Times have changed, Do says, adding he wouldn’t include the lists if he had his time over again.Credit: Scholastic
With 19 books now in theWeird series, it has sold 4 million copies in Australia alone but has also been successful overseas. Do says if he had his time over again, he wouldn’t include the list.
“Most fairy tales have the princess who’s the most beautiful in the land and the prince who is the most handsome and I wanted to change that narrative,” he says.
Even though Weirdo is funny-looking, he can still be the hero, Do says, and kids love the underdog: he’s not the fastest, the smartest or the best-looking, but he is a hero who represents them.
The news comes amid discussions about gender stereotypes and toxic masculinity – particularly in young men, amid a backdrop of male ‘influencers’ such as Andrew Tate proving popular among some teenage boys – and ongoing violence against women in Australia.
Do argue lists based on attractiveness have been normalized in society.
“As long as society has Miss Universe and someone comes first, second and third, and magazines do the ‘world’s hottest actor’ lists, kids see these things,” he says. Until we stop running such events and publishing these things, the best-selling author says, children and teens might well continue to copy them.
On Monday, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan linked the Yarra Valley Grammar incident to the crisis of violence against women. “The behavior that’s been reported… at that school in Ringwood is misogynist, it’s disgraceful, it’s disgusting and it’s absolutely unacceptable,” Allan said.
“Four women every week are losing their lives at the hands of a man. Not only does this pattern of violence against women have to stop but also these displays of disrespecting women. “My thoughts today are with the young women and the young men who go to school with who are absolutely devastated by this.”
