Hello friends! My teacher tried to make the whole class dress up as Mr Men and Little Misses for World Book Day. She said if we didn't we would have to write a 500 word persuasive letter on why we aren't going to do it. To be honest, I don't actually think she thought anyone would actually write one... Anyway, I thought I share it here, just in case any of you wanted a read.
Dear Katie,
I am writing to you to tell you why I have decided not to go as a character from the popular Mister Men series by Roger Hargreaves to World Book Day. Please take the time to read and consider the reasons I have outlined the below.
Firstly, World Book Day is about celebrating books you love and dressing up as characters from those books. On the World Book Day website, it says, and I quote, “Bring your favourite book character to life.” How am I able to do this if I am dressing up as a character from a series I read a few books of when I was four or five years old? Part of the fun of the day is looking around the playground to see what people enjoy reading by looking at their costume. The real truth is that many people, not only me, don’t enjoy the Mister Men series and would have a much more enjoyable day if they could dress up as a fictional character they look up to or enjoy reading about, rather than stereotype enforcing toddler fodder.
Secondly, the Mr Men and Little Misses lack uniqueness. Apart from their colours, there's not much difference between the characters appearance, leaving minimal room for creativity and imagination in a costume. Surely you’d want people to express themselves on the one day we get to dress as book characters to school?
Furthermore, the Little Miss and Mr Men characters are all harmfully stereotypical. In fact the characters live in a place named Misterland and the Little Miss characters were written a whole ten years after the Mister Men characters were first created in 1971. As well as this, the name Little Miss makes you think of a small child whereas Mr Man is made to sound very big, strong and much more powerful. Roger could easily have called the female series Ms Woman or even just Miss Woman. To be honest, the author didn’t even need to separate the characters based on gender, as the only difference it really makes throughout the series is in the title. Not only are there gender stereotypes but the books teach impressionable young children that you can only be a certain way. For example, Little Miss Tidy is considered to be good whereas Mr Rude is only meant to be considered bad. Surely you would agree that it’s not good for me to be promoting this with a costume of a character I don’t even like.
I know that you and other people in the class feel that we are more likely to win the competition with outfits from the same franchise, however, if you work hard to create a costume that you love, I’m sure whoever’s judging will love the effort and still pick us. I understand people may also say that if I’m the only person without a Mr Man or Little Miss costume, then I am letting the whole class down, but actually, wouldn’t it be better if I’m standing up for what I believe in instead of going with everyone else even though I don’t agree with it?
In conclusion, I hope I have managed to persuade you to let me be something other that a Mr Man character this year and you don’t put me on one o’clock for a week for dressing up as someone else.
Kind Regards,
Edie
PS. I counted the words, I wrote 572 not including the Dear Katie.
Thank for reading my lengthy letter. My usual posts aren't always quite like this so if this is your first time on my blog, be sure to scroll on down!
