I think you’re missing the point. Mark is a dad, and his daughter is a, well, daughter. He’s writing this book from the perspective of his life, not an ideology, which seems utterly appropriate. I mean, I guess he could pretend he was a woman (and his daughter could pretend she likes stuff different than what she really likes), but that would be kind of silly. He could also make the book more generic (generic genderless parent helping generic genderless children), but it seems unlikely that this would make the book better (unless you define better within the narrow context of an ideology). I don’t know if you read many science or technical books, but there is a real push within the publishing industry to make even abstract scientific books (e.g., Max Tegmark’s new The Mathematical Universe) more personal by bringing the author into the story. Publishers have found that (at least in today’s zeitgeist) people prefer reading such books, and a book doesn’t really do anything if people don’t read it.
Maybe Mark’s wife could write a book more to your liking. I think we can all agree that would be great!
Unrelatedly: as part of my 10 year old daughter’s science fair project we built a GSR meter very similar to this. It was a blast!
(But I couldn’t help but think: Hmm. This could be the basis of a pretty fun party game for adults :))
