Granddad's Pride a picture book for under 7s

[Imnobody4]

I despair this could have been a positive book instead of this.

The gay community rightly and successfully distanced itself from bigoted allegations that "gayness" is somehow associated with paedophilia. This kind of book does untold damage by dragging in fetishes, unnecessary surgeries, and other references which are, at least, questionable.

twitter.com/blablafishcakes/status/1665991458959097856?t=j26SaoImYIHD0psjWCvmAA&s=19

Does anyone who promotes or publishes this stuff every actually read it???

I saw this. In plain sight is all I could think.

The compass next to the map, it's just another orientation!

I swear, this nonsense is making me paranoid.

Holy hell - MAP and love is love ? FFS.

No chance in hell that anyone writing about pride doesn't know what MAP means

I'm slightly confused, because this tweet indicates that it was Oxfam who released those images.

https://twitter.com/DrFletchington/status/1666052840748457984

I think it's two different things @Datun, the pride shite that Oxfam released and this picture book highlighted most recently by blahblahfishcakes.

I think DrFletch has mixed up various images floating round Twitter at the moment.

Yes but the man in the women's underwear and suspenders, with a tattoo on his leg, is being attributed both to Oxfam, and the book.

Right, okay, that makes sense. So the man in the suspenders is from Oxfam?

It seems a little too overt for a children's book. But then...🤷‍♀️

So far as I know that's from the book.

He's definitely conflated the two things.

It is. You can see the image of the man in suspenders on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grandads-Pride-Camper-Harry-Woodgate/dp/1839132663/ref=sr_1_5?crid=1583IWW6Y0AMQ&keywords=Grandad%27s+Pride&qid=1686057624&sprefix=grandad%27s+pride%2Caps%2C139&sr=8-5

And the US version has the picture with the MAP.

https://www.amazon.com/Grandads-Pride-Camper-Harry-Woodgate/dp/1499814615/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3M1MNQ9QD4BI4&keywords=Grandad%27s+Pride&qid=1686058300&sprefix=grandad%27s+pride%2Caps%2C210&sr=8-2

I know the children’s publishing industry have been falling over themselves to find (lgb)T+ authors. I wonder whether they actively support the push towards acceptance of the MAP community and bondage gear for children’s consumption, or whether they really are just utterly stupid.

Christ. Yes it's the book. A man in fetish gear in a kids' book.

Even if we give the illustrator the benefit of the doubt and assume there are no hidden messages in the map, the Polaroid camera or the suspiciously pie-like compass, then the fetish gear alone is enough to show the book is completely unsuitable for kids.

Nobody needs or wants to see a picture of a man in fetishwear in a children’s book. Disturbing and inappropriate! By all means be “proud”, but keep your skimpy bondage gear in the bedroom behind closed doors. Leave kids out of it!

What are we talking about here?

What is MAP ?

And where are we seeingbondage for children?

OK - I saw it.

MAP is not a map it is Minor Attracted People.

Way too much information for me today.

This reminds me of the creepy Balenciaga ads, for which as I recall no one was ever fired.

This.

This is hiding in plain sight. Reminds me of how Jimmy Saville got a kick from being increasingly explicit about what he was doing and nobody (with any influence) took any notice.

I get that looking for hidden messages sounds like the stuff of paranoia and conspiracy theorists but artists do put messages into their work- look at how we read a Pre Raphaelite painting for instance- and in this case the meanings are very clear.

Love Is Love Is Love next to a ‘MAP’ is not a coincidence but add in the Lolita glasses and compass and pretending this is not happening is ridiculously naive and short sighted.

The t-shirt (I think) hanging on the side of the trunk, that was supposedly worn by the grandfather, that looks child size. Did the artist have difficulty in perspective do you think?

I had a scout around on Amazon. The book was only published last week I read there, so there isn't yet much of a market in second hand copies. There are one or two used (how? Yuck) ones: interesting that they're getting rid of them so quickly.

If it was an innocent map it would say Map. Instead it’s all in capitals. Difficult to believe all the sensitivity readers and editors that will have seen this (alongside all the other dodgy paraphernalia) missed it all.

So we appear to have a children’s author who arranges meetings with children who, if he is not himself a paedophile, supports others who are.

Remember all the fuss about Rachel Rooney and her book that supports children loving their bodies in an age appropriate way? Rachel is no longer writing books for children, but this pervert is winning awards.

This whole thing makes me feel sick. 🤢

There is a long-standing tradition for illustrators to put in a subtext/visual jokes for the adult doing the reading… not funny at all though I imagine they thought it a very funny next level ‘queering’.

Didn't Balenciaga throw the photographer under the bus? I recall there was talk of him suing.