"Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls" book

[SirVixofVixHall]

A friend has just bought this for my daughter's 10th birthday....She was happily reading the "stories of 100 heroic women". Then she says "Mama there is a BOY in here". There is a boy in there. A boy who has done nothing heroic in his short life, but "love dresses, the color pink, and shiney shoes".Oh and his parents managed to convince a judge that he should use the "bathroom of his choice" which was the girls.
Then his parents threw a party. Probably involving lots of pink and sparkle. And this is supposed to inspire young girls, as much as Jane Austen, Rosa Parks, Florence Nightingale and Helen Keller, who are some of the other "100 heroic women".
Dd is outraged and I am furious. This is gaslighting girls, and a prime example of the patriarchy in action- to get in this list as a woman you could write a novel that has lasted for 200 years, you could stand up to racists, you could be a suffragette. To get in as a male? Oh just like pink and insist on using the girls loos.

Bah, I have bought this book for my DDs and have enjoyed reading them some of the stories. I hadn't realized that this was in there. I now feel very cross and let down.

Not sure what to do- stick the page down so it can't be read, stick something else over it or leave it there and use it as a talking point.

This, right here, is why I get angry when people say 'Stop moaning about transwomen, they're not harming anyone.' It absolutely is harmful to present this child as an equivalent to these famous women.

The message is so horrible- that no matter how brilliant a girl is, a boy can just take over her space and he is somehow just as good, for doing nothing at all.

So basically it's called Goodnight Stories but am I right that each of the other (99?) stories in there is about an influential woman? So, 99 amazing heroines and 1 boy, as opposed to a bunch of stories about various 'rebellious' happenings, one of which is this boy liking sparkles?

Had a brief flick through the women in science book and I really like it, I think it will be just right for DD. A few simple paragraphs on each woman, but with little facts and quotes scattered around too. Good list of names I think although I didn't have time for a proper look.

Agree, this inclusion marrs an otherwise admirable book. There are a few other books about at the moment with a similar premise. I have picked up all of the following, and while I've not read them all cover to cover yet I have enjoyed what I've read so far.

Bad Girls Throughout History by Ann Shen - 100 revolutionary women. This is similar to Goodnight Stories in style.

Women in Science by Rachel Ignotofsky - again similar presentation, focussing on women in science, both eminent and overlooked.

Dead Feminists by Chandler O'Leary and Jessica Spring - aimed for older children/adults. Little bit more text and graphics.

Rejected Princesses by Jason Porath - short biographies of historical women illustrates in the Disney style, presenting 'complex, real-life heroines' in place of the 'sparkly, doe-eyed damsels who dominate children's minds everywhere.'

Lmfao! Transactivism in a hilarious nutshell. Glad your dd is getting wise to it at an early age. Along with my own dd she'll hopefully be one of the girls who starts highschool after peak trans, so hopefully things will be getting slightly less ridiculous by then.

How depressing.
I suppose you could rename the book.
"I Got 99 Heroines but that Bitch is a Male"

Bran thank you so much for those recommendations. My mum is happy to get the Bad Girls one instead for DD's birthday which I know will be very well received! The others that I don't have are on my wishlist for the future. :)