'A hilarious picture book for children of all ages. When a stinky toot is loosed at a slumber party, six girls learn an important lesson in body positivity and self-acceptance. We Toot lets little girls know it's okay to let one rip.'
Let's be honest, we all fart. I think as adults most of us know this and accept it; yet there's still a lot of stigma around passing wind, especially for anyone who's not male. I remember growing up being told that girls 'don't do that', and that whilst boys are given free reign to fart to their hearts content and to laugh at countless jokes and cartoons about farting it was wrong for girls to do so. It was held up as this thing that only men are allowed to do, and something that women should feel shameful about. Well, I think we all know that's a load of rubbish. Everyone farts. Yes, even the Queen.
We Toot: A Feminist Fable About Farting tires to set right this view that girls can't pass wind, and centres on several friends who gather together for a slumber party. As the girls settle in to have their fun a loud noise is heard and a weird smell fills the room. After a round of denials the girl responsible for the smell comes forward and unashamedly declares that it was her fart.
This of course goes down the way you'd expect, with the other girls telling her that it's not 'proper', and that girls don't do such things. The girl refuses to be shamed about her bodily functions, and eventually another girl comes forward to admit that she too occasionally lets one out. Eventually all of the girls come to admit that they fart, and come to accept it as a perfectly normal and natural part of the human body, no matter what gender you might be.
Like I said before, this is something that is rarely spoken about, and whenever it is it usually consists of girls being told they can't do such things, or to be deeply ashamed if they do, so to see a group of young girls not only admitting that they pass wind, but accepting it as perfectly natural is a breath of foul air. The fact that this comes in the form of a wonderfully drawn picture book with pleasing and easy to read rhymes just makes it even better for young readers.
I don't think that the world is going to be able to normalise farting overnight, and the list of things that people are told they can and can't do based on outdated and frankly ludicrous gender norms and conservative values is long; but, books like this, that normalise the stuff that we've been told is wrong over and over is definitely a good step. Our generation might have had to grow up being told lies like 'girls don't fart' but at least we can try and do better for the next one.
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