(Untitled)

[cdk]

So I'm thinking about children's literature. There are five books I absolutely must have for my son - Fox in Socks, Winnie the Pooh / The House at Pooh Corner, Little Fox Goes to the End of the World*, Never Tease a Weasel, and Dominic. I own four of the five, and need to order a used copy of Never Tease a Weasel soon, because I don't know what

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[richardthinks]

Alas, even Slinky Malinki is gendered male at some point. I've taken to just marking unmarked characters female, though.

Not the same vintage, but I like "don't let the pigeon drive the bus" (and later titles) partly because the pigeon is absolutely ungendered. The Moomins are gendered but they're mostly easy to ungender, aside from the Snork Maiden.

[cdk]

I think part of it is that authors want to communicate that these animals are proxies for humans, and to them one of the essential things about being human is that you're either a boy or a girl.

And I definitely get why every character in Winnie-the-Pooh except Roo is the gender they are; male kangaroos don't have pouches, Christopher Robin was actually male, and all the rest are embodiments of a negative characteristic (hey, Winnie-the-Pooh was kind of the proto-Seinfeld, wasn't it?) so I can see why a male author would be reluctant to make any of them female. But at least Roo could have been female.

Don't let the pigeon drive the bus looks awesome.

[richardthinks]

I just re-read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to my son, who is exactly the right age for it to affect him like a sugar-coated brick, and the parallels between Eeyore and Marvin, Ford and Rabbit and (arguably) Zaphod and Tigger are striking.

Aside from his preoccupation with creature comforts and willingness to ignore all the amazing stuff in favour of the homely, Arthur does not strike me as a Pooh, though.

But there's only one token woman in the whole goddamn thing. Aside from Eccentrica Gallumbits, that is.

[rjgrady]

We own several pigeon books. There's also Edwina the Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct. Also, my kids like Oliva, Hello Kitty, and Charlie and Lola.

Recently, Isaac told me that a woman could not be as great a superhero as a man. I was like, "What about Wonder Woman? What about Agent Carter in Captain America?" And I realized I probably need to be trying harder, considering the cultural tide I am up against.

[wondercat]

The Frances and Olivia books are good. I also recommend Tommy DePaola's Strega Nona.