Just out of parents night - 11 years new novel is about a boy who wants to be a girl

[Workingmomof2]

And the teacher was talking about it as a great book. I’m seriously not happy. Would I be unreasonable to raise this with the school. Why is this kind of idea even introduced to our children so young. No wonder they are all so confused.

But coming to preconceived notions about the content of a thread 🧐 sounds it

It’s becoming like America now with parents wanting to ban books all over the place. Or like the bad old Clause 28 days. This is fiction- not an instruction manual.

Good Lord. That's a horrendous message to be sending to kids, and the exact antithesis of the way I'm trying to raise my son.

Society and schools don't exactly help parents - who are not bringing up our kids in a vacuum - instill different values to the toxic masculine stereotypes that pervade our world. I don't want my son learning that boys' wants necessarily trump girls' needs. That kind of thinking leads to the kinds of situation so often posted about on 'Relationships' - some poor woman posting about a useless or abusive husband whose mother thinks he can do no wrong.

My child is in Y6 in primary school. Already he's coming home and talking about these things, and I'm having to unpick some of the damage they're indoctrinating him with (that's not to say I disapprove of all of it). They've already taught them some terrible inaccuracies about the Equality Act which I've talked through with him and explained why they're wrong - I'm still sitting on whether it's worth firing off an email in objection or a whether it's a pure waste of energy. Critical thinking is a lesson I'm trying to instill in him early - given most students who arrive at university these days are far from well-versed in it. He knows it's okay to question what you hear and read (ie some of Enid Blyton's views are not at all great in today's context, and he understands exactly why).

I'm an educator. Unpicking the damage done by school, as opposed to trying to support my child's learning, is a disappointment but not unexpected. I usually have to spend the first year with new undergraduates teaching them to 'unlearn' everything they know about the discipline from A' Level.

Same shit, different day ...

Bit of an extreme jump there. The OP doesn’t want it banned, she just doesn’t want it read as a class book. Leave aside the trans aspect. The moral arc of the story resolves with a girl giving her part up in a play - the lead part she auditioned and got - to a boy because he feels like he should be the lead. What about that do you think is a positive story for girls or boys?

Okay, I’m 7 pages in. Its exactly as I expected and pretty much exactly the same as every other thread on mumsnet that is on this topic.

So now you know, what will you do with that information?

This shit should be nowhere near children. Just pathetic sexist stereotyping which makes girls and boys think that if they don’t conform they must be the other sex. Then we have the creepy adults encouraging this and encouraging children to remain in prepubescent bodies, nothing pervy about that all of course.

And there’s the lovely men desperately trying to access female only spaces and if women and girls don’t say yes, they are bigots. It can all fuck off together with anyone supporting this bollocks.

@BetterArf Being as none of it is new information, that I’m very well read on both sides of the issue and have taken my time to ensure i’m comfortable in my opinion, fuck all.

Great, glad we’ve cleared that up! @FontSnob

Well since most mumsn

Since most mumsnetters haven't developed it yet I'm not surprised they don't think 11 year olds can do it.

It's stunning and brave. Not a mental illness we're normalising and pushing onto children at ALL. Stunning. And. Brave.

We all survived reading The Famous Five. An ongoing theme of every one of the books was how George wanted to be a boy. I don't recall anyone's mind being warped by that!

Yes, I was thinking that the other day. Funnily enough, the book the OP is talking about is called George (although it later changed its name to Melissa). I don't have a problem with it, any more than I have a problem with George in the Famous Five.

the book isn’t just about George wanting to play a female role. My son said I’m not sure if it’s a boy or a girl yet.. we don’t know but they do want surgery to change to a girl so I have a feeling it’s a boy. How confusing!!!! Surgery to change to a girl. Why?!

🤣🤣🤣

Oh ffs. That was about gender stereotypes. Which we have been breaking down till the trans brigade said if you didn’t conform you’re the opposite sex.

It’s telling that the arguments so far have mostly been “it’s like the bad old days,” “you’re transphobic” or “I’m not reading it because I know how these threads go”.

If there were genuine arguments to show that gender identity exists, that children can have some kind of “transness” that means they have a thing called gender identity that is at odds with their sex, and that believing you are the opposite sex is normal, then the arguments would be made, they would be compelling and people would be persuaded.

Even if they could demonstrate medical consensus, it could be persuasive, but there is none, as the Cass review and many other sources demonstrate.

Instead, the flow of traffic is generally in the opposite direction. And that is because gender identity theory is just that: a theory invented to explain a feeling created by very young children becoming dissociated or alienated from their bodies, likely frequently due to abuse (sexual, physical or verbal) during the time when they were learning about what sex they are and where they and their likes and dislikes fit into the world according to their parents’ beliefs and expectations around behavioural expectations around sex.

I wouldn't have been happy if this book had been the 'chosen book' to study in DDs primary school.

I'm ok with children being told in an age appropriate way about gay and trans people but not ok with a book about a trans boy being pushed front and centre of the curriculum. Especially as the overall message is #bekind. Young people don't have the skills to question trans ideology and have no idea what's been going on.

My DD is in secondary school and the number of trans/non binary children is totally out of proportion with the number of
children in the school. She was originally being sucked into the trans ideology but now we've had long conversations about the subject she is looking at things more objectively not just with the #bekind blanket.

The endless trans ideology being pushed at our children is horrendous. As an adult I'm appalled at the invasion of women's spaces, sports and sex-based awards by trans women. Pushing the trans message on people at such a young age when they won't /can't question it is appalling.

Look at how JK Rowling is being treated - she's in the press again today. If someone in her position is being torn to shreds for standing up for women, how on earth do you expect our children to dare question what they're being told?

‘there are so many trans people and it’s now no wonder,’

books aren’t turning children trans, or gay.
Are you sure this is happening OP? The title of the book changed a while back, it’s not George anymore, that book is 8/9 years old now.

You sure about that? This is one of the books that is currently being discussed and made available in schools. Warning NSFW (but apparently just fine for schools). theiowastandard.com/shocking-images-from-book-gender-queer-which-is-stocked-in-school-libraries-across-iowa/

It is definitely happening.

You do understand that the book implies that girls should be kind, subdue their ambitions and dreams , that being a girl means you are soft, emotional, prone to crying, like make up, girly things, having pretty clothes , nails and coidffed hair. So watch out, your dd might pick up some ideas that might not be woke enough for you.

Wow. Just wow. That book is absolutely child grooming. That was so disturbing I couldn't finish reading the whole thing!

Me neither. That’s completely inappropriate. What kind of adult would create this for a child to read

FFS. 😡