John Boyne's new book 'My brother's name is Jessica'.

[Helmetbymidnight]

John Boyne (author of boy in the striped pajamas) is bringing out a book called My brother's name is Jessica, and this is simply not acceptable, apparently.

He's written an article here:

www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/john-boyne-why-i-support-trans-rights-but-reject-the-word-cis-1.3843005?fbclid=IwAR0WqWp2a3dIu-4pxDKS7k9XQO5lZR4PCKh_AFhAeTRoZMm0TmuiCBvoUjQ

Doc and co are going nuts at him. Not as nuts as they would if it was written by a straight woman, I imagine, but even so.

It's about time the world of books got stuck into this debate. They've been very slow on this one.

@cuirderussie Can you imagine any doctor or midwife looking at a newborn and announcing that s/he can't quite manage to work out the sex of the child?

When you throw aside the basics of biology and science when it comes to sex, what's next? I find myself getting more and more worried about where we're going when I see how this nonsensical claptrap has garnered acceptance.

The Spectator: The author John Boyne is wrong to pander to trans activists

blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/04/the-author-john-boyne-was-wrong-to-pander-to-trans-activists/amp/

Terrific article from the Speccie's Kim Thomas concluding:

This is no longer just a dispute between feminists and trans activists about a conflict of rights. It is a full-scale assault on free speech. There seems to be no middle way – trans activists will continue with their abuse until all dissent has been silenced. Instead of pandering to their demands, Boyne should do the truly courageous thing and join men like Linehan and Kirkup in speaking out against a vicious campaign of harassment and intimidation.

And you know what? Despite Boyne’s belief that women don’t need men to fight our battles, most of us are very grateful for the handful of men who have had the guts to offer their support.

I think Boyne's line about women not needing men to fight their battles is not a million miles away from men who make a point of not opening doors for women because we're all equal now.
The decent thing is surely to speak up for the side you believe to be right, whether it's women or men.

That's a great article.

I teach TBITSP to year 7 (it wouldn't necessarily be my choice, but I mostly teach KS4 & 5, so leave choices of text to colleagues for KS3).

It's a popular one. Kids enjoy it, & there's plenty you can do with it as a text, as a teacher.

I will admit it got me RIGHT in the feels when I first read it, snuggled up to a poorly ds then aged 9 - but it hasn't aged well - mawkish & inaccurate.

I suspect Boyne, who isn't a bad writer, thought this one would be an easy woke points win, & was probably, to be fair, mostly interested in telling a good story.

He's not deserving of the treatment he's received.

The most important thing to me is WHO is giving him all this grief? It's not feminists - we might think he's wrong in his central premise that the protagonist's brother can meaningfully change sex, but I don't think any of us have demanded the book unhappen/be review slammed/the author shamed & intimidated off Twitter.

Who is doing that, & being quite aggressive about it?

Oh. That would be the bonkers TRA crowd. Because of course it is. Again. As ever.

What I am finding interesting is that this entire incident is encouraging some people to put their head above the parapet on the freedom of speech, freedom of the arts angle.
Clare Mackintosh (author) put up a pic of her copy of the book (whilst sidestepping the trans part of the controversy) and Deborah Ross touched on it in her opinion column for The Times.
All the previous YA pile-ons have passed with relatively little comment. I wonder if the difference is that this time, they went ahead with the release date rather than pulling the book?

I'm glad they didn't pull the book though I disagree with the premiss and the pandering to transideology; the fact that it all went pear-shaped should be a wake up call to Boyle, so that one day the book becomes an embarrassment to him. It would be a tough learning curve for him, if one day he does see the light -- to have a book out there that you know is all sorts of wrong!
I'm sure he's a good writer, but it's important as a writer to know what you're doing, and unfortunately this time he stepped into dog poo. It's probably a good book per se.
As for TBITSP -- it pulls the right emotional strings, and books for kids don't have to be 100% accurate. I'm always astonished, though, at all the adults who don't see that it's just a very sad fantasy!

And you know what? Despite Boyne’s belief that women don’t need men to fight our battles, most of us are very grateful for the handful of men who have had the guts to offer their support.

There's a huge irony in the fact that when Boyne said that women don't need men to fight their battles, he obviously hadnt a clue about how women are being silenced about this, including on twitter. And now he's been silenced himself by having to delete his own twitter account. Poetic justice.

There's a huge irony in the fact that when Boyne said that women don't need men to fight their battles, he obviously hadnt a clue about how women are being silenced about this, including on twitter.

I've just realised why I found his comment about women not needing men to speak for them irritating. It was because in saying that, he was speaking for women. If you're reading this, John, we'll decide whose help we want and need, not you.

He is on sky news in five minutes.

Hope he’s in his sackcloth and ashes

John boynes hubris has led to this

He thought that the women (and men but mainly women) being shut down on twitter, being blocked from meeting, being told they are transphobes, being shut down by politicians was all the fault of the women

That they were indeed transphobes and being hysterical when all it needed was a calm rational men to have a little chat with TRA, nice little book to show just how much he sympathised and how sensitive and calm and rational he is

Epic fail

and i was always taught that 'i told you so' was a dreadful thing to say. Ive never said it to my children

But john...mate, we told you so

What Rufus said.

And he still won't admit it.

What Rufus said.

Indeed. It's quite awful to watch this unfold.

And sobering in the extreme to see quite how predictable and anti women it is.

Oops.

Some trans people (sensible and not shite-for-brains types) have read the book. They said that it was so bad and ill-informed that one of them contacted 'Inclusive Minds' about their partnership with Boyne during his research.

It was news to them. He had phoned them a long time ago. They had put out an email to their subscribers 'author seeks help' and one person had contacted Boyne directly. There was no further involvement. They are a small team and not very good at social media, but have had to issue a statement in a bid to recover their reputation.

Still, all publicity is good publicity for JB.

The five star review has been removed from Amazon. And that is Amazon US; there are no reviews on Amazon UK.

The sales ratings aren't too good either, especially for a popular author.
The book is at least a year too late, I think. Too many people (in the general public) are having second thoughts and backing off from blind support of the trans narrative (oh we poor oppressed underprivileged darlings). It's no longer a PC given.
I believe, I hope, it's reached its peak and slowly slowly the wheels will grind to a halt. I really hope. The alternative is just too frightening for words. The madness just cannot continue.

Who was the woke bro interviewing him on sky news? He was irritating as fuck.

Missed the Sky interview but agree with other posters that book seems to be was mistimed and he really should have been more aware of the potential for a backlash. He clearly does seem to have thought it was all about nasty terfy women.

Read the plot on one thread and ironically it does sound a bit flawed. However, nothing can justify such a pile on, particularly before the book had been published so very few people would have seen a copy.

I think there are real pressures on authors dealing with ‘difficult’ topics. I remember reading an interview with Monica Ali after publication of Brick Lane in which she said she had been criticised by some people in Bangladeshi community because there were some unsympathetic characters.

Despite Boyne’s belief that women don’t need men to fight our battles, most of us are very grateful for the handful of men who have had the guts to offer their support.

Did women stand by gay men and help them?

Or did they just shrug and go 'huh, not my problem, men can fight their own battles'?

I am a middle class white cunty straight woman and i marched for gay rights back in the day. Perhaps i shoulndt have bothered as gay men could fight their own battles

That was such a bizarre comment ... I'm pretty sure JB didn't complain about straight women canvassing/campaigning in the Marriage Equality Referendum ... What a short memory he has.

Also I think he has made a mistake in his target readership. Even if transpeople had approved of it, the people you want to draw in are not them, but parents. And I think most parents these days are wary, what with the Tavistock bad press as well as trans kits in schools. If I were a parent of young children I would not want to be encouraging any more in the idea that they could happily change sex, just like that; it's everywhere already, in schools, Youtube, social media etc. It's more a case of discouraging them at the moment, of keeping them away from the videos and the rah-rah groups.

I’m with you on that Lamaha. I don’t know who this is for.

A lot of teens do choose their own YA books but even so, this is either something no trans-sympathetic teen would read (because the trans person isn’t centred) and those who aren’t particularly bothered about trans issues won’t care enough.

I imagine they knew the book would get enough press because of the subject to justify - plus JB comes with his own successful sales and rights record.

Good point about supporting women - many straight women gave their time to the same sex marriage referendum. Not to mention the solidarity and support lesbians showed to gay men during the AIDS crisis.

The book finally has one review on amazon.co.uk. This is unusual shortly after publication. New books usually have lots of reviews on ot just after pub day.
And it's a one star, by a "straight cis woman". And she has actually read the book. She is a trans ally, and thinks it's a terrible book that centres the non-trans person and centres the narrator's and the parents' problem and not the transkid.

www.amazon.co.uk/Brothers-Name-Jessica-John-Boyne-ebook/dp/B07GQVCDH5/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid&sr