Rachel Rooneys exit interview from children's publishing

[Imnobody4]

This is both heartbreaking and enraging.
wildwomanwritingclub.wordpress.com/2021/12/09/rachel-rooneys-exit-interview-from-publishing/
She ends with
Mostly, I worry for the vulnerable youth who are caught up in this gender ideology madness. I am concerned that we are teaching impressionable children, through simplified and politically aggressive driven narratives within literature, that they may be born ‘wrong’. That sort of language has never been in my vocabulary. Despite my losses, I have no regrets writingMy Body is Me!– it’s an entirely inclusive book. Personally, I’d like to see it take its place in every early years setting and home. And while we’re on the subject of books, I’ll know when publishing becomes a truly diverse and inclusive industry. It’ll be when there’s a YA novel published, written by and based around the ‘lived experience’ of a lesbian, autistic detransitioner. It is, after all, a growing market…

Her poem is lovely
For me that whole article sums up a huge paradox in 3rd wave feminism, that we should be body positive but also that being body positive is transphobic somehow.

Anyway. I can't believe she got such a reaction to such an entirely sensible and empathetic piece of writing v

Rachel.

I am my body. My body is me.

It’s a wonderful thing, I’m sure you’ll agree.

I do.

So sorry to read this. Rachael has always come across so well and achieved a lot.

I have wondered what it means when authors step away from the industry so publicly. Is it a matter that she just isn't writing anymore, or that her books will effectively go out of print?

I will seek out her work now.

I have ordered a copy for the grandchildren whom I hope to have one day!

I think Rachel was targeted because she was out GC before the book....when the book (which is lovely and celebrates the joy of bodies, whatever they're like) was published the targetters used it and stretched the definition of transphobia in order to harass and interfere with her means of earning a living, to undermine her and to make it scary for other writers to support her.

Obviously the whole thing stinks.

Just ordered a copy, I've been meaning to for my DS for ages, thanks for the reminder!

Rachel's experience seems to mirror Jess de Wahl's, where less successful people have targeted them at least partially due to professional jealousy.

Just bought my children a copy too

I bought a copy for each of my local primary schools. It is a wonderful book.

It is unbelievable that anyone is falling for the line that this is in any way 'hate'. The lack of critical thinking by some people is severely disappointing.

Thanks, you have just reminded me to get a copy for a Christmas present

It's shocking though not surprising. Nothing short of bullying- why on earth attack so eone when you don't even know why/ what you're attacking them for? It's madness.
Rachel 🌷🌷
I'll definitely be looking for her books now

*someone

I knew of the book, of course, and of some of the furore around it, like when Clara Vulliamy got involved, but I didn’t know the full story of the abuse Rachel received and of all the attempts to silence her, and found it quite devastating to read. How horrific to live through. And what a loss to the world of children's literature, to the children whose lives her work would have further benefited, had it not become impossible for her to continue in the field.

Rachel Rooney, if you’re reading this, my heartfelt solidarity to you. I’m so sorry this happened. And I thank you for your courage in sticking your head above the parapet, at such great personal cost.

Stories like this sadly remind me what a very long way we still have to go, how very bad things still are for now, despite the steps of progress being made - this dreadful authoritarianism, with the refusal to let dissenting voices even be heard, is a cancer attacking the foundations of our supposedly free and democratic society - it is still ravaging the body that hosts it.

I can't see it on Amazon?

You can order from 'Transgender Trend'.