Maya Forstater

As one of the co-founders of Let Toys Be Toys I am utterly disappointed that you are now promoting the ideology which says that a girl who wants short hair, likes fixing things and isn't into sparkles and dresses is 'in the wrong body' and must be a boy. Heartbroken.

No one is saying gender is defined by what you like. No one. Short hair and fixing things doesn't force someone to be a boy. They're a boy because that's who they know they are. Respecting their autonomy to know and express their own identity doesn't effect you, or anyone else

And yet the book for children says that she cut her hair and put on a suit and became a he. Why not say the she wore the most beautiful balldress and fell in love with the Prince while identifying as he?

This is a complicated suggestion on a couple levels. Unfortunately we don't live a world devoid of gendered concepts. If we want to erase those divides entirely than great, let's do it. But placing the impetus for that on people who already struggle to be recognized isn't fair

Dresses aren't part of the male experience, whether that's fair or not. So a trans man may avoid stereotypically feminine things because of painful associations with who he was forced to be, just practically to avoid being misgendered, or just because it isn't part of his world

A better counter point might be, why doesn't a cis-man wear a dress just for the hell of it? It should be just a valid an answer under these terms, and if it isn't then there's a far deeper problem at play here

I can't speak as directly on whether or not things are being oversimplified for children, but expecting someone who identifies as male and will face significant push back in doing so to not /act/ male in a gender divided society seems unrealistic to say the least