Even if 'bossy' could be banned, there are far better ways to boost girls' self-esteem | Hadley Freeman

Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg and Beyoncé want to ban the word 'bossy' as disparaging to women. It's a good start, but there's so much more to be done. Here are my top tipsThat growing numbers of girls suffer from issues of self-esteem during adolescence – ones that can be carried over into adulthood – is not up for debate. What is debatable is what should be done about this. Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook and author of the bestselling feminist-ish book Lean In, has come up with her own typically high-powered and certainly well-intentioned solution: to ban the word "bossy". "When a little boy asserts himself, he's called a 'leader'. Yet when a little girl does the same, she risks being branded 'bossy'," she writes.It will come as a massive surprise to no one to learn that I was called bossy quite a lot as a kid, and still am (although I wouldn't have to be bossy if people would just bloody well do as I say). Yet it's never bothered me, mainly because I grew up idolising Miss Piggy and Lucy van Pelt from Peanuts, and never saw bossiness as anything other than a wholly commendable quality. But for those unacquainted with the mighty pig, Sandberg has made a video featuring herself, Condoleezza Rice, Beyoncé and others, arguing that the word "bossy" should be "banned" (in the self-censoring sense, one suspects, as opposed to the, you know, legal one) because it's a way of telling confident girls to shut up.Insults are often gendered – in adulthood at... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2014-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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WATCH: Novelist C Pam Zhang in Conversation with John Freeman

Click below to watch the first virtual meeting of the Alta California Book Club, which Books Editor of Alta Journal David Ulin describes as: an opportunity for us to rethink the book club as a kind of ongoing process involving events, involving posts and interviews and discussions on the Alta... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-12-02 09:48:47 UTC ]
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Boys Will Be Boys, Girls Have to Cover Up

In Fariha Róisín’s debut novel Like a Bird, protagonist Taylia Chatterjee lives a privileged life on Manhattan’s Upper West Side with her sister Alyssa. Alyssa often receives preferential treatment from their liberal, overbearing parents—a white Jewish mom, a Hindu Bengali dad. Taylia is... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-12-01 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury spreads word with industry-exclusive proof for The Other Black Girl

Bloomsbury has launched its marketing and publicity campaign for Zakiya Dalila Harris' publishing-set novel, The Other Black Girl, with a proof going exclusively to industry professionals. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-01 04:30:21 UTC ]
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Picador wins four-way auction for 10 books from Kincaid

Picador has won a four-way auction for 10 books from Jamaica Kincaid, hailed by the publisher as “one of our greatest living writers”. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-27 02:18:31 UTC ]
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HarperNonFiction wins four-way battle for Fisher

HarperNonFiction has won a four-way auction for Women in the War by Times defence editor Lucy Fisher. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-20 10:25:59 UTC ]
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Cornerstone wins five-way auction for Nike marketer's guide to creativity

Cornerstone has triumphed in a five-way auction to publish a guide to creativity from a former chief marketing officer at Nike, Greg Hoffman. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-20 06:18:40 UTC ]
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William Collins wins five-way fight for Marçal's feminist economic exposé

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Hamish Hamilton to publish sequel to Barker's The Silence of the Girls

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[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-16 04:29:31 UTC ]
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Will Dutch library ban on 'Black Pete' books spell end for 'racist' festive tradition?

The portrayal of Santa’s Moor servant ‘Zwarte Piet’ is widely seen as offensive. Protesters applaud the decision to remove the character from children’s books Public libraries across the Netherlands are removing from the shelves children’s books depicting a black-faced Zwarte Piet, a side-kick... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-11-15 10:10:52 UTC ]
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Job cuts on the way as Frankfurt Book Fair considers future plans

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Gordon Brown’s Seven Ways to S&S

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[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-11 20:08:40 UTC ]
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OUP acquires Em Norry's middle-grade novel about a girl spy

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[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-10 05:44:45 UTC ]
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HarperVoyager wins four-way auction for 'delicious' Dean debut

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[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-09 22:52:36 UTC ]
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Elliott & Thompson to publish deep dive into ways money moves

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Penguin Life wins three-way auction for Lancaster's Bridge

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[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-03 06:48:20 UTC ]
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HCG bags YA novel about Bengali-Irish girls navigating queerness

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Penguin launches project to boost diversity in GCSE reading lists

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[ The Guardian | 2020-10-24 16:11:09 UTC ]
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Picador wins Polzin's 'irresistible' Brood in six-way auction

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