In the way that memory often does, I suddenly began thinking about something that I hadn't thought about for years over Christmas. I found a book, quite by chance, in a box that my mum had acquired from somewhere. Bill's New Frock by Anne Fine is the story of Bill Simpson who wakes up one day as a girl and is forced to school in a pretty pink frock. He then experiences the day from a female perspective. The book was first published in 1989 and is heralded as children's classic and a fine comment on gender issues.
So how did I come into contact with it? Well I was sitting at home one morning, ill from school or college I think, turned on the TV and there was a drama playing on the channel. A scruffy looking boy was wearing a pretty pink frock and being treated just like a girl. This was portrayed in the Quantum Leap way where we see the male actor in drag as opposed to an actress pretending to be a boy. The pink frock seemed to be the only article of clothing in his wardrobe that day and I recall scenes where he's told he's not allowed to paint pictures of war and when he kicks a ball through someone's window the boys get the blame. I can't recall how old I was at the time but looking it up on the net, the film was made in 1998 so I would have been at least in my late teens and in college.
Shortly after that I remember searching the local library database for the book and finding it in another town. I went there specifically to read it and learn more about the story. Bill's New Frock was something that chimed with me at the time and gave me a taste for the type of stories I would come to seek out in years to come while coming to terms with my own feelings and gender issues. At least it's good to know that something like this is out there for kids to read and for some to feel that they are not alone as they battle their own gender issues.
I recall having parts of this read to us in my primary school, but I must have missed most of them somehow or they were for another class or something. Anyway, I was fascinated with the concept of the book at the age of about eight or nine but never really grasped the 'gender issues' nature of the book. I just knew that reading about a boy who was *forced* to wear a frock and act like a girl was something I found fascinating.
ReplyDeleteI did try to track it down, but between the ages of eight and eleven I was a bit faddy with my reading - I would've read it in a day or two - and also introverted enough that I worried about how it would look if I was seen to be reading it. My, how little things have changed.
Therefore I tip my hat to you for having it, reading it and being able, I hope, to enjoy it.
I worried a lot about how it would look for me to be seen reading it but it was something I really wanted to do.
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