I won a small victory today!

[HowGoodIsThat]

Before Christmas I spotted gendered sticker books for sale in our local library - titled "Girls Sticker Book" and "Boys Sticker Book" - so I complained. My emails cited the Let Toys Be Toys campaign.

After several exchanges of patronising emails telling me that " judgement about controversial material is often subjective and in this case we would not withdrawn this material as it does not breach our censorship policy" I managed to point out that I am not asking them to censor their lending stock - just not sell these stupid sticker books.

Today I got an email from the Resourcing Manager to say that they have had a lot of debate and agreed that there is sufficient non-gendered stock available for them to purchase from and that they won't buy these ones again.

Its the first time I have ever complained about something like this - and I will now do it more often.

Hurrah! Onwards!

Great work.

Brilliant

And I love your user name OP. Are you in Leeds?

Yip good job :)

Brilliant!!!! Well done, its little steps that make a lasting change.

Because of your stand there will be a whole group of people who have opened their eyes and actually considered the issue - and they will consider it again when choosing future stock

So you got something banned? Great.

Things that are now banned that didn't used to be

paying women less because they are women even though they are doing the same job.
Having sex with someone without their consent, even if married.
Having sex with children.
Advertising smoking on TV.
Racism.
Slavery.
Bear / bull baiting.

And really the OP didn't have anything banned, just pointed something out to a particular supplier and they have stopped stocking them.

What sashh said!

Yep, those sticker books aren't banned, I'm sure they are for sale elsewhere should you want to purchase one, the same supplier has still got just as many sales, just from non-gendered sticker books. What might happen though is if the supplier finds they sell far more copies of the non-gendered books, they will stop making ones 'for girls' and 'for boys' and just make books 'for children'.

We live in a consumer society, the public's demand for certain products compared to others decides often what's produced. If enough people act like the OP, a lot of the 'for girls' and 'for boys' crap will be stopped, this is a good thing for our daughters (and sons, I hate that boys being interstred in anything deemed feminine are told they are wrong too), and it doesn't hurt or in anyway limit companies - they just have to learn to supply what their customers want.

She doesn't want the book banned or contents removed, simply labelled correctly.

Had the book been labelled 'Car Stickers' or 'Dinosaur Stickers' or 'Princess Stickers' then there would have been no issue.

Yowsers - I went to Pilates and missed all these.

Thanks for the support.

BikeRunSki I am in Leeds

Nothing has been banned - I just asked the Council to review their purchasing practices as I felt that they were being lazy. With a bit more rigour, they can easily stock their pocket money toys without subscribing to such crude stereo-typing. I understand their need to make some money but they are also a public service and as such, ought to have a bit more awareness. I now know that they agree.

The bit of the email that cheered me up was the fact that they had a long debate - if my emails just got a group of people to step back and ask some questions, then surely that is a good thing?

Absolutely!

A lot of the unnecessary gendering is just thoughtlessness, I reckon, so the more people who think about it the better.

Well done!

I'm assuming they get a choice in what activity books they buy in - sadly we (at the library I work in) don't :( we just use a company that send £x worth of assorted activity books. So we'd lose money if we ditched the crap ones.

There is usually some in the selection like you describe in OP. I'm not the only staff member who grumbles about it. I hide them at the back when putting them out :o

Well done.

I'm finding it hard to believe the negative responses - gendered sticker books FFS? Well done OP!

Frugal - But presumably at a council level they have control of awarding the supply contract, at least at renewal? So they could negotiate content, or choose a company who don't supply stereotype products? I totally get that you at a library level don't get a choice (that must be frustrating!), but obviously someone, somewhere in the chain, does?

I guess so. I am only a lowly library assistant though so I don't know about this sort of stuff! Assuming it comes down to money, though, and that the company we use is the most affordable. We get posters from them, which aren't gendered at all - stuff like maps, French words, times tables etc

TBF, most of the books are really decent - graded literacy/numeracy, wipe clean early learning type stuff, some character ones (which I don't like personally but at least they don't actually say "for girls" etc) it's just the odd one that raises an eyebrow.

Maybe I should ask at work, someone might know how high up the decision is made. :)

Were these word-stickers?

If so, I really don't think word-gendering can ever just be thoughtless.

Actually it's pretty hard work gendering objects as well.

At the production level, someone's had to sit down and think about what to include for each book. That's a whole world away from just plonking different colours on otherwise identical toothbrushes.

Parsing

They were sticker books - with picture stickers for sticking onto picture pages. Like the Usborne ones.

One was "Girls Sticker Book" with a pink cover and the stickers were all of flowers and butterflies and fairies. The other was "Boys Sticker Book" and was blue and the stickers were of cars and dinosaurs.

One could have been called "Fairy Sticker Book" and the other "Cars & Dinosaurs Sticker Book" and I would have been happy. (ish). The pink/blue covers would have still annoyed me.

I forever hear people say if you don't like something show it by not buying it, don't try and ban it.

The OP didn't get it banned, she got one library to think about what they are doing and exercise their right to not buy..

I find it stunning how many people don't understand what censorship actually means.

Well done OP, I don't think you would have received a biscuit if you had got a book of stickers "for Black kids" removed from your local library.

Its not really so much about not wanting these items as that we do want themed products that children with different interests can enjoy regardless of gender. Its a positive thing - they're making the non-gendered choices available instead.

LOL at getting something banned.

Are you a tabloid journalist Bowlersarm?

Well done Howgoodisthat.