Rachel Rooney criticised by Philip Pulman

[HecatesCatsInXmasHats]

Rachel Rooney who wrote a delightful book about children feeling comfortable with their bodies has been described as 'hateful' by author Philip Pullman in response to a tweet by Clara Vulliamy. Rooney has written about this on Twitter. I'm so upset for her:

twitter.com/rooneyrachel/status/1335610842222653441?s=21

twitter.com/philippullman/status/1335523666847813632?s=21

That's Twitter for you. People should have to answer a series of questions on the subject before they post.

Pullman is a rich old white man who has become that way after years of the wokerati blowing smoke up his arse. Unlike Rowling, he doesn't have the courage to bite the hand that feeds him.

His bumbling fool act is despicable

How shameful of him not to respond to Rachel. what an intellectually lazy coward

CV is Shirley Hughes’ daughter, so obviously she is in a position of considerable influence not only based on her own career as a writer/illustrator but as manager of her mother’s works too. There’s a big power imbalance there.

I can’t see her tweets (am surprised! Sure I used to) and would love to understand context in this latest between CV/PP/RR.

I think CV might have a personal vested interest with a trans person in their family, although I very much could be misremembering or misattributing this, and can’t see anything to back that up so please don’t treat that as gospel at all. But if so it would explain why CV is so persistent in attacking RR (who I think anyone can see hasn’t done anything hateful by writing a perfectly sweet uncontroversial picture book).

I'm so disappointed in Philip Pullman - it won't stop me enjoying HDM series 2 but what a knob!

Now now, you know what you have to do is burn his books and insist that he has ruined your life for, like, ever.

Oh and he didn't actually write His Dark Materials you know, it was those amazing young actors who improvised the whole thing, and then he wrote it down and sent it back in time.

Not on twitter. No idea who or what. Looked it up. Found an article that explains:

' My Body is Me!, by Rachel Rooney, has been described as representing “an extreme ideology that explicitly targets children” by a fellow children’s author, Clara Vulliamy, creator of the Dotty Detective series.

Rooney, 57, wrote the book to counteract what she described as an “explosion” of titles that promoted the idea that children who felt confused about their gender may be “trapped in the wrong body”.

She said that her book, illustrated by Jessica Ahlberg, taught children to be comfortable with their bodies and featured characters of different races and with disabilities. The book says: “You’re born in your body, you don’t have a spare, so love it, hug it, treat it with care.”

Here's a link to thearticle but it is a year old and doesn't have Philip Pullman :

www.peaktrans.org/rachel-rooneys-childrens-book-my-body-is-me-labelled-anti%E2%80%91trans-extremism-the-times-16-12-19/

I hadn't heard of this book, but will be buying a few copies.

Well worth buying My Body is Me as an Xmas present. Some excellent reviews for the book on Goodreads:

"Many people have labelled this book as "anti-trans", and having read it cover to cover, I can say that it is nothing of the sort.
The main message of this book is that your body is perfect the way it is, and that you should treat it with respect and love. In my opinion, this is one of the most progressive messages that you could give to children, especially in an age where much of the media and advertisement tells people that they should be unhappy with their bodies."

www.goodreads.com/book/show/49098291-my-body-is-me

It's a bargain too:

www.transgendertrend.com/product/my-body-is-me/

From some of his posted I get the impression that Pullman is actually deliberately trolling.

Phillip Pullman, who wrote a trilogy about ideologically rigid, obsessive adults cutting away essential parts of children before they'd had the chance to reach adulthood and settle into themselves.

Yep. TRAs are the Magisterium.

He had a thread going about pronoun antecedents. I suspect he was trying to be subtly witty/goady. This was fun though:

@Backbee

I hadn't heard of this book, but will be buying a few copies.

It is just a really lovely book about being yourself. It is enjoyable and fun and just as you would expect a book for young children to be.

No hidden messages. It is not the Da Vinci code

It’s reminded me to buy one for my little great niece. I was a bit wary (they live in wokesville) but they all love Harry Potter and her birthday party was HP themed so I think it’s safe...

What age group is the book aimed at? I am buying presents for a 21-month-old child.

I think it's between 3-6? It's a really lovely book

"Last night I had a fight with a shadowy philosopher sitting on a rock because he refused to join me in singing 'Three Little Maids from School', on the grounds that there were only two of us. So I threw him off his rock, at which point I fell out of bed and woke up."

Oh, I think you were woke-up ages before that, Phillip.

Anyone see a problem with the Three Little Maids apart from there only being two of them?

Rachel's response is so classy, I hope it makes PP and CV feel awful.

Well done Phillip Pullman. I can't think of a better way to generate attention for a book.

It's so hard for authors to get noticed but he's done Rachel Rooney a big favour (though, of course, not intentionally)

I was given a copy of ‘My Body Is Me’ at the MCR detrans event.

My littlest girl was slightly over the age range for it but I left it in her room. She brought it to me a few days later because she wanted to read it aloud.

She was absolutely delighted by all the little illustrations, especially the wheelchair ones, as she spent some time using a wheelchair after treatment for her life threatening immune disorder. For a year, she had a Hickman line, it frightened and disgusted her. The drugs that saved her life altered her appearance to the point that for a while, she was completely unrecognisable.
Once, at the hospital, she burst into tears at the sight of herself in the mirror at the back of the lift.

This little book, for kids even younger than her, helped her put some of her feelings in perspective.

It’s a lovely book.

Phillip Pullman can fuck right off and then fuck off some more.

@littlbrowndog

From Twitter

Phillip Pullman, who wrote a trilogy about ideologically rigid, obsessive adults cutting away essential parts of children before they'd had the chance to reach adulthood and settle into themselves.

She always puts it so well

@littlbrowndog

From Twitter

Phillip Pullman, who wrote a trilogy about ideologically rigid, obsessive adults cutting away essential parts of children before they'd had the chance to reach adulthood and settle into themselves.

Absolutely this. The cognitive dissonance in this man is astonishing.

Thanks for sharing Betty, that's lovely

Just bought a couple of copies and made a donation. So disappointed in PP...

The TT stickers that outraged CV with their cruelty included messages such as:

It's OK for girls to play with trucks, boys with dolls;
No child is born in the 'wrong body';
Children have a right to privacy from the opposite sex;
Kids shouldn't be taught at school that they can choose whether to be a boy or a girl;
Medical sex change treatment for children is an experiment;
70% of children referred to UK gender clinic last year were girls.

She posted about this in 2018. DfE guidance has changed since then, and the recent Keira Bell & Mrs A judicial review decision mops up a couple of the others.

Even Mermaids now say it's not about what children play with or wear. It might be time for some hasty reading and updating for some of the would-be-woke!

Which of those statements could anyone in all conscience say are hateful?