If she is British, It is very likely that she was reading the famous five- this is book 7 I think.

It is really a piece of evidence that trans people are nothing new.

George was definitely gender non-conforming. She was a fictional character, so we can only look to the authors probable intention. The best way to do that it to imagine a conversation with Enid Blyton or to research whether there are any such interviews in existence. George was what was at the time known as a tomboy. I identified with her completely as a child. My name is Joanna, but I was always Joe. If I met kids who didn't know me, I used he/ him pronouns because I wanted them to think of me as a boy. My last wish/prayer before sleep at night was that I would be a physical boy when I woke up, and my first thought on waking was the awful realisation that I was not. These very few characters in fiction( try Swallows and Amazons)were like a lifeline to me and all the gender non-conforming girls who read them. It wasn't easy. My behaviour was mostly seen as 'bad behaviour','acting out' etc and I and others like me faced daily hostility from adults and children alike. Gender non- conforming boys got a much worse deal. Trans kids are trans. Trans kids are gender non-conforming, but not all gender non- conforming kids are trans. I'm a 63 year old gender non-conforming lesbian and happy to be a woman. Many straight cis women were also empowered by these characters who took them away from the strict gender roles of the times. Can we agree to share the joy of these characters rather than appropriate them to any particular cause?

@@joannasnee3871 I love your response! It sounds like you have had an interesting gender journey, I totally agree- both trans and gender non conforming kids had gender non-conforming characters to help them make sense of life. I think George was probably the most extreme of the time, I must look back into swallows and amazons- I loved them, especially that one of the Amazons changed their name because pirates had to be Ruth-less. It is interesting to look at older fiction and see that kids have always explored gender and that there have always been gender non-conforming kids all across the spectrum. Thank you for your comment!

Wow. Such simple visability!

Not, “Wants to be a Woman, but Isn’t” ?

@@jasonkh4 translated to english

@@jasonkh4 actually it totally could have been a woman's name, usually the females owned the houses and stuff in that culture. Haven't looked thru that book in years

Yes, Enid Blyton’s books lost popularity in the eighties and nineties because writers like Jaqueline Wilson etc were writing low effort high engagement books that reflected children’s lives of the time. But in the late seventies and early eighties I was devouring them from the library. The book in the video is one I bought from a jumble sale in 1986 (I wrote the date in it!).

I wonder if that was a reference to George from the famous five?

I think it is so important to have the opportunity for gender swap play, it is part of how we learn to understand gender. Millions of children read about George and role played as the famous five, many played with gender and a few saw their own gender expressed in George and felt seen.

I am stunned that so many people have viewed my little video!

It was withdrawn from many libraries in the 1980s because of the racism. But no-one ever seems to complain about George.

Thanks for watching!

Oh yes, I always felt so sad for poor Anne who was never allowed to do anything except make sandwiches.

Ooh! Thank you, I had forgotten that. I must revisit the oz stories!

The marvellous land of oz may have fallen into my online shopping cart… I vaguely remember a character who magically changes gender, but I will need to read it again.

@@youareherediversity7321 there is a rather blatant reference of Ozma where she’s represented as “back when she was a boy” and it was very much a trans fem coded thing where she is described as looking like a boy but really being a girl deep down. It’s a very surprising little bit of representation

@@CraftyVegan i am excited to look at this again as an adult!

One reason why tomboys have always been more accepted in society than femboys is misogyny. People could readily understand a girl wanting to be a boy because deep down everyone knew that females were subjected to worse treatment than males on almost every level. It's like how everyone can understand a poor person wanting to be rich.

Interesting view, but I think many trans boys would see their experience reflected in George. I doubt whether Blyton framed it like that in her mind- but I think George reads as very determined that they are as much of a boy as society allowed.

Interesting comment, Transphobes also have a problem with using a gender switched name. In the books, George never directly asks for male pronouns, but every time someone assumes they are a boy it is commented on how much it delights them.

I need to look back at Ozma- I don’t remember

Lol

True, the first phaloplasty was in 1950, one year after this book was published. The first male to female surgeries were in 1930. Unfortunately, a wealth of research into transsexuals and medical care was lost when Herschfeld’s library was burned by the Nazis in 1933.

OK, so what do you mean by "trans kids" in the 1940's? Perhaps you mean boys who'd like to be girls or vice versa?

@@davidrodgersNJ both. Though being trans is about more than ‘wanting to be’.

@@youareherediversity7321 Well, I think the current controversy over "trans kids" is (at least mainly) about people being given hormones and surguries while they are below the age of legal capacity. In that sense, I don't think "trans kids" goes back to the 1940's.

Representation is about having fictional characters who have similar life experiences to you. It is not about them being factual it is about them reflecting real life and showing real experiences.

@@youareherediversity7321 are you suggesting that “facts” and “real life” are not mutually exclusive?

@@jasonkh4 you're being incredibly dense. That disclaimer is that the characters aren't supposed to be any specific person, not that they aren't realistic portrayals of types of people.

@@chariot5660 no, incredibly dense would be for one to take their cues on how to conduct themselves from entirely imaginary, (or FICTIONAL) characters. Literally the reason why Catcher in the Rye was banned for twenty years, and why some regard it as a “red flag” book.

@jasonkh4 so characters in books are all supposed to be entirely alien? Just completely fictional beings who don't think and act like people?? I was wrong, in addition to being dense you're an asshat

Thank you

@@youareherediversity7321 of course! :D