Author/illustrator of 'Grandads Pride' chosen as artist for the Summer Reading Challenge

[RolledDahl]

Anyone here work in a Library?
For those of you who don't, you may know that every summer we promote the Summer Reading Challenge from the Reading Agency. It's a lovely way to encourage children to keep reading over the summer holidays.

This year the Reading Agency have chosen Harry Woodgate as the illustrator - he is the author of the controversial book Grandad's Pride, which included images of fetish wear...many of you may remember the concerns over some of his illustrations.

I shouldn't be surprised, knowing how captured the literary (& library) arena is in general, but it does seem to be a very deliberate decision.
And I'm not entirely convinced that his use of baby blue and pink as predominant background colours in the posters was completely accidental 😒

I think you're making a good point here, RolledDahl, about looking at the previous work of an illustrator before choosing them to do other work directed at children.

Grandad isn't just gay, StillgotmyiPod -you did look at the image posted upthread, didn't you? He is wearing BDSM gear.
That's BDSM, not gay. Gay is not BDSM. BDSM is not gay.

I can't understand why neither StillgotmyiPod nor Harry Woodgate get that distinction.
The fictional Grandad in Grandad's Pride is gay, but Harry Woodgate chose to show him appearing in public dressed inappropriately in BDSM fetish gear.

Gay Pride was irrevocably damaged by men like the fictional Grandad turning what used to be a celebration of lesbian and gay identity - at a time when it was still dangerous to be lesbian or gay - into an opportunity to display their fetishes, like the BDSM Grandad in the book.

It's inappropriate and incongruous to wear BDSM gear at an event like Gay Pride, which was never intended to be a fetish festival.

It is even more inappropriate and incongruous to show and normalise BDSM gear in a book aimed at very young children.

Whatever you think about BDSM as a fetish - it's a free country, in your own time, in the privacy of your own home, with consenting partners - fine.
But appropriate in a book aimed at 3-5 year olds??

That's what makes the choice of Harry Woodgate problematic.

Perfectly put @MarieDeGournay , thank you!

'Ooops, sorry, I have no idea how that inappropriate image of a man wearing BDSM fetish gear in public accidentally slipped into a book which is not about fetish at all, it's about being gay which is something else altogether! Of course it's wrong to suggest that being BDSM is linked with being gay! And that it's OK to wear fetish gear in public at community events! To 3-5 year old childre! My mistake! And the publisher's of course.. And the booksellers'.. And the libraries'..
I can't understand how that slipped by everyone.. '🙄

Nobody is saying that the book is all about fetish. The point is that the illustrator chose to put an incongruous BDSM-related image in a book about being gay, aimed at 3-5 year olds.

Being gay is definitely not a fetish, so why did Harry Woodgate have Grandad in fetish gear in a book which is not about fetish? What was his motivation? Does he associate the words 'gay' with 'fetish', or something?

Why did nobody challenge him about that before the book was published - 'Look, Harry, there's no good reason for putting Grandad in BDSM gear in the book - he's gay, Harry, it's offensive to gay people to suggest that being gay and being BDSM are linked.. And besides Harry - it's for 3-5 year old kids, right? Maybe lose the fetish gear image...'

I think the issue is that this guy made a highly controversial illustration and it hasn't harmed his career at all - on the contrary. Yet look at how the industry has treated gender critical authors. It is utterly reprehensible for them to take sides like this. Publicity of any kind gets the illustrator more work, makes all his work more in demand....

I'm torn on this discussion. Firstly I think the BDSM gear was an editorial mistake. The argument is any child attending Pride would see in real life.
However the idea that any child is going to Google the illustrator on the back of the Reading Challenge and be drawn to this book is frankly ridiculous.
There's a previous book called Grandad's Camper about grief.
So basically my position is there shouldn't be a witch hunt of this illustrator on the basis of this single illustration. And yes the Reading Agency are band wagon jumping woke idiots.

No witch hunting here, he is clearly talented and has no lack of publishers happy to give him work.

I'm just questioning his suitability as their choice for such a massive, nationwide reading initiative for primary age children. Who in the reading agency thought it was a good idea given the past controversy?

And his participation WILL result in an absolute ton of promotion for him. Staff will be tagging both the illustrator and the reading agency in every single social media post connected with the Summer Reading Challenge.

Grandad.... is wearing BDSM gear.

Is he actually, or is that a cropped image of a background character?

The fictional Grandad in Grandad's Pride is gay, but Harry Woodgate chose to show him appearing in public dressed inappropriately in BDSM fetish gear.

See above - if you look at the full page from the book, there's no basis for this assertion.

It is even more inappropriate and incongruous to show and normalise BDSM gear in a book aimed at very young children

I completely agree - the image is inappropriate for a children's book.

It has no bearing on the suitability of the poster in the OP however, or indeed the appropriateness of HWs other work which, as far as I can tell without buying and reading them all, appears to be completely middle of the road as far as children's books go.

questioning his suitability as their choice for such a massive, nationwide reading initiative

he is clearly talented

Is it at all possible that the two may be linked?

😂 I'm not disputing that point, of course that would be an huge factor.

Would it have been that difficult to find someone equally as talented who had not drawn a character wearing fetish gear in a children's book for such a massive campaign?

Surely, where children are concerned you want to avoid any hint of inappropriateness or any connection to something problematic?

Ignoring talented people's questionable choices purely because they ARE talented, has generally not gone particularly well in the past, has it?
The old separating the art from the artist issue...

Why were his books chosen I wonder.

So many author / illustrators

Do you know his previous book Grandad's Camper? He's also illustrated lots of books. What you are suggesting is putting him on a secret blacklist to limit his opportunities. 'He may be a talented illustrator but we must punish him for that one illustration.' To be honest I can't remember a single illustrator from the Reading Challenge over the years and I was a children's librarian. It's hardly the Greenaway medal.

And his participation WILL result in an absolute ton of promotion for him.

This publicity may very well backfire on him, if there are enough people out there who are concerned about this!

I'd like men who 'accidentally on purpose' slip BDSM into kids books on a public blacklist to be honest. And the editors and the publishers and their agents.

So this is what you think even having seen the picture linked by @TwoLoonsAndASprout ?

Yes I am.

It’s from another thread about an advert for Surrey(?) Pride being a family friendly event where someone responded to the OP saying a figure in bondage gear was wearing ‘leather accessories’ and couldn’t see what the OP was fussing about.

ETA: I was just using their logic in a reductio ad absurdum way to explain why it wasn’t a man dressed in fetish gear and anyone who thought it was is an uptight pearl-clutcher.

It's not only all the BDSM gear he wears, there is also the Love is Love paedophile motto, as well as a book with MAP - code for paedophiles, used by people who want to normalise paedophilia.

I see! 😄

There's a pic of another old man in fetish wear but it's not the granddad from the story. The story is quite sweet really. It's only that one pic that everyone hates. I kind of see it's a bit much but if you're going to go to pride you might see something like that so I guess it's trying to be realistic.
It's hardly telling children to get into bondage.

I'd agree if he drawn a man leading another man wearing a dog collar. This can easily be swept aside by 'awful fashion sense' by parent. No child will leap to BDSM. They probably won't even notice.

He's illustrated a Pride march. This is an accurate depiction.
Presumably you want all men dressed like this prosecuted.
I just think there's justifiable criticism and then there's hysteria.
[Just tried to spell check this. A I refused - inappropriate content]

If you think kids going to Pride need to see men in BDSM gear because its 'realistic' then I just do not know what to say.

Fwiw, here's a link to an earlier thread that's about the book

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4821642-granddads-pride-a-picture-book-for-under-7s?page=1

Jfc 'Love is love is love'. I'd forgotten that was in the book.

I'd like men dressed in bondage to keep it in their bedrooms, of course.

Why are you so invested in showing it to kids?

Is dc seeing bondage gear at Pride ok?

Presumably you want all men dressed like this prosecuted.

Men dressed like this in public? At a supposedly "family friendly " event? Where everyone who is there has to see their fetish out in full view, whether they have consented or not?

Yes, I'd agree to prosecution.

BTW,

No child will leap to BDSM. They probably won't even notice.

Getting children "used to" things they really should see as suspect, if not dangerous, is a thing. It's called grooming.

Idk. Not really. But I think it's a choice the parents make if they take their kids to it. If someone isn't exposing their genitals and it's not massive dildos/strap ons, it's akin to Notting hill with women in tiny costumes shaking their arses.

People don't have to go if they don't want to see that type thing.