Sex and Gender – An Introductory Guide is a new book for the tween/teen age group by the very talented artist and writer, Phoebe Rose.
Buy Sex and Gender here.
The book is a much-needed introduction to the subject of sex and gender for this generation of adolescents who are bombarded with ideas about ‘gender identity’ and misleading and false information about biological sex. The language, design and layout should especially appeal to children on the autistic spectrum who are most vulnerable to the idea that they may have been born in the ‘wrong body.’
In simple, relateable language, the book accurately explains biological sex, intersex, changes at puberty and sexual orientation. It also discusses how gender stereotyping puts girls and boys into restrictive boxes.
Although the book does not mention ‘gender identity’, children are given a way of understanding the confusing array of new gender labels as equally restrictive as traditional gender stereotypes.
In the form of a diverse range of characters asking questions, expressing confusion and discussing the issues amongst themselves, facts about sex and ideas about gender are fully explored in a way that will help children make sense of the confusing messages they are seeing all around them. The children in the book are all introduced at the end.
You can buy the book on our new publishing platform mybodyisme.com
Here, Phoebe Rose explains her motivation for writing the book:
“I wrote this book because I feel that there is a lot of confusing and conflicting information that children are struggling to make sense of, to the point where they are starting to confuse biology and orientation with socially constructed gender stereotypes.
I am a teacher by profession and I am deeply concerned that children are feeling under huge pressure to engage in an adult cultural debate, which can not only lead to anxiety, but also to irreversible medical intervention.
I am concerned that children who do not feel that they ‘fit in’ due to gender non conformity, sexual orientation, or autism (to name a few) may cling to ideologies in place of discovering their personality and growth over time in a safe way.
I also feel that children are smart and they can feel injustice, and sexist stereotypes are heavily pushed onto children… I want to encourage children to have the confidence to challenge stereotypes safely, in a healthy way.
At the moment I feel that the opposite is happening; children are instead being faced with sexist gender stereotype propaganda and it is contributing to pressure, bullying, homophobia and mental health social contagion. I came to this concern based on the feedback from children, their parents, detransitioners and psychologist/psychoanalyst whistleblowers.
Finally, I am an autistic lesbian woman myself, and I know that a book like this would have made a huge difference to me as a young teen, who even 25 years ago felt too much adult pressure regarding orientation and feeling accepted. My hope is that it brings comfort, representation, clarity and reassurance to young teens and tweens as they navigate this confusing time.”
It looks great. I’m ordering two copies. One to keep and one to gift to my niece.
Thank you for your work!
This book provides a compassionate, common-sense approach for teens regarding the loaded topic of gender identity. Thank you!
Please don’t get me wrong, there is not a single statement in the extracts that I do not totally agree with. And there is certainly a need for a book pitched somewhere between My Body is Me! for young children and Kathleen Stock’s new book which I am ordering a copy of. But this book is not it.
I cannot imagine any person above the age of 10 who would not be aware that they were being patronised and talked down to. The style is childish. I don’t know what “teens and tweens” are supposed to be, but from my recollection when I was aged 11 to 16 my strongest wish was to be treated and respected as if I were an adult.
We hope you’ll read the whole book and come to a different conclusion. The book is actually text-heavy and contains ‘adult’ explanations and language that may be challenging for some children of this age group. ‘Tweens’ refers to children approaching puberty so there is not an exact age range; some younger children may enjoy it while skipping the most difficult passages of text, and older teens may very well find it is too young for them. It is pitched at children and the younger end of the adolescent age group and the style is designed to reflect normal conversation rather than being a stilted lecture.
“Gender: the idea that sex controls your personality aka stereotypes”. (“Made up idea”).
This seems less about helping children, and more about advancing this time a different ideology that advances that the sexes were born blank slates, and any difference of behaviour are social constructs.
If the goal is to encourage boys and girls to express themselves however they like, arguably you can do this without mentioning “gender” at all, by teaching them they have a sex (physical reality) and a personality: and that boys and girls can do anything they want, and shouldn’t be limited by their sex. Arguably the book unnecessarily inserts children into a debate held by adults, as evidenced by the awkward gloss of “social construct”, and the use of the term “gender” itself, rather than putting children first.
The book puts forward a contested definition of “gender”. “Gender” is also a word used by scientists to refer to averages of behaviour between the sexes, which are not social constructs. The fact that we can observe averages of behaviour between the sexes, such as the type of toys girls and boys prefer, forms the basis of other research, such as the effects plastics have on hormones, and behaviour, in childhood.
For example, pthlates can cause behavioural changes, including lowering the preference of boys for rough-and-tumble play [1]. It isn’t new to point how this research is fundamentally at odds with the idea the sexes are born as “blank slates”: “Sexually dimorphic play is controversial. Some people say it’s all socially determined. And it undoubtedly does have social determinants, but it also has physiological determinants.”
There is the further behavioural observation, pertinent to Transgender Trend, that children who are said to be “gender non-conforming” e.g. masculine girls and feminine boys, to the extent where they identify as the opposite sex, have an increased likelihood of being homosexual into adulthood.
It’s difficult to see how adherents to the idea that the sexes are born as blank slates can reconcile the idea that e.g. in the case of a highly feminine boy, the femininity part is entirely the social construct, whereas the homosexuality part is “born that way”, with the statistics that show the first part is connected to the second.
Again, I would say this isn’t really a debate children need to be inserted into. But I think if we are to talk about gender, then replacing one ideology held by trans activists, with another, held by social constructivists, does a disservice to the true nuances around this topic.
The underlying motivation for social constructivists seems not to be a wish to present the truth: that sex-based behaviour is a mix of nature and nurture, but rather is connected to an anxiety that recognising there are averages of behaviour between the sexes is somehow an argument we should return to the gender roles of the 1950s, when it should mean no such thing.
[1] https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7440-gender-bending-chemicals-found-to-feminise-boys/
[2] https://theintercept.com/2021/01/24/toxic-chemicals-human-sexuality-shanna-swan/
Thank you for your comment. The intention of the book wasn’t to promote the ‘blank slate’ idea but to help children feel ok about themselves if they don’t comply with social pressures to conform to sex stereotypes. Those pressures have increased markedly over the past decade in children’s marketing. We felt it was important to talk about ‘gender’ because that is the word that children hear now, they can’t get away from it. You are right that it is an adult debate, but it has become part of teaching in schools so we wanted to give children a way of thinking about it differently.