Gender Swapped Greek Myths

Product Information

Hello Yellow - 80 Books to Help Children Nurture Good Mental Health and Support With Anxiety and Wellbeing - Karrie and Jonathan love these stories, and have found a way to breathe new life into them by making one crucial change...

William, my 12 year old son, and I share a love of mythology and history. We have built over the years a collection of books filled with a wide range of retellings of the stories of Greek mythology. Of course names had to be changed, but since many Greek names have both male and female versions, this was not too hard to adjust for. Where not they made sure it was still a valid change in keeping with the myths themselves. Imagine a world where you hurry along the street, past wolf-whistling workwomen, pausing at the traffic light for the red woman to turn green before rushing to make your ‘Father and Baby’ class where you’ll join the men (and perhaps one or two token women) in sitting on the floor listening to the story of Sleeping Handsome being kissed without consent by a brave Princess to all the tiny, wide-eyed girls and boys on the floor. Imagine a world turned on its head. These stories thousands of years old have stood the test of time, and with their age old themes of loss, love and sacrifice, still impact our lives and new stories written today. It’s important to note that this gender swap does not create a utopian society. This world is merely a reflection of our own with all the same problems and power imbalances, just with the genders reversed. The purpose of this book is to help us see our own world and all its inequalities in a clearer light and hopefully to help us all empathise with ‘the other side’. We hope to break down boundaries, allowing children and adults to explore even more possible roles. To be courageous heroines, loving fathers or even beastly Minoheifers in a less divided world.Beginning life as a woman Hatshepsut ruled as regent upon the death of her husband Thutmose II, the throne passed to her son, Thutmose III. Too young to rule alone, Hatshepsut was regent for her son for three years, until for reasons unknown, she became Pharaoh. The way we tell stories matters. The way we see and understand and talk about the world around us and the people in it matters. Books like this one and its predecessor matter.

I am hoping people more eloquent than me on this blog tour will explain why this book is so brilliant and so beautiful. Because it really truly is and I urge you to read it for yourself and with your young people. Hatshepsut seems to have experimented with gender to find a form that was both tolerable to the Egyptian people and elites, as well as best represented her personal image of herself. She is often depicted with both male and female attributes.The tales of Ancient Greece have stood the test of time. They are brilliant stories, perfect for performing, reading aloud or alone. These sagas are filled with quests, romance, family feuds, births, deaths, comedy, tragedy, gods, monsters, betrothals, betrayals and battles. Imagine a world where seductive male sirens lure brave heroines to their death, where Icara and her mother fly too close to the sun, and where beautiful men are forced to wed underworld queens… The needles and pins were said to be relevant to seamstresses in rural French history, I'm now trying and failing to find good sources ... Many writers have rewritten the Greek Myths, changing styles, endings and more, but this author/illustrator team decided to take many of the Classic Greek Myths we know and love, and many that aren't so well known and change just one thing. Genders. The result is a collection of stories where the woman isn't sitting around waiting to be rescued, or waiting for years for her beloved to return, or pliably taking whatever fate is dished out for her by the men around her.