To think that this book should not be sold to young girls?

[WandaWomblesaurus]

twitter.com/Waterstones/status/1623584986740953091?s=20&t=WU0D0fzc6ClGJC5R-gJnuw

Waterstones tweeted celebrating a book that is about transing girls. Here is one of the illustrations from the book.

AIBU to think that this is directly promoting self harm to young vulnerable girls?

I believe that trans people exist and have the right to equal and compassionate treatment. I also think young people who hate their bodies exist in much higher numbers and they need to be considered too.
I object to the labelling of normal hips and breasts as disgusting in an illustration that looks like it is aimed at young children. The implication that hating your pubescent body as a girl means you might be a boy is dangerous. Most of us hated our bodies.
Trans and gender issues need to be treated carefully and not over simplified.

Or.. a superhero. Imagine if they sold books like that

Shall we also include books about torturing & killing small animals?

After all, some children do that & feel good about it, so what about representing their feelings? (I do NOT support doing any such thing).

What about sexually assaulting young girls when still in the top years of primary school?

It happens a lot & some boys seem to feel they are entitled to do it, so shall we publish books illustrating all the bits of a girl that can be groped & poked at & explain the feelings boys can get from sexual assault?

Just because someone does or thinks something, doesn't mean you expose children to it.

Nice false equivalency.
It’s not the ‘gotcha’ that you think it is.

Read some actual comic books or Y6 biology, as you seem to be lacking on both topics.

Were the gay characters cutting off body parts though?

Oh my goodness. That's sickening. How are these things published!!

I suggest that those who don't see any problem with this book look up the stories of female detransitioners online - young women who went down the route of mastectomies and puberty blockers because 'affirming' their discomfort about their bodies was encouraged by teachers/doctors/trans activists and who will now live a life of pain, possible infertility and regret. Young girls need to be taught that their bodies are amazing as they are, not that their discomfort due to puberty and the misogynistic world that we live in means they have to cut off parts of their bodies and take drugs which have horrific side-effects. I sometimes feel like I'm living in a dystopian horror and can't believe that people think this is normal in any shape or form.

"There's gold at the end of this rainbow! We're delighted to announce our magnificent shortlist of brilliant authors and illustrators for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2023!"

…including a delightful, brilliant and inspiring tale for girls about how empowering mutilation and sterilisation can be! Woah!

Shame on whatever woman-hating arse promoted this at Waterstones HQ. That’s me done with them.

Lewis transitioned at 20 but wishes it was earlier.

www.stonewall.org.uk/people/lewis-hancox

As well as making bad books urging children to go on irreversible pathways to lifelong drug use, infertility and vaginal atrophy, Lewis makes short 'comedy' films called British Mums where Lewis wears a wig and a dressing gown and takes the piss out of women bizarrely.

The gay characters were actually fine with sleeping with the opposite sex as long as they said they definitely were the same sex, or at least felt like it some of the time.

@Happylittlechicken i agree we do need to promote body positivity - but there’s promoting it and acknowledging the tsunami of negativity that we’re swimming against. Even though there are arguably more body shapes and images out there now in the media we’d be kiddo g ourselves if we couldn’t see how it’s still slanted towards a very set and narrow definition of beautiful.

particularly if a young person feels lonely and isolated in their negative feelings about their body, would this book be like a light in the dark that the character felt the same? I’d want to read the book in full to see how the character develops and (hopefully) becomes more body confident.

Why? Does a Y6 biology class teach that puberty blockers are reversible?

I object to the labelling of normal hips and breasts as disgusting in an illustration that looks like it is aimed at young children

The book is a graphic novel aimed at 14-18 year olds. I don't think the author is saying hips and breasts are disgusting, but that they found their own hips and breasts problematic.

Maybe the book will help girls who are questioning who they are decide they are not trans just as much as help them decide they are? None of us can tell without having read the whole thing.

The end of the book is the character mutilated themselves and puts themselves on irreversible drugs to achieve their goal. The book states puberty blockers are reversible. This is not true. Would you give this book to an anorexic girl in your family? If not, why not?

OP - YANBU. I felt this way about my body - still do, often, in my 40s, after decades of eating disorders and self-harm and other types of abuse.

Even as a middle-aged woman and mother I find this very upsetting and it encourages feelings of revulsion and self-hatred.

I would not want my daughter, currently entering her teens, to be anywhere near a book like this. Anyone who thinks this is OK either has an agenda, or is completely ignorant about how vulnerable and easily influenced/shaped young girls are by the messaging around them.

well done Waterstones! I think it is a great , accessible books for anyone experiencing body dismorphorphia, or is just curious about the condition and its emotional and practical impliocations. Some of the comments on here are very ignorant! As another person said, 50 years ago tehy would have been saying the same things about gay people

It needs to be read in the context that women are generally oppressed and are subjected to more scrutiny and less opportunity than men. Can you imagine a book with oppressed ethnic minorities with arrows pointing at racial features and skin tones calling these disgusting!?

Once we have genuine equality for men and women and only once we end violence against women (by characters like Andrew Tate) can we publish and promote literature like this without it being harmful.

yanbu what is the booked called? I can't open the link.

Fucking hell?! Who's the publisher Stonewall??

www.amazon.co.uk/Welcome-St-Hell-misadventure-remarkable/dp/0702313904

I genuinely do not understand how we've ended up in a world where a book that normalises girls thinking their bodies are disgusting, and that they should go onto strong drugs and then to surgery to correct them, is put on a prize winning shortlist, and that JK Rowling is considered a bitch for opening a refuge for biologcal women seeking sanctuary from abuse at the hands of men.

The material shared here from this book is genuinely disturbing.

Anyone who would prefer to expose their children to healthier attittudes should buy 'My body is me!' by Rachel Rooney.

No, but the poster I was replying to seemed confused about basic biology and comic books fiction.

It most definitely is reflecting someone's trans experience. I'd say it's a 'political' comment. Not sure about shoehorned though