to be annoyed with this sexist reading advice sent home from school?

[morningpaper]

"Until the day your daughter expresses an interest in rocket science or your son gets into showjumping, you won?t go far wrong if you try them out with these kinds of books?

Boys...

• Enjoy books about their interests - especially dinosaur ones!
• Like books that are a bit scary, funny or have silly jokes.
• Often have a shorter attention span, so books you can dip in and out of may work better for them. Try comic strip books and non fiction.
• Prefer big, bold, colourful illustrations or things that can be moved or touched.
• Like reading to have a purpose, for example books that show you how to make things or tell you about things.

Girls...

• Enjoy series of books about the same characters.
• Like to listen to talking books and watch DVDs of favourite books.
• Enjoy a bit of fantasy, magic and make believe ? princesses, castles and so on.
• Like sparkle and glitter on the pages.
• Enjoy books that have props with them ? dolls, soft toys, dressing-up clothes."

Fab news! Will try to get round to emailing too...

Only just seen this thread but I'm so pleased to hear they are going to change it.

What a ridiculous comment about "until the day your daughter expresses an interest in rocket science...". It reminds me of my granny's conviction that there was no point in talking to her own babies until they could speak back themselves!

Good result. And unusual too. Proof is in the pudding though...

Well done-nice to know that you can make a difference.

well done morningpaper (and hatwoman and everyone else who complained)!

One of the crappest pieces of copy I have ever read. And trying to blame it on mums is just pathetic. The Michael Martin defence.

As for all these people who say 'but boys just DO like blue and dinosaurs' children don't live in a vacuum. The learn, pretty early on, what society expects of them. Ever since ds started school he's been talking about blue being a boy's colour, and saying 'that toy's too girl-ish'. Process starts even earlier.

In fact, blue used to be seen as a girl's colour and pink was for boys - it's only marketing that makes us think different today. Either way round it's not an innate preference, it's what society tells children.

I wondered if this thread was referring to that waste of paper (I received three copies to recycle). Well done MP!

Edam, yes, school's what knocked DS1's pink preference out of him. He was whispering to DS2 the other day that pink was for girls and that DS2 ought to want blue things.

DS2 ignored him entirely. And asked for the pink bowl at preschool for his cereal

I feel alot of this is about money making, parents have to buy more, as different books suit girls and boys. What a load of rubbish

oh good MP has a response

but what a bunch of eegits.

If girls don't like rocket science and boys don't like culture, then maybe they should rad some books about it, eh?

Ah no I forgot, because WE MUST GET THEM TO READ AT ALL COSTS. The sooner the better. And anything that in any way promotes reading , no matter how commercial, cynical, sexist/racist/heterosexist (etc) or downright bloody TACKY is a GOOD AND MARVELLOUS thing that is beyond criticism.

fgs

oh yes edam I have had people suggest to me that boys and girls are genetically programmed to like blue/pink

yes, that is likely

Some idiot researchers got their stupid study in the news last year 'proving' there was an innate preference for blue/pink. Clearly hadn't bothered to do the most basic checks before starting that hare running or they'd have realised it used to be the other way round...

Oh I remember that 'piece' of sexist research. Didn't it conclude that women had a genetic preference for pink as they would have been the hunter/gatherers collecting berries.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't many edible berries in this country actually blue?

DTDs school 2 posters up in the library the theme of which is to get more boys into books...fairpoint...but where are the posters to encourage teh girls to "keep up the good reading" so that neither the boys nor girls feel alienated by either being told that they need to read more or that there reading is good enough they can sit back and coast....

Then my school seems to have invested in whole series of books which say "boys into books" on teh front cover. I know from looking at the library shelves that it is much easier to find a book that will appeal to most girls than to most boys....but to put a big tag on a book suggesting that this should only be read by boys I think has to be done carefully or it will only drive the segregation further. I am sure that a picture of a dinosaur will (apparently) be enough for a boy to want to read it.

Oh and has anyone thought that maybe girls like books with glitter and fantasy and series with the same character because that is what is pushed at them - and that boys like what they like because that is what is available.

What would happen if you had a fantasy series with some "masculine" wizards and dragons as the central characters instead of pricess that go to balls...would boys read them if they were available?

Oh....somebody bump this thread on Tues so we can see what they have changed the web-site too....

You are very possibly right, annoyingdevil. Clearly evolution has not done an awful lot for the intellect of those researchers...

DNA, there is lots of lots of adult (just) fantasy like that! Although fantasy is apparently predominantly bought by women. So the male characters are there for swooning about, I guess. There is lots of dragon type fantasy for older children too, which as the main characters still have a tendency to be male, is I guess read by boys.

oh lord help us. Just because a bunch of mums ask for gender tips doesn't mean you pander to them without checking the accuracy of what you are writing. Without referring to any evidence for your opinion.

Like a lot of you, this doesn't fit with either of my daughters. My five year old is learning to read at the moment and is obsessed by dinosaurs and dragons. Or is our sample of opinions biased by the fact that people more interested in gender issues and frustrated by steryotyping will be more likely to have been attracted by this thread?

Blind this thread is from 2008.

BTW leapfrog have much better advice now, no gender differentiation

I have a boy who is capable of reading a book in one day-such as an Anthony Horowitz, Chris Ryan etc. He would be afar more avid reader than his sisters. I remember encouraging his reading years back on summer holidays. Agree love of reading basically comes from home.

My eldest DD used to make up stories about 'Cinderapollo' a fearless fairy astronaut who would zoom around the universe helping others in need.So should I have encouraged the fairy or astronaut part? What a pile of sexist shit that 'newsletter'was!

When today's little readers grow up and some become writers/authors, I wonder what they will be writing about and how gender differentiated their subject matter will be.

YANBU!

Fucking ridiculous.

Oooooops didn't read the date