An extremely insightful read, however I struggled to warm to the authors as they seemed eager to highlight bias claims, but not put their own perspective on them. If you are to write a book like this, it is much preferred to do some from all perspectives, as everybody has different opinions on the topic.

This was a good read in general although the structure made it a bit repetitive - it's hard to create a book from tweets and articles and they could have been more integrated. Loved the link with Grabrucker's book which I read years ago. My full review on my blog https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2019/10/21/book-review-ros-ball-and-james-millar-the-gender-agenda/

I found this book fascinating. In truth, I haven't finished reading it yet as it's one that needs time taken over it and the points that are raised in it need careful consideration. It is a topic that is certainly relevant to now and is very evident when I speak to parents about the issues that they are facing with their children.

Discusses gender stereotyping that are subconsciously conferred on children just as soon as they are born.

An interesting look at how gender pervades all parts of society and how it is shaping us for generations to come.

WHAT I READ IN… JULY
August 7, 2017 in Filed Under: Books, Goodreads, kindle, Netgalley, Reading, Reviews
I READ IT IN...

I’ve been majorly slacking on posting, but I wanted to get my July reads up before it already turned into the end of August! I was away for two weeks in August for both work and vacation and I had both blogging and reading suffer because of my travels! But I finished up six books in the month – half of which were non-fiction.

In July I read:
What I Read in July 2017 | Perks of Being a JAP | www.perksofbeingajap.com

The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts by Gary Chapman. I found The 5 Love Languages really intriguing! Weeks later I am still trying to figure out which of the five are my love languages. I think I’ve narrowed it down to Acts of Service, and to Physical Touch. I have had some discussion with Dave about them but I want him to either read the book on his own or take the test to figure out his love languages. Overall Rating 4 out of 5.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid. This book has been sitting on my literal bookshelf for months. My mom passed it onto me after she read it but for whatever reason, I never picked it up. Now that I have a big pile of books to go through on top of what’s on my Kindle, I figured I’d start with this one. And it was so good! The novel is told in the style of a single narrative by Changez, a Pakistani man speaking to an unnamed tourist. He weaves a tale of how he was educated at Princeton, wooed by a top tier New York firm and in love with a damaged girl. Soon Changez’s story starts to turn a little sinister after he describes the tragedy of 9/11 and both his own reaction to it as well as the reaction of those around him to both the devastation, and to his Pakistani background. I was kept enraptured until the end – and there’s a great twist! Overall Rating 5 out of 5.

The Idea of You by Amanda Prowse. At first, The Idea of You starts out like it will be a generic, British chick lit novel but it wound up surprising me and became a poignant story about motherhood. Lucy has finally met the man of her dreams and has a great marriage and a great job, but she wants a baby. As she and her husband are trying, her 16-year-old step daughter comes to spend the summer with them and Lucy is thrown for a loop at her first turn as a “mother”. I really enjoyed how the relationships in the book matured and progressed and how while there was a nice ending, it wasn’t an ending that was wrapped up in a neat little bow, resolving every little issue in the end. Overall Rating 5 out of 5.

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. I got into the Freakonomics podcast due to Dave and later realized he had the book sitting in our bookcase (probably for years.) Finally picked it up to read and I really enjoyed it! It’s interesting how Steven and Stephen tie things together that you wouldn’t normally think were related, like how the legalization of abortion affected the rate of violent crimes. Super interesting and fun to read. I think the title daunted me for years, but it’s totally written in layman’s terms, making it easy for the everyday person to understand (aka ME!) Overall Rating 4 out of 5.

The Gender Agenda: A First-Hand Account of How Girls and Boys Are Treated Differently by James Millar. I’m always interested in gender and how it is portrayed in the media, how toys and clothes are marketed differently based on gender and now even more about transgender issues. It’s a topic Dave and I discuss frequently and we always want to make sure that Sadie isn’t boxed in by something being for “boys” or for “girls” only. She is a girl that plays equally with toys marketed to both genders and we try to reinforce that behavior in talks with her as well. The Gender Agenda started off as a Twitter feed from two parents that was filled with quotes or actions that they received or noticed about their children and gender. Their Twitter blew up and they started a blog, wrote this book, etc. It was certainly eye opening – I realized that even though I may talk the talk in how I’d like Sadie to perceive gender there were still actions I was practicing that made me sit back and think, oh geez, I totally did that! Great read.

"The Gender Agenda" gives some examples of how gender stereotypes are forced on children but it didn't really give any explanation or background to how this could be changed or even goes into any depth on the subject why it should be changed.

Overall, it's an interesting read but there are several books on the subject which are much more informative.

A collection of tweets, blogs and assorted lists. Preaching to the converted with me over the general point of the reinforcement of gender roles with children, and I think its a bit too disjointed to work for non believers. Still, enough to keep me nodding and smiling.

I don’t do this often, but I’m going to write a review of this book before I’ve finished reading the book. Don’t worry, I’ll explain my reasons. It’s also not very often a book ends up in my DNF pile, and this one interests me enough to stay out of that pile…so far. But today is its publication day and with everything I have going on in my life right now I really don’t know how long it will take me to finish the book. I know it takes me longer to read a nonfiction book than my usual contemporary romance, but this one really is not moving quickly for me at all.

I’m getting ahead of myself. I don’t want you to think this is a bad book. My problem with this book is partly my reading style and partly the writing style. The book is set up in three sections. I’m still in the first section (which is by far the longest section), which is called The Diary. This section is a diary of the pair’s Twitter account (@GenderDiary) they started shortly after their second child, a son, was born to document how he was treated in comparison to their older child, a daughter. While I find the snippets of their daily life and observations interesting, I feel it’s lacking in substance. I love Twitter, but tweets are not books. Sometimes I felt I was missing some background information. That perhaps a particular tweet was in reference to another tweet that wasn’t mentioned. I don’t know, it just didn’t feel fully fleshed out to me.

The second section is called The Blogs. While I haven’t gotten to this section yet, I jumped over to take a gander. The section starts with an explanation that in the summer of 2012 the authors were asked to contribute a series of blogs to an online magazine. So again, it’s a rehashing (from what I can tell, word for word) of previously published work they did…on a blog this time instead of Twitter.

The final section is titled Dad Diaries. From what I can tell, it’s another section of previously released work. This time from only James Millar as he becomes the primary childcare giver of the children and observes how he’s viewed by the outside world.

So as you can see, this book is a compilation of a Twitter account and two blogs that have all previously been out there for public consumption. That in itself is not really a problem if you go into it knowing this. The description of this book does say it’s adapted from tweets and blogs, so if you read the description you cannot be mad about that. It’s more that I don’t know how well these formats (tweets and blogs) translate to a whole book.

That all being said, I found the subject matter interesting. I found the authors very observant of the world around them as well as their own actions. I will be finishing this book (and will update my review if needed) and hope once I get out of the Twitter section I will find the reading a bit more smooth.

This book was well-written, but the bias and extreme claims made it hard to get through. The author struggles to adopt and maintain a feminist perspective without coming across as very problematic at times.

Parents grapple with raising their children in a 'gender neutral' environment.

The first part of the book, which consists of tweets, provide a mundane look into gender and an a glimpse and the often overlooked gender stereotypes enforced on children. The second and third parts of the book are more concise.

I liked that the author not just whinges about how difficult it is to break gender stereotypes but also offers some recommendations.

Insightful reads.

There is a general need for this book, I found some of the stories very eye opening and made me think about things from a different perspective, however, I do not feel like the people who need to read this book- will, which is always disappointing.

<b>Release Date: 07.21.17</b>

Gender — gender dysphoria, specifically — is something that has recently started fascinating me and I've adjusted my reading accordingly. Thanks to recent progress in gender studies, there seems to be more books published on this topic than ever before. It's one I find endlessly fascinating, so when I saw this book up for request on Netgalley, I jumped on it.

This is a nonfiction volume comprised of live tweets and blog posts created by two parents of two children — a son and daughter. Their children are young; the tweets and posts are about observations the kids (and parents) make about gender and how it enforces their worldview. Basically, this one is a series of snapshots of parents' journey to becoming more aware, progressive, feminist parents.

I liked this book. Despite my 3 star rating, I did like it. I just didn't love it, that's all. It made me reconsider my notions of gender, for sure; the parents make several great points here. As well, I liked that it's never clear at any one time whether the mom or dad is the one tweeting or blogging — that way there is no chance for gender bias, only total consideration for what ideas are being explored. Nice touch, I think.

However, the parents do tend to be a little overly snarky, a little condescending. At times their manner of speaking grated my nerves. Yes, I get frustrated by sexism and ignorance when it comes to gender dysphoria in today's culture — but at times the pettiness and whining was over the top. By the 80% mark I began to skim, which is never good.

Overall, this is an enjoyable and informative read, but I will never revisit it.

<b>Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC, which was given in exchange for an honest review.</b>