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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

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Original poster

went to pick up my BOOKSTART toddler kit for DD1 today and they asked if it is boy or girl as canvas colours and books are different for boys and girls...

23 replies

sanam2010 · 27/04/2011 21:58

WTF???. what the subject says really...so even 2 year olds have to be colour coded to make sure they know the difference? i was shocked. what is wrong with this country. shouldn't the government make sure these programs are run in a gender neutral way?

OP posts:
SybilBeddows · 27/04/2011 22:00

noooooo!

littleducks · 27/04/2011 22:02

That is not good imo.

When I worked in the library we had a colour range of the school book bag style ones which included a pale pink which we tended to give to the girls but the books were all the same.

The baby bags were plain canvas with a picture on

GothAnneGeddes · 27/04/2011 22:03

Another nooooo here. Whatever happened to primary colours? Why does gendering have to start so bloody early?

StewieGriffinsMom · 27/04/2011 22:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

heather1980 · 27/04/2011 22:03

i've had a couple of these, dd got a red one and ds a green one, the only difference was the toothbrush, blue for ds and pink for dd. the books inside were gender neutral.

heather1980 · 27/04/2011 22:04

oh and ds just got his 3 weeks ago.

pozzled · 27/04/2011 22:05

How ridiculous.

Original poster
sanam2010 · 27/04/2011 22:05

well as it turned out she came back with a yellow canvas, which was fine, but maybe she avoided the pink one after seeing my shocked face. DD is 6 months old so when she asked boy or girl I really asked "why does it matter?" and she explained, but maybe after seeing the shock in my face she went for the neutral yellow canvas. it's just mad. why can't they all have the same colour, they're so young they won't even notice.

OP posts:
FreudianSlipOnACrown · 27/04/2011 22:05

Wtf even the books are different? Boys getting trucks and dinosaurs, girls getting princesses and kittens, or something like that? I can understand (reluctantly) the bag colour being different due to parental demand - that's a whole other rant though - but the books? The BOOKS?!?

Fucks sake :( Angry

Goblinchild · 27/04/2011 22:10

But is it the books that are sex-differentiated or the bags alone?
If the organisers are trying to get books to as many as possible, then perhaps they are thinking that pandering to the obsessions of some mothers to boy colours and girl colours is worth it if they take the books.

PiaThreeTimes · 27/04/2011 22:18

That's unbelievable! It doesn't state on the BookStart website that the titles vary depending on the sex of the child.

Sorry if this sounds patronising, but are you sure??!

befuzzled · 27/04/2011 22:24

How fucking ridiculous if true. Reminds me of my oft-ranted-on-here diatribe about the pink world globe in early learning centre with pink seas and mermaids and unicorns instead of whales and dolphins.

PiaThreeTimes · 27/04/2011 22:29

Oh, I know befuzzled. My FIL bought his grandson the pink globe and was told to take it back and get the boys' one. Ugh.

BikeRunSki · 27/04/2011 22:29

How mad.

We had the choice of what Littleducks described. Books we got pretty geneder neutral - Dear Zoo, Is This My Nose?, Look There's a Baby, Ten Little Fingers, Colour Me Happy...

FreudianSlipOnACrown · 27/04/2011 22:32

Ok I am going mad. I swear I read that the books were different Blush

In my defence I am ever so sleepy...

FreudianSlipOnACrown · 27/04/2011 22:35

Oh no wait there it is in the title. Phew, I'm not going quite so mad then.

But now I'm annoyed all over again.

What books did your DD get?

Merrylegs · 27/04/2011 22:39

Really? Were they really Bookstart books? Because they are all the same at each stage.

nailak · 27/04/2011 22:48

i didnt et this? is this a new thin? or just where you are?

PiaThreeTimes · 27/04/2011 23:08

Take a look here, nailak: www.bookstart.org.uk/

I'm going to call them tomorrow to ask about the varying titles for girls and boys. I'm very annoyed about this! I'll let you know what they say...

Pancakeflipper · 27/04/2011 23:19

Think the staff who hand them out are making this up. Our library just let's you pick whatever they have in stock as does our nursery.

Original poster
sanam2010 · 28/04/2011 16:40

well I do hope you're right and it was just the librarian talking nonsense. in that case it would only be the canvas colours, which is bad enough, but in the end open to the librarian or parent to choose whichever they like.

Looking at the books i got for DD, they might be neutral, one of the is about a girl and her cat ("my cat likes to sleep"), the other one is a very lovely book called "ten little fingers and ten little toes".

so hopefully the librarian just assumed the contents are different because the canvases look different, or she made it up after I asked her why it mattered if DC was a boy or girl. I truly hope so because for a while after coming out of the library I was really angry.

OP posts:
FreudianSlipOnACrown · 28/04/2011 17:14

Well, I think (and hope!) the librarian was talking out of her arse rubbish just to give a reason for asking the sex of your baby.

Mum is a librarian and has never mentioned that there are different books.

10 little fingers is a gorgeous book isn't it :)

PiaThreeTimes · 28/04/2011 18:57

The librarian today told me that it's not true. She looked at me as though I was totally thick for asking the question! Blush

Phew though! :)

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