New report into trans activism in children's books

[JuliaWSeeninPublishing]

Hi Mumsnet members,
I am a co-founder of SEEN in Publishing. I think some of you saw the report we published last year with Sex Matters, Everyday cancellation in publishing - Sex Matters, as I remember it being discussed here.
Well, this year we teamed up with Transgender Trend and Biology in Medicine to do a deep dive into trans activism in children's books, Children's trans-themed books - Transgender Trend which we thought might be of interest to those of you who are involved with schools/libraries or are just concerned parents. If it strikes a chord, do let your school/local library know about the report, and point out that there are serious safeguarding issues with some of these books. I am happy to discuss further with anyone interested!
Best wishes
Julia Williams

Thanks for what you do. I looked into taking a formal librarian qualification last year and found the training courses and professional body are utterly captured, pushing this in a misguided attempt to foster “diversity”. The profession needs to change and stop pushing political agendas in order for the books on the shelves to change.

@IrnBruAndDietCoke

I looked into taking a formal librarian qualification last year

Interesting, I have also looked into it in the past few years, but gave up because I just couldn't bear having to get through all the "right on" bumf. I wonder how many new librarians the sector is not training, due to these kind of ideological barriers?

@JuliaWSeeninPublishing thanks for this!

@JuliaWSeeninPublishing, thank you so much for your report - it’s brilliant (and how fantastic that you got Anne Fine to provide a commentary). There was some discussion here when it first came out:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5543489-5543489-seen-in-publishing-report-on-childrens-books

I gained my library & information studies MSc 16 years ago, so dodged the worst of it. I fight a quiet rearguard action at my school, and no one has ever asked me for the books that I quietly do not buy.
I do worry about the younger members of my profession though - it's all inclusion, and forget about the safeguarding (and yes, there very much are books that it is not sensible or appropriate to hive to younger children)

It is a job that I wanted to train for many, many years ago, but took a different path and ended up in finance and audit (because I am good at it, not because I love it). Wish I had gone with what I loved, but unless things return to normal, I won't be retraining in librarianship.

It must be isolating sometimes to have to "fight a quiet rearguard action" - but I hope you can still find some joy in your career nonetheless. I think working in a library in a school might be one of the most difficult jobs right now (ideology-wise, if that makes sense).

It must be isolating sometimes to have to "fight a quiet rearguard action" - but I hope you can still find some joy in your career nonetheless. I think working in a library in a school might be one of the most difficult jobs right now (ideology-wise, if that makes sense).

I adore my job (fortunate in the school) and I'm old enough to be sure of what i do and do not believe. There are other Librarians that I am careful around, and I just don't engage with CILIP, but i don't feel particularly isolated.
I'm sad that you didn't get to do the thing you wanted to do.

I'm glad you love your job 😀Mine is ok, it definitely pays the bills. Librarian jobs at the time I was considering it didn't pay very well, I was just out of university and needed money! I didn't fancy paying out tuition fees all over again before I had started to make some "real" money. A training contract in financial services gave me what I thought I wanted. It hasn't been a bad career at all, and I've done some interesting things, travelled quite a bit. But, it's a job, not a passion.

Oh, well. It was a nice dream, but it's probably too late for me to retrain anyway.

Love my job - but it pays very badly!

Thank you OP. This report will be very useful for parents struggling with the challenge of supporting their children to explore all life via literature and then encountering the low grade, often porn soaked dross that's churned out by talentless activists under the title of "literature" for children.

Telling that apparently no one actually wants to read these books!

Ironically I was hoping it would be less captured than the NUJ which I was so utterly fed up with. 😂 Ended up teaching abroad in the end but I’m dreading returning to the UK and finding out how much worse it’s got while I’ve been gone.

Well, that's was quite the read. I have read things in the subject, but to see it all condensed like that is really shocking.

Women subjected to vitriolic pile ons, by people utterly confident in using their work SM, clearly identifying their employers and those employers doing nothing, indeed, very senior personnel joining in the hate and encouraging it...

And they think that they are the good guys, lovely freedom fighters, OTRSOH. It's mind boggling and an utter disgrace that they've been allowed and continue to be allowed to get away with it.

It really could be made simple...this literature reflects the time, and is relevant and interesting to discuss changes. That's how we learn to filter feeling offended from history.