An Open Letter to Rachel Rooney
(because sometimes, it’s not just the thought that counts)
December, 2020
Dear Rachel,
We haven't met but I have read your beautiful book and, given the nonsensical attacks I have seen directed at you, am moved not just to think it but to tell you how lovely, compassionate, clear and kind your story's message is and what an important piece of work it is.
Very occasionally, an author writes something so clear, so beautiful, so simple, that you cannot believe it wasn't already written before – this is one of those books and you are that author. Rest assured, it's a timeless and exemplary work of children's literature with, when good sense prevails, a long, beloved and much deserved place in the hearts of children and parents the world over.
It's absurd, utterly absurd, that anyone would object to helping every child to embrace their body. It's beyond all reason, totally bananas (poor bananas – where on earth did that phrase come from!?). That anyone, ever, could read anything other than compassion, clarity and kindness in your celebratory words and pitch perfect tone is a deeply sad reflection of what they've come to believe and what they've been subjected to.
I can't help but see the sad irony in this; many of these very people (and their schools & parents) were, not so far back, the very children who so needed your lovely book to read as they were struggling to accept themselves as they are under the relentless drip of regressive messaging to reject their bodies as 'wrong' for perfectly healthy and natural appearances, interests, characters etc. What a mess this money driven, image obsessed messaging is making of society!
Of course there are others. There are the bullies who simply revel in vicious and unfounded attacks. They are without conscience, though, Rachel - they deserve none of your energy, time or thought. None. Hopefully you can find a way, with friends, humour, whatever works for you, to see this and leave their nastiness with them.
Somehow, for me anyway, more thoughtless and jarring are those, with great reach, who reinforce or support these nonsensical attacks on your work and your character. I find myself shocked, daily, by people I'd expect to know better. It's so disappointing. I guess, in the end, creativity and imagination are simply no measure of a person's critical clarity or personal integrity.
And after what I saw yesterday, I write all of this in the hope these words bring you even a tiny fraction of the comfort your many, many young readers will find in My Body Is Me for many, many years to come.
Sincerely,
ELCYG ~ TOOLONGDEAD