People in history' books so what I really want is a feminist version of those.

Does anyone know of anything like this? I can think of so many great stories.

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swallowedAfly · 02/07/2010 21:31

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Original poster
sethstarkaddersmum · 02/07/2010 21:20

yes indeed. the word is suffragists and they called themselves women suffragists.
now you come to mention it, 'suffragettes' is pretty damn snotty and patronising, isn't it?

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MitchyInge · 02/07/2010 20:53

just an apropos of nothing type aside thought - isn't 'suffragette' a term of abuse from those days?

can't remember what the unisex word is for people who campaigned for universal suffrage

Original poster
sethstarkaddersmum · 02/07/2010 20:37

Well that was rather interesting.
The Sandi Toksvig book arrived - dd is very taken by it and insisted on me reading her bits for her bedtime story. (I never knew a woman invented windscreen wipers! Wow!)
Her first reaction was, 'If girls are best, does that mean boys aren't as good?'
so I had to say, 'no dd. It's a joke.' but then when ds1 came home she started jumping around going, 'Girls are best! Girls are best!' until I told her I would take the book away again if she didn't behave nicely.
Anyway, then she showed ds1 a picture of a woman lifting weights and he asked, 'Is there a picture of a boy too?' and she said, 'No!' and he said 'Oh' in a little voice.
So at first I felt very sorry for him and then I thought well, this is exactly what girls have to take for granted from a very young age - that frequently there will simply not be an image of or reference to a girl doing the things that boys do.

(must be careful re ds1 though or he will get a chip on his shoulder and grow up to be a leading light in the Mens' Movement )

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HoopyFroodDude · 01/07/2010 18:04

Thanks

maresedotes · 01/07/2010 17:51

I love "Don't bet on the Prince". Still available on Amazon (I just checked). I've had it about 20 years.

ElephantsAndMiasmas · 01/07/2010 17:42

Mostly stories - watch out for the Virago books of fairy tales though as there's a lot of sex in there! Things like Joan Aiken were good, there was a thread about this actually, hold on.....Children's books which promote gender equality

HoopyFroodDude · 01/07/2010 17:37

oooooh what other books with great females in Elephants ?

ElephantsAndMiasmas · 01/07/2010 17:27

I've got that Sandi Toksvig book - bought it for meself . Not a fan of the title either but it's got some great content &plenty of pictures and short fact sections that I'm sure your DD will soon be able to read for herself. You sound like a great mum. I only realised recently that my mum always bought me books that had great female characters in them. I asked her about it the other day, whether she'd done it on purpose, and she just looked at me as if I was completely thick and said "of course!" [my mum is great]

Original poster
sethstarkaddersmum · 30/06/2010 22:27

me too Sakura.
We read Smelly Socks the other day which is also by Munsch - I love the way Tina in that isn't girly, she is just..... a person.

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Sakura · 30/06/2010 13:00

I love "THe Paper Bag Princess"
Written by two men, ironically

ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave · 30/06/2010 12:25

That's kind of what I mean. I could fairly easily get DS to read a book called "Cool Women". I stand less chance of getting him to read a book with a subtitle "a girl's guide to..." without resorting to subterfuge.

SweetDreamerGirl · 30/06/2010 12:21

Many boys do read about women's achievements. Most boys not as much as they should, but it does happen.

"probably only because I'm on a bit of a roll here..." -- I've got that T-shirt too.

ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave · 30/06/2010 12:13

In fact, now I'm getting very mildly uptight about the subtitle of Cool Women ("the thinking girl's guide to the hippest women in history"). Why should only girls read about women's achievements? Great that you're publishing a book that's attempting to go some way to redress the huge bias in this area; less great that you've decided to implicitly (or semi-explicitly, in fact) exclude half the population from reading it.

Only mildly, though, and probably only because I'm on a bit of a roll here...

SweetDreamerGirl · 30/06/2010 12:09

Yes, Sandi Toksvig seems to be at the feminist end of the spectrum.

ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave · 30/06/2010 12:07

I probably wouldn't be so bothered about the title if I only had girls, to be fair. But I have a responsibility to instil a realistic view of feminism in all my children, whatever their sex and gender, and giving small boys the idea that "feminism is about saying that girls are better than boys" is massively counter-productive, IMO.

tortoiseonthehalfshell · 30/06/2010 12:07

I suspect it's taking the piss, but sometimes i'm just being optimistic when i think things like that. But "ideas above her station" and "books about homemaking" is fairly tongue in cheek.

ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave · 30/06/2010 12:03

I think (s)he must be taking the piss. There's no way you could genuinely hold views like that and be "usually a fan of Sandi Toksvig", surely?

SweetDreamerGirl · 30/06/2010 12:00

ProfessorLayton, yes, I agree a title better than "Girls are Best" would have been more appropriate.

On the other hand, the anti-feminist reviewer didn't see much wrong with the title.

ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave · 30/06/2010 11:57

Also like the sound of Girls Who Rocked the World (and Volume 2).

ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave · 30/06/2010 11:55

And oooh, there's an entire series for children on different places and periods in history called The Other Half of History...

SweetDreamerGirl · 30/06/2010 11:53

Yes. Perhaps the recommended age 7 and above is just a reading age thing. If you tell her instead, I'm sure you can put the content in suitable words that she understands.

Please report back and let us know what your daughter thinks of the stories.

ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave · 30/06/2010 11:52

I like the sound of Cool Women, for example.

ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave · 30/06/2010 11:49

I am feeling a bit about the title, though. I don't want to teach DD that "Girls are Best", any more than I want to teach DS that "Boys are Best" -- I don't think that's what feminism is about. What does it say to DS if I buy DD a book with that title? If it were "Girls are Great!" or "Girls are Cool!" or something like that it would be in my shopping basket.

Original poster
sethstarkaddersmum · 30/06/2010 11:47

and it sounds like there will be lots of bits in it I can tell her about.

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