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?

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

Include them in what? Are there books on this? Maybe in biographies of serial killers it gets a mention.
Should we ban all books about true crime? I wouldn't miss them.

Ok then. Explain why that isn't true. But why it is true of young girls who feel that way about their sex, rather than their race. Go on.

Explain why it's wrong.

Oh enough with the faux concern about free speech.

Funny how the same open-minded types demand “curating” of content when it suits, but children must have access to anything and everything, and have the agency to make decisions (I wonder what’s the end game there - surely not eroding age of consent?)

Adults can read whatever they want; children cannot.

Did you even bother to read the quote I replied to??? I was commenting on the ridiculous nature of them comparing this book to "what if someone wrote a book about someone who jumped off a building and could fly". You then told me to go read some comic books. So I'm now allowed to point out I have, actually, read a lot of them??? Stop being so faux outraged you can't read posts anymore.

I am making a presumption that you have kids, yet can't understand quoted threads and responses to them.

You are the one saying it's wrong, why don't you explain?

Perhaps we should express our opinions on this book to Waterstones. Keeping our thoughts about it solely to Mumsnet readers won't encourage Waterstones to revise their attitude to stocking it on their bookshelves ...
Memo to self - do this tonight

The illustration appears to be about puberty and reflecting the thoughts of a girl in puberty. Without knowing what the rest of the book says, I can’t really say if it’s age appropriate for the ages 10+ readers.

I can imagine misjudging some classic books I read at that age similarly based on illustrations alone. Tale of Two Cities had a guillotine graphic for example.

Whoooooaaaaa…. That’s… shocking.

Bought from the 'gay book section' (as DD calls it) in our local branch of Waterstones. It's very prominent. I'm totally happy for her to read the gay stuff but this particular book made me wobble a lot. At least it's been another discussion point for us though and I don't think she's likely to be taken in by the trans agenda any time soon. It's been a particular concern of mine, as mother to an autistic female child, because a worryingly high percentage of trans boys/men i.e. females with a male gender identity are also neurodiverse. So she's potentially more at risk than neurotypical girls of being sucked in by it all in the search for her own sense of identity.

What is TRA?

Ah, having looked further it’s a teen book for 14+ readers:

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

And is essentially a graphic novel style autobiography written by a transman.

I don’t really have a problem with it in that context as being for older teens. Most girls will be done or almost done with puberty by age 14 anyway so it’s not going to convert anyone imho,

Thats the author’s lived experience…including being told false facts about puberty blockers. So I have no issue with him publishing what his younger self was sold.

It will be as important for history to have a record of how people determined their trans-identity belief, just like we have books that record how people determine their gender critical beliefs.

Probably can't draw toes.

It's grim beyond belief. Imagine if this was a book about 'the old/disabled/black body' presented in a similar way. Would that make it into a book prize shortlist?! Disgusting.

A 14 year old is a child. Not an "older teen"

As I said before, what's promoted is not harmless. Far from it:

"How little patients understood what they were getting into was illustrated by a call we received at the center in 2020 from a 17-year-old biological female patient who was on testosterone. She said she was bleeding from the vagina. In less than an hour she had soaked through an extra heavy pad, her jeans, and a towel she had wrapped around her waist. The nurse at the center told her to go to the emergency room right away.

We found out later this girl had had intercourse, and because testosterone thins the vaginal tissues, her vaginal canal had ripped open. She had to be sedated and given surgery to repair the damage. She wasn’t the only vaginal laceration case we heard about."

www.thefp.com/p/i-thought-i-was-saving-trans-kids

It is wrong to lie about medicating children. It is wrong to glamorise such medication.

The mask is slipping here guys.

Here is an author that those who oppose trans rights consider to be a woman.

And here we have a bunch of posters claiming that that 'woman' shouldn't be allowed to write about 'her' experiences and feelings as a teenager in a book aimed at teenagers.

And yet in the same breath, they'll claim to support women's voices. All a bit hypocritical, isn't it?

What's the lie?

‘encourage Waterstones to revise their attitude to stocking it on their bookshelves ...’

Go for it. I don’t suppose anyone at Waterstones feels that books should be banned anymore than most people do.

But before you go off on a rant you,
and anyone else planning on jumping on the outraged bandwagon, should read the book first. Rather than just read something out of context in SM and decide that’s enough to be petitioning companies to stop selling something.
personally, I’m sickened by the amount of books in the crime section that contain graphic descriptions of women being abused. So I don’t read or buy them. Much
as I would like to not have the there at all, that’s not how it works.

‘Why socks?’

Good question, which would be answered if anyone actually read the book.

For anyone arguing against censoring, nobody would have to censor this book. Just don't have one of the hugest book sellers in the country actively promote it with a major publisher endorse it. It looks like a bizarre book and that image is crap. It just feels like a lazy effort which could cause damage to some readers. Surely there are better choices.

Just let it wallow in self published anonymity, ignored. Nothing technically has to be censored these days if that's the option taken.

My brother is gay, reading books about heterosexual relationships from an early age did not make him straight, But some appropriate teenage reading definitely helped him when he was struggling with his sexuality

Is this the transactivist’s trope that trans teenagers were all born that way so nothing could influence them to become the way they are?

How odd that there are suddenly so many of trans identifying teenagers, especially young girls, and that none were influenced by each other, what they find on the internet, or what they are told at school. The recent percentage increase has been over 4000% for girls alone.

This is a school girl talking about the transgender ideology in her school:

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-11729001/What-like-pupil-today-trans-hysteria-grips-schools-One-14-year-old-girl-speaks-out.html
www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-11729001/What-like-pupil-today-trans-hysteria-grips-schools-One-14-year-old-girl-speaks-out.html?login#readerCommentsCommand-message-field

Trasnsgenderism can in itself be a form of conversion therapy for young gay people too.

Don't forget the wonderfully pleasant post on the previous page talking about how fat and ugly and old-looking they are, how undateable they are, and how they must live with their mother.

Not surprising given the vitriol many posters were expressing for Sam Smith's appearance earlier.

Scratch a transphobe and you find a really nasty and pathetic bully, emboldened by being in the ascendency.

@ResisterRex
A 14 year old is a child. Not an "older teen"

Well, if you’d read my first post, I was going off what other posters claimed which was that this book was for children in the children’s section, sort of 10/11yr olds.

So then I looked into the book further and it says right on it that is has a 14+ rating and age warning on it. So it would be in the YA section, not a children’s section of a book shop or library. So I did not mean “older teen” as in a 17+ Yr old, but an older teen as in older than a 10/11yr old.

Trasnsgenderism can in itself be a form of conversion therapy for young gay people too.

Im not sure I agree with this. Conversion therapy attempts to change who you are sexually attracted to. So if a natal female decides they are a lesbian woman or a straight transman, it doesn’t change who they are sexually attracted to at all. Similaly, if a natal female is bisexual, whether they are a bisexual woman or a bisexual transman, they are still, you guessed it, bisexual.

So no conversion of sexuality happens by exploring one’s gender identity and perhaps coming out as trans.

Not surprising given the vitriol many posters were expressing for Sam Smith's appearance earlier.
Ugh, that thread was absolutely foul, glad it got blitzed by this morning