Dear publishers

[ladyofastolat]

Dear publishers,

It is possible to have a story for children aged 6 or 7 that is not about fairies. Yes, yes, I know this is a shocking thing for me to say. I know you are sitting here in your pink fluffy towers, with fairy books strewn around you up to your ears. I know you probably speak in hushed tones of that employee who once suggested publishing a story about a boy, and the terrible fate that befell him. However, if you look back into the past, can you not remember that, once upon a time, stories about boys and adventures and spirited heroines and monsters and suchlike actually existed? Can you not remember a time when the "five to eight" section in bookshops and libraries wasn't a sea a pink?

All I can assume is that a fairy queen has taken over your organisations and has sprinkled you with fairy dust so that you cannot envisage anything other than fairies. Band together, I urge you, and overthrow her influence! The reading futures of millions of children depend on you!

Yours,

Me

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Oh dear. I would support you vigorously, but as the mum of a 4yo who, if given a chance, would maintain the share price of fairy publishing all on her own, I feel too guilty to comment. - Neuromancer

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Oops. Sorry! I have no objection at all to fairy books existing, but I do wish that publishers would also bring out lots and lots of books for that age group that have boy appeal. It seems to me that a good 70 percent of published books for 6 year olds are very girlie. It's the same with teenage novels, too - a sea of pink. And then they wonder why so many boys think that books aren't for them.

[purplecat]

G. organised all her fairy books by cover colour last night (though apparently this cross-correlated with age of fairy in a manner I found obscure). To my surprise there were almost twice as many blue covers as any other colour.

These days she (mostly) has to fund her fairy habit out of pocket money which is, if nothing else, teaching her to get to grips with the stuff. At present it takes her six weeks to save up for a fairy book we are debating whether she should get a raise to three weeks for a fairy book.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

So she's still doing fairies, then, even though she's turned against pink. Or was the anti-pink thing just a passing phase?

Oh, and professional duty compels me to point out that the local library probably stocks all the fairy books she would ever want... And, since they're almost certainly running the summer reading challenge at the moment, she can get all sorts of goodies just for reading them!

[purplecat]

She still hates pink though it remains OK "with other colours" and the fairy books, as I said, are actually surprisingly blue (her current favourite colour). That said she determinedly put on a pink dress at a friends house the other day albeit maintaining, when asked, that she hated pink.

There are a couple of problems with the library idea. There isn't really a library within walking distance for us. The central library is reachable by bus and is where G first discovered the fairies but its children's section didn't really inspire us. The more local library we've yet to investigate but would involve a car journey (and then, of course, parking). Secondly I think half the attraction of the fairies is the whole collectable sets thing - certainly judging by G's enthusiasm for laying them all out in various configurations on her floor and then admiring them.

[muuranker.livejournal.com]

The publishers are behind the times, I am reliably informed by an 8 year old, with whom I proposed we 'read a book'. Her book case of twinkly pink was regarded with a sigh. What, I asked, did she really want books about (thinking I might make something up).

Shopping. For gold dresses and high heels.

We decided to draw some fairies with metallic wings, instead.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Well, there's certainly a growing number of (usually pink) books for 7 to 10 year olds all about fashion and shopping and how to look good. *sigh*

[muuranker.livejournal.com]

There was definitely a 'pink is out' theme (as, for example, admiring the fact I wasn't wearing my twinkly pink Storm watch, but a haemotite bracelet).

Picking up on others comments, said lasses' parents are both very sympathetic to feminist ideas (pa is slightly more Marxist than feminist, and ma while not using an explicitly feminist theoretical framework in her academic work, certainly is dissapointed by the twinkly pink. As daughter is dissapointed that ma does not look like the people in Hello! Those of you who know me will be vastly amused by the idea that I appear _groomed_ and _elegant_ to this lass.

And I do like shopping.

Perhaps I _should_ write a book. The problem is, I am very good at shopping as a middle aged woman, and the skillset an 8 year old wants is that of an 18 year old. Any teenager reading this, willing to co-write a children's book involving a gold lame ball dress bought at Oxfam, a fairly traded cotton t-shirt, and whatever the third thing is that I've missed, owing to being a middle-aged woman, please let me know!

[phoebesmum.livejournal.com]

I have a theory that the current plethora of pink is part of a giant anti-feminist conspiracy - but, like most conspiracy theories, it's probably bollocks. Still, it's true that while 'pink for a girl' has been around for an awful long time, 'pink, pinker, pinkest and NOTHING BUT NEW' is a fairly recent encroachment.

However, as I am 53 years old and currently wearing pink sequinned Indian slippers, I have not a leg to stand on. (Figuratively, I mean, not literally. Else there'd be nowhere to put said slippers.)

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I've nothing against pink, and if little (or big) girls want to wear it, then fine. (By the way, apparently in Victorian times, it was pink for a boy and blue for a girl, and it only switched in the twentieth century, or so I read somewhere on the internet, so it must be true.) But I do despair at the number of children who know for a fact that there are "boy books" and "girl books" and that never the twain shall meet. Yes, I doubt many boys would want to read pink books about fairies, but since when did girls start considering that adventure stories or funny stories weren't fitting far for them?

[phoebesmum.livejournal.com]

I would say that I'm sure it's not all girls, but, since I only know one small child, and she is obsessed with Hannah Montana, again, I can't really judge.

If it's true there's nothing else around for young readers (I remember, when I last worked in a bookshop, I got very pissed off at all the 'series' books - is it not possible any more to write other than for a franchise?), then I would like to think that they will have a marvellous surprise waiting for them a few years down the line when they find out what else is in store.

Also, it's possible that they will all grow up to be pink-wearing, fairy-winged girlies who complement their tiaras with industrial piercings and big, steel-capped boots. I like to think so.

Victorian pink/blue

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

Apparently this is because in Victorian times 'pink' tended to be a dark nearly red colour (see 'hunting pink') and thus strong and manly, while a pale pastel blue was a wishy-washy colour suitable for girls. Which, of course, I also read on the internet ;-) But I take your point that it shows how quickly and easily stereotypes become accepted as 'how things always are'.

(uses icon of pinkness)