I can't find the part where you have to stir it with your penis.

[Decanter]

And I've read the whole book

Is this a stupid fucking title for a book, or AIBU?

Me too JamieVardiesParty. God that was funny.

I got all excited when I read the title and thought it was a reincarnation of the penis beaker thread 😂 I would have been disappointed had that photo of the book not been there. Wtf!

Andrew

2010, or at least that's when the edition being sold at Amazon.com was published.

I think the "for boys" bit might be aimed at older generation buyers, who otherwise wouldn't consider something like a cookbook for a young male relative. And may act as a softener for any boy who get it, who have grown up in an environment where they have absorbed a message of "cooking is for girls". The title might be aimed at lowering resistance to learning a skill.

Lowering resistance is why I picked Jamie's MoF for DS's 16 birthday a few weeks ago. There is minced beef Wellington prep and chicken something or other currently on the go in the kitchen. He is having a whale of a time.

Jamie being a bloke has helped lessen any worries he had that his wanting to learn to cook was a bit "girlie". He's young enough to care what other people think, and a tiny rural Italian backwater is not always the most Gender Enlightened place to grow up in. So I can see why a gendered title might be perceived as helping to break down barriers rather than being written with the intent of keeping them propped up.

Do boys still think cooking is a bit 'girlie'? Don't they do cooking at school.
All my DCs' male friends are good cooks and youngest DD's DP cooks more than she does.

I used to bake with my now 36 year old DS when he was quite small and he saw it as nothing unusual.

He also used to frequently cook rather complicated dinners for girlfriends when he was about 17/18 I remember. Used to impress them no end. Not sure why he would have needed a special 'man' cookery book though.

Maybe its the slightly phallic cucumber on the front that makes it for boys?

I don't think either of my boys consider cooking to be just for girls, even though all the cooking in our house is done by me, they just think DH is not a good cook (to be fair DH is exceptionally good at making money and not much good at much else!) I wouldn't buy either for girls or boys and I think if people stop buying gender specific things it will die out.

Having said that, I still think girls will play with dolls more and boys will play with trains more.

Bleurgh.

The girls one features recipes for "tiny pizzas".

Do the boys get regular-sized pizzas?

Whether there is any valid reason or not to produce gendered cookbooks for kids, it is entirely objectionable that yet again the 'girl' product appears to be inferior, less practical, than the 'boy' one.

DD who is 8 genuinely thought it was totally ridiculous and absurd. "What makes it for a boy!?" she kept asking. I'm pleased that she has no notion that cooking should exclude any particular gender, but surely gendering something like a cookbook only serves to teach her that some people DO think it's female-oriented. So in that respect it's doing the very thing it's trying not to.

Just showed my boys the picture of girl's book and asked if they had any objection and they genuinely didn't care!
Maybe the kids that overthink this gender related stuff do so because their parents overthink it. If you don't like gendered stuff don't buy it- simple!

The thing is though that boys and girls are different surely? I'll bet that if you asked 100 boys and 100 girls what they'd like to cook most you'd get different winners from each side. I'm a guy that likes to bake cupcakes and all sorts of other nice goodies. I also know quite a few guys who like to cook, none who bake cupcakes. All the cupcake bakers I know are femail (and produce inferior cupcakes if I may say so). So just in that example there are clear gender preferences. Anything that encourages boys to get cooking from a young age has got to be a good thing in my opinion.

Thats speculation on your part, toga, doesn't chime with my experience of what kids like to cook and eat.

Thats speculation on your part

Yes, absolutely. I fully accept that. Although I suspect that you'll find fewer boys than girls wanting to bake glittery cupcakes decorated with butterflies.

well the reason that fewer boys want to bake glittery cupcakes is because we push gender 'norms' onto kids from very very early on.

My nan taught all her boys to cook my dad taught me to cook too (I'm female by the way) he gave up with my mum and sister they could burn fresh air

It seems to be a recent trend of boys not cooking all the ones I grew up around could cook and actually my son cooked more at a younger age than my daughter

Do boys still think cooking is a bit 'girlie'? Don't they do cooking at school

Usborne doesn't publish for the UK alone. I haven't often come across references to learning to cook as part of the typical curriculum in America for example. Certainly where I am the kids rarely get to see the inside of a kitchen at school until they go to high school. And then only if they choose a vocation specific technical school where those skills are relevant.

Hanging out on US-centric boards since DS was tiny, and again going by my experience here in a European country... yes. There are parts of the world where cooking is still seen as girlie.

When ds was 5 and started going to friends houses for tea, he was excited to tell me that he'd noticed 'some mummys do cook!'.

No worries about gender stereotyping
In our house .

It's clearly just being marketed at boys.

If it gets boys cooking does it matter?

The girls version with the pink and cupcakes is more ridiculous.