William Morris Gallery: gender theory for small children

[PotteringPondering]

Visit to the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow today. The gallery’s great, and the building and its gardens are a lovely place to take a family.

But main display in the bookshop is books of gender theory for small children: My Shadow is Pink, Julian is a Mermaid, etc.

It’s because the temporary exhibition is by a queer fashion designer. But frankly, WTF?

These are not books about self-acceptance and gender nonconformity, they are the opposite. Propaganda for a batshit notion dreamed up yesterday that my body is somehow not the real me.

I filled in the feedback form and let them know what I thought.

Well done @PotteringPondering , let's hope they take notice, especially if you are not the only one (hopefully!)

Actually Julian is a Mermaid IS a book about gender nonconformity. The little boy is resolutely a (feminine) little boy.

Happy to be corrected on that one!

Yeah it’s actually quite a beautiful book!

Though the British Library in both a recent exhibition on children's books, and their online catalogue have repurposed 'Julian is a Mermaid' as 'trans': "The book shows how dressing up can enable us to explore who we are and has helped trans and gender-questioning children find acceptance." I've read the book and don't recall anything that suggests Julian is 'questioning his gender' or wants to be a girl. The title is an unfortunate coincidence, but the BL are running with it.

Poor Mr Morris must be turning in his grave.

To be fair, Elmer is about self acceptance too. But not as far as I know about being transgender/gender non-conforming.

I supect the person(s) in charge of the display could have been literally judging the books by their covers: that elephant is rainbow coloured! This must be a children's book about being LGB or TQ+!

None of the Elmer books I read aloud ever were, but let's not disillusion the gift shop staff on this.

Yes, I did feel a bit sorry for poor Elmer stuck in the middle of it all. He seemed to be saying, 'Listen, this nonsense is nothing to do with me...'

‘Pink is for Boys’ is also a book about gender non-conformity rather than about trans issues. It ends by saying that all colours are for everyone. There does seem to be quite a variety of books included in there, OP.

Interesting! Perhaps I was hasty in dismissing most of them as trans tracts...

Elmer is there because that's where he belongs.

Reviews"

"Its message of celebrating diversity and uniqueness is just as topical today as it was when celebrated author David McKee first created Elmer." (Junior Magazine)

"A wonderfully upbeat and powerful tale that celebrates the uniqueness of the individual - and provides one of literature's best-loved characters too." (Junior)

If anyone actually believes those books were put in the display for any reason other than that the staff thought they were promoting queer theory to kids, then they are naive.

Always with the gender nonconformity - white middle class lefties are fucking obsessed.

I agree. It looks as if whoever did the display assumed from covers/titles that all the books were 'queer theory' and promoting gender ideology because of the rainbows/mermaids etc. Most are not. I think the ones that do promote trans are the 'my shadow' ones.

it does kind of confirm how shallow the thinking is, if people are making assumptions about a book's message without actually reading it
OR, OTOH maybe there's a mole in the bookshop who is actually trying to undermine the TRA message
Whatever, I cannot imagine William Morris having any truck with it

Oh for gods sake just let children be children there doesn't need to books on gender non conforming. If a boy wants to wear pink ok if a girl wants to play with tractors let them... stop sexualising kids and let them grow up

no, we DO need books on gender non conformity because unfortunately there are still people around who will tell a boy her can't wear pink and take a tractor away from a girl....books that tell kids this is all fine are not sexualising children at all.
what we don't need are books telling the little boy who likes pink that maybe he's really a girl, or that the girl who likes tractors is actually a boy. We know that children take quite a few years to truly understand what makes a boy a boy (who will grow to be a man) and a girl a girl (who will grow to be a woman). So lets help, not hinder them figure this out.

Even for mumsnet, this is some conspiracy-theory crazy stuff. OP clearly didn’t open the books to see what they were actually about before posting.

Pink is for Boys is celebrating gender non conformity too. It’s very much about how colours are for anyone, boy or girl.

To be honest, I think you should have looked at the books more closely before complaining.

You should never judge a book by its cover. Literally in this case.

I swear some posters are determined to be caricatures.

OP: OMG look at all these kids books encouraging kids to be trans. It’s outrageous.

Poster: Actually most of those books are actually just about encouraging kids that it’s ok to be different.

OP: in that case the gallery obviously intended to encourage kids to be trans but they just got it wrong.

But what does any of this have to do with Morris? Can’t we just go and see Morris without other artists shoe-horned in (& books for kids vaguely related to shoe-horned artist on display). Or does this fashion designer use Morris’ prints?

To be fair, I think it’s very common place for museums & galleries to commission contemporary artists & exhibit work that’s inspired by or even provides a contrast to the work of the main artists they display. It’s a way to bring in new audiences in but also to encourage return visits - people come because they’ll see something different to their last visit.

And every gallery or museum I’ve ever been to
sells children’s books/ toys that are only v tangentially linked to the collections, kids love a gift shop & I imagine there’s only so many books directly about William Morris they’ll part with their pocket money for!!

But with the kids’ books it would make a lot more sense to hve books on doing art and crafts for kids, or even E Nesbit books, some fiction from roughly the period.