to be annoyed that Igloo books are selling 'Stories for Boys'?

[Astr0naut]

Apparently Pinocchio and Tales of the Arabian nights are boys' stories. I didn't look at Stories for Princesses because I was too annoyed.

Growing up, I remember 'Stories for six year olds' and 'Stories for eight year olds' etc, but I don't remember a gender divide. Stories are stories.

Isn't it? I've emailed Igloo books to ask whether we should categorise adult fiction in the same way: Austen for Ladies and Hemingway for GEntlemen.

I wonder if the answer is to spread it into adult life. So my mum can only buy a pink car. That is all that is on offer to her...might make her think.

I am annoyed by Wilkinsons' 'Just For Girls' toy range. This shite drives me nuts. I would actually ban it if I was in charge. Just blanket ban anything for children as being labelled for one gender or another. It's a blue top with a skull on it and 'I'm so naughty' and it's a pink top with 'perfect princess' on it. We'll just decide who to buy it for ourselves shall we? Or not.

And if I start saying things to MIL like "my (female) cousin, who claims to be a doctor must just be a glorified nurse surely. Cos girls can't be doctors"
Would she gettit then?

They will say that they do it to encourage boys to read. I understand that boys need encouraging to read fiction, but if the girl version of things wasn't pink/ lilac with sequins on it, then perhaps we could all feel that the books were open to everyone.

I have a 1980s story book, Fairy Tales. White Book, drawing of woods and spiders and wolves and cottages and fairies on it. It wasn't that hard, was it?

Even The Entertainer has a girl's section and a boy's section, and I had the vague impression that that was meant to be a better toyshop. Was most disappointed to see that all their toy kitchens were pink.

I know this thing comes up a lot on MN, but having a ds and a dd really hammers it home. ANd don't get me started on party decorations; boys are always pirates and girls are, well, princesses. If you must divide along gender lines, there must be more things girls like than princesses.

Did you see the 'Let Toys Be Toys' campaign on FB? I fell into that when I got fed up with no girls in imaginext.

I emailed a complaint to Morrisons about their pink 'Girls toys' and blue 'Boys toys' signs. I guess others must have commented too, because the words 'Girls' and 'Boys' have been removed.

So it is worth telling them

Ah, you've happened upon one of my pet peeves.

Literature is for everyone. Not for boys, not for girls.

I have two boys and sometimes it does seem that they feel that girls live on different planets (planet girl) and breathe different air. This persistent marketing of "boys" stuff and "girls" stuff just perpetuates a divide that should not exist.