to be annoyed by 'Little' Miss

[bumpertobumper]

my sons are currently very keen on Mr Men books for bedtime stories. It really annoys me that the female characters are 'little... '. Why can't she just be Miss naughty or Miss Sunshine etc.
I feel it's part of the insidious undermining and belittling (literally!) of women.
So I leave out the little when reading, but DP doesn't and DS1 is in yr1 so can see for himself the girls are all little.

Semantics, samandi.

Not really worthy of a completely false chin scratching "hmmm, interesting" comment.

I used men because I'd used women in the same sentence. Had I used female, I'd have used male also.

If you have enough time on your hands to comment then you have the same amount of time as the OP did to worry about the issue in the first place. It's not lack of time that is your problem, it's inability or reluctance to comprehend.

I don't know how strongly I can object to the Little Miss books - and I love The Tiger Who Came To Tea, partly because in my head Mummy has just gone 'fuck it', eaten all the cake and drunk daddy's beer herself and rather than objecting, he cheerily takes them all out for a nice dinner because he appreciates how hard his wife works and maybe it was her day off anyway and tomorrow she will go into work being a captain of industry whilst he looks after Sophie.

So yes, I have FAR too much time on my hands.

My toddler loves the Mr Men/Little Miss books and I've never thought of them as especially damaging but there is an inescapable sexism seeping through somewhere because particularly since starting pre-school he is frequently coming out with 'such and such is for girls', 'girls like fairies, boys like superheroes' etc and when I've been into his nursery for stay and play sessions, the boys do play much more active and exciting games whilst the girls do a lot of mundane domestic type playing. There is too much gender segregation in toys and I guess that the smaller messages do stack up to a cumulative effect. So on balance, I suppose the OP is NBU but I think there are much worse culprits (Lego Friends, I am giving you a cold, hard stare).

And to the pp who was scathing about Hargreaves Jr writing the books for the money - erm, isn't that sort of the point of most jobs?

I don't see how the word "little" is derogatory. I am little and I think it is a good thing.

Definitely got nowt better to do have ya love.

It's a diminutive. That's it's derogarory.

YANBU, OP. My parents, who are quite definitely not leftie pinko censoring commies, wouldn't buy them in the 1980s for this reason.

monica - the idea (quite possibly correct) that "Mr" is used for males (not men) of all ages is not semantics. I think it's interesting that people are so quick to confer adult male titles on little boys, while adult women continue to be given child titles. This says a lot about the way societies view males and females.

It's very noticeable in some Asian societies, where little boys have a higher status than adult women. They're taught from birth to view themselves as men, whereas women are taught to remain in a state of perpetual childhood.

YADNBU and the usual you're-over-thinking-it brigade are out in force.

No, you lot terminally under-think, and that's the problem.

Samandi, did you read the part where I said that I used 'men' because I had used 'women' in the first part or the sentence, had I used 'female' I would have used 'male'?

Semantics.

I will continue to be a good female role model to my boys as they grow up, as I have been so far. As I said - I prefer practical positive influence rather than getting het up over little miss sunshine vs ms sunshine / little master small vs mr small.

Aaaaah this is why I love mumsnet.

The Little Miss books have always left me feeling uncomfortable because of the negative names such as Bossy, Stubborn and Contrary as well as the fact they are "Little Miss" and not "Ms" which is surely the equivalent to ""Mr" and without the unnecessary "Little."

I think I would rather not buy them for my DD but if she was to want them I would be sure to only get her the ones with the more positive sounding names such as "Splendid," "Lucky" and "Wise."

Maybe people feel it's a gripe over nothing because they grew up reading the Mr Men books and have no doubt read them to their children. Sometimes criticism makes people feel their parenting and own upbringing have been brought into question.

Completely agree with whereisshe.

By the way, my sister just bought 'Rosie Revere, Engineer' for my three year old daughter. Worth a look for anyone who is keen to balance out the huge amount of appearance-focused, glittery pink rubbish girls are bombarded with from all angles.

Don't they all have pretty negative names, apart from Mr Happy? Because they are supposed to be funny - the stories are exploring the characters' foibles and flaws. They would be even more pretty dull if they were all positive, strong role models.

*Samandi, did you read the part where I said that I used 'men' because I had used 'women' in the first part or the sentence, had I used 'female' I would have used 'male'?

Semantics.*

Yes I did. Did you read the part where I said it was interesting that "Mr" is used for males of all ages while women are given child titles, and that this is reflective of society's view of women and isn't just "semantics"?

And I don't particularly understand why you felt the need to use men just because you'd used women.

Quite, Jonathan.