Alice May Oseman is the widely acclaimed author of several books written for children. She is also the executive producer of a Netflix show based on one of her bestselling graphic novel series, ‘Heartstopper.’ It seems that Alice Oseman has some specific ideas about what pronouns she likes; the biography on her website features an excessive use of her name, rather the standard use of the pronoun, ‘her.’ Plus, the Wikipedia entry about Alice, uses the designation ‘their’ in place of ‘her’ to describe Alice. This is notable because the author openly seeks to introduce young children to LGBT themes through her work.
The book series ‘Heartstopper’ was brought to our attention by one of our supporters who pulled it out of his 12-year-old child’s school bag. His child had borrowed the book from the school library and no responsible adult questioned whether the books were appropriate. On Alice Oseman’s own website, the book comes with a health warning: it ‘contains discussions around mental health and eating disorders, and sexual references.’ Common sense dictates that we should be cautious about young children encountering these themes, unsupervised and uninstructed, via a book they borrowed from the school library.
When one considers the specific content of the graphic novels, the picture gets even more alarming. The books introduce children to sex, LGBT identities and promotes the use of the internet to explore one’s identity, which is rather ‘tone deaf’ in an era when most parents are waking up to the dangers of allowing children unfettered access to the internet.
The volumes are littered with images of two youngsters engaging in sexualised activities — to
the point of sexual arousal.
The teenagers also engage in a discussion about gender identity and one peripheral character identifies as ‘trans.’ The graphic novels also feature a child using the internet to find out about different sexualities, such as ‘bisexual.’
Anyone with a modicum of common sense will realise that these are adult themes, unsuitable for the average 12-Year-old. Crucially, schools are required to inform parents about what children are being taught about sex and relationships and have the right to see resources and withdraw their children from sex education:
Engagement and transparency with parents. Schools should engage with parents on the content of RSHE and be transparent with parents about all materials used in RSHE. All materials should be available to parents, as described in the section on openness with parents on page 33. Parents have a right to request that their children are withdrawn from sex education (pupils can opt back in from three terms before they turn 16) and schools should ensure parents are aware of sex education content within lessons in advance.
Given this situation, it is incongruous that children should be able to take out graphic novels about sex from a school library.
Crucially, it is important to note that the content of the books are clearly politicised. The author has a particular agenda to communicate about LGBT issues, in addition to mental health issues including eating disorders. Childhood does not have to be disturbed by troubling discourses about whether one is ‘gay’, ‘lesbian’, ‘bisexual’ or ‘transgender’, and children don’t necessarily need to be troubled by mental health issues. Indeed, one might argue that it is the prevalence of books such as ‘Heartstopper’ that normalises childhood exploration of these adult themes. Parents should be alert to the fact that these books might be in their children’s school libraries and parents might wish to consider whether they constitute appropriate reading material for their children.
Finally, it is perfectly possible to object to the publication on the grounds that there are clearly more edifying reads. One thing that is striking about these ‘Heartstopper’ novels is that the narratives are extremely puerile and simplistic, reflecting only a debased form of teenage life, rather than one that is enriched by a range of worthwhile and interesting themes. There are so many books for young people with real heroes and real villains that instruct readers in the art of being heroic. There are books where the language is sophisticated and demanding which is good for children’s development. Parents and educators have both the right and the responsibility to pass on a literary canon that enriches young people, which includes steering clear of works that belittle childhood or dull their intelligence.
ParentPower Team
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