OLIVER BUTTON IS A SISSY

By Tomie dePaola

(Voyager Books, 1979)

My last blog post highlighted three picture books about gender-nonconforming boys. I’d noted that there have always been boys who wear dresses and who don’t follow the “expectations” for being a boy, but picture books have only recently picked up on the topic.

But then I discovered Oliver Button Is a Sissy at the Vancouver Public Library. Published in 1979, the book is by prolific children’s book author/illustrator Tomie dePaola (Strega Nona). The opening page gets right to it: “Oliver Button was called a sissy. He didn’t like to do things that boys are supposed to do.” We see him picking flowers while boys play football in the background. In subsequent pages, we learn that Oliver likes nature walks, skipping rope, reading books, playing with paper dolls and playing dress-up. (For other reasons, it troubles me that reading books is included as an atypical boy activity, something that makes one a sissy.)

While Oliver sings and dances in the attic, a sheet draped over his clothes, his father appears and says, “Don’t be such a sissy! Go out and play baseball or football or basketball. Any kind of ball!” Yes, it’s 1979. Back then, even the adults—even parents—could openly put down non-masculine behaviors in boys. Still, the page disturbs me greatly.

Eventually, Oliver’s parents enrol him in dance classes—“‘Especially for the exercise,’ Papa said.” Oliver is perfectly content as the only boy. But the boys at school make fun of Oliver’s tap dance shoes and he is rescued by girls. The sissy label doesn’t go away. Until, at the end of the story, it does. Or does it?

This is another great book to use with children and adults. For adults, there are some who fail to understand that challenges for gender-nonconforming youth go back far beyond our present time when LGBT issues get more press. There are adults who selectively remember childhood, whitewashing their own role in putting down or failing to stick up for “sissies.” For boys who don’t fit traditional gender roles, the book helps to understand the “problem” is not theirs alone; in fact, it goes back to their parents’ and grandparents’ time. There have been lots of Olivers and there always will be. Hopefully, we’re getting better at understanding and accepting them.

For convenience, you can find a YouTube read-aloud of the book here.