Parents remove 4 year old after Grandads Pride book shown to pre schoolers

[SamW98]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12432069/amp/Parents-remove-four-year-old-daughter-pre-school-shown-Grandads-Pride-childrens-book-featuring-men-bondage-gear-women-trans-surgery.html

I live in South east Asia, have wide circle of muslim friends and have attended Singapore's Pride equivalent, Pink Dot and can tell you that it is highly unlikely. It has happened with a few isolated individuals but it is controversial within the community and called out when it does.
https://rilek1corner.com/2017/07/08/you-can-support-lgbt-friends-but-wearing-hijab-and-participating-in-pink-dot-is-not-cool/

And the muslims here are much more liberal than the the variety you get in the UK. Traditional Malay norms are more relaxed towards homosexuality and trans women than Islamic norms.

Sadly there is a copy at my local library...I will be sending in a complaint.. I am going to go in and see if I can find it

Christ, I wouldn’t be looking forward to World Book Day if I worked there.

Thanks mirax. I suspect it is leveraging an exaggeration to portray the book as being so completely acceptable that mothers wearing hijabs and dressing daughters in hijabs support the book indirectly by supporting pride. It is saying ‘look just who is so fully supportive! Who are YOU to not be fully supportive?’ It is very dishonest rather than wonderfully optimistic because of all the other messaging in the illustrations.

Just imaging the next World Book Day with toddlers arriving in bondage and gimp masks and the apologists saying how wonderfully inclusive it is and nothing to see here.

Eugh

Grooming

And we’re told to accept it

What next? Girls dressed provocatively for Only Fans? I mean the awful pageants that are held in the US make me livid, are we really going down that route? Are we really thinking that 4 year olds need to know about sex, BDSM, fetish wear etc? and ,if so, why? I think I know the answer , but why don't those who are paid to actually think?

I've just been thinking about this again on my walk to work. Further to my previous post, when Grandad was waving his Pride flag in the 70s or 80s he wouldn't have been able to marry his husband, would likely have been subject to frequent, open homophobic abuse. If he was in Scotland he could have been jailed for having sex, up to 1982 I think. (Good ol' progressive Scotland).

Maybe he married Millie's Granny because it was the done thing and was only able to come out after she died or something. I find the possible back story all very sad. If it was real life I doubt if Millie finding the flag in the loft would make him think "Yay, lets have a fetish party"!

I find it pretty insulting to those people who had to actually fight to achieve the same rights rather than boo-hooing because they can't get everything their own way. I doubt if the young author and cohort actually understand how bad things were for LGB people not that long ago. Hence the attack on Fred Sargeant, an actual Stonewall rioter.

@Mochudubh

I agree with you. The actual premise of the story was just maybe a gay man was forced to hide his true self because of society and is now happily married to his husband and celebrating with his granddaughter. It could actually be a nice story about inclusion and acceptance without the need to push the boundaries.

Im sure most parents are ok with children being aware of differences and inclusion without fetishes being rammed down their throats before they’re even at primary school.

😁

Imagine next year's Book Week costumes!

Grandad's pride in the 90s was having to go visit on VE day and look at his medals whilst your nana told everyone how brave he was, Grandad looked deeply uncomfortable with endless sherry being pushed upon him and if you were lucky you got a choc ice.

I feel so old, within the next 10 years it'll be visiting Grandad and being shown his collection of butt plugs and nana shows you the strap on they use from when the nice lady over the road pops around for a brew and bang on a Thursday.

Seriously wtf is this book?

My local council has 10 copies, spread throughout the region.

😵‍💫

In libraries, I meant to add…

This is exactly why my child is in a Catholic school. They wouldn’t dream of showing them this sort of material.

Hertfordshire libraries have 11 copies.....7 of which are out on loan..wtf are they thinking

I was about to say YABU as someone with a 4yo and a gay brother and brother in law (married to each other) and to say young children are able to accept same sex couples with very little fuss. But I wouldn’t show hero couples dressed like that so it’s very inappropriate. Do the people who chose these books actually have kids or an interest in what’s appropriate for them?

or is it publicity for the book and a bit of a dog whistle?

That's not "What next" is it? It's a throwback to early centuries, child prostitution, child sexual exploitation, the Shirley Temple/Hazel Ascot films. There has always been a sustained push to normalise paraphilias and some taboos: it's been phenomenally successful.

I think I'm just angry because it's being enabled/promoted by people who should know better. How can anyone safeguard children but then promote a book that has fetish gear in it, and that book is intended for pre-schoolers? Would they tell a 4 year old that stripping on the internet was a good career choice? If not, why not?
People really need to engage brains, and not go down the 'inclusivity' route.

Apparently the nursery has now withdrawn this book, having decided that it's not 'age appropriate'! Hooray!

Well done them for listening.

Well that’s the whole point really. It’s not about being anti LGB (I am B). It’s about the fact that fetishism isn’t appropriate for children. I think it’s a good acid test - “would you show a hetro couple in fetish gear in a kids book”. If the answer is (obviously!) no, then you shouldn’t do it just because the protagonist is gay.

I think it’s a good acid test - “would you show a hetro couple in fetish gear in a kids book”.

For those who would, I would have concerns about boundaries and whether the sense of transgression is exerting coercive control over people who didn't volunteer to be an audience.

It is ALL about boundaries though. This book is about lowering sexual boundaries. And to be clear, of course I am not talking about LGB people having 'low boundaries'. It is the fetishistic nature of what is being shown in the book. And the hidden message aspects.

But it is all about getting this book into the hands of people who will read it to children for the author.

@Mochudubh I'm glad it's not just me thinking about the back story, wondering about Granny and her potentially unhappy marriage.

I hope they divorced amicably and she's shacked up somewhere with another partner who adores her.