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05-03-22 08:10:22 PM
Jul - News - Let's Fight Gender Bias! New poll - New thread - New reply
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Rick
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Posted on 06-27-11 11:59:40 PM Link | Quote
By creating a new, gender-neutral pre-school!

What do you think of this, Jul?

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Posted on 06-28-11 12:02:29 AM Link | Quote
Now this is something I highly approve of.

It would certainly help children find themselves in early years, and not when they're adult or so.

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Peardian

  
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Posted on 06-28-11 02:04:07 AM Link | Quote
I'm curious to see where it goes. I'm also curious as to how they'll get around English not having a (grammatically correct) gender-neutral pronoun for people, which we could really use nowadays. (I don't like saying "they" to refer to a single person, but I like saying "he or she" even less.)

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Posted on 06-28-11 02:08:24 AM Link | Quote
Originally posted by Peardian
I'm curious to see where it goes. I'm also curious as to how they'll get around English not having a (grammatically correct) gender-neutral pronoun for people, which we could really use nowadays. (I don't like saying "they" to refer to a single person, but I like saying "he or she" even less.)

I personally am a big advocate of singular they, but even I have to admit in other cases it sounds really awkward... (like, "themselves" doesn't work very well referring to a singular) I'm not a big fan of gender-specific third person pronouns, but I'm also not a fan of any of the neologisms I've heard for English, so it is difficult...

Though the article does mention they seem to be supporting a neologism "hen". (for Swedish, of course, not English)

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CB

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Posted on 06-28-11 03:11:08 AM Link | Quote
Well, it's interesting. However I do believe that placing lego next to the kitcen in order to "prevent mental barriers" is a little extreme. However all the luck too them.

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Posted on 06-28-11 03:34:56 PM Link | Quote
Originally posted by Imajin
I personally am a big advocate of singular they, but even I have to admit in other cases it sounds really awkward... (like, "themselves" doesn't work very well referring to a singular)


What's wrong with "themself"? Languages are constantly evolving, all it takes is a bunch of people constantly using they for 3rd person neuter singular and it stops being awkward.

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Posted on 06-28-11 03:45:54 PM (last edited by Sanky at 06-28-11 12:52 PM) Link | Quote
Look, a lil' floating box!
Wow, that's pretty awesome.

Apart from the obvious problems in language: in Swedish, 'hen' probably sounds okay next to 'han' and 'hon'; English at least has the singular they (which I've gotten used to); but Czech uses the masculine pronoun when referring to an unknown person, and there's no way around it (unless you want to imply that the person is inanimate); I really think this is a great idea. It's about time, too.
It probably is a bit "extreme", but I see literally no good reasons against.

Originally posted by CB
Well, it's interesting. However I do believe that placing lego next to the kitcen in order to "prevent mental barriers" is a little extreme. However all the luck too them.

The mental barrier thing is probably something the writer added for effect; I see no reason not to place legos next to the kitchen though??

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Lunaria

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Posted on 06-28-11 05:11:35 PM Link | Quote




I support this, and I must admit that the psychologist rise an interesting question, shame he's a stereotype retard. I mean, what is to say girls should not be able to take part in such activities as well without getting weird looks? This is not
Making things not gender bias means that girls can do boy things, and boys can do girl things without being weird. What most morrons seem to say is only one way, that boys do girl things. Which is a stupid way to look at things, the whole idea is that everyone get to do what they want to do, without being biased towards anything. And if everyone gets to do what they want to do, rather then doing what they think they want to do, I'm sure everyone will be happier. (Except companies that strive on gender rolls. (which there are a lot of.))

I'm not sure if this post make much sense, I'm writting it while on the same time I feel terribly sick. Anyhoof, I wanted to speak what was on my mind.

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Posted on 06-28-11 05:30:28 PM Link | Quote

Director Lotta Rajalin notes that Egalia places a special emphasis on fostering an environment tolerant of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. From a bookcase she pulls out a story about two male giraffes who are sad to be childless — until they come across an abandoned crocodile egg.

Nearly all the children's books deal with homosexual couples, single parents or adopted children. There are no "Snow White," ''Cinderella" or other classic fairy tales seen as cementing stereotypes.

I find it funny that they're specifically promoting homosexual stories in children's books but exclude books about heterosexual couples because they're "classic fairy tales" ... I completely agree that nurturing tolerance and acceptance is a good thing, but this is not going to do that by exposing them only to homosexual oriented stories. It's go to the other extreme by only promoting one idea, exactly the opposite of what their supposed goal is. Gender neutrality is a lot different that gender bias. And this is a pre-school for crying out loud. All the kids want to do is play, sleep, and eat. Not saying "him" or "her" is only going to have an effect on their vocabulary, not what toys they decide to play with.


"A concrete example could be when they're playing 'house' and the role of the mom already is taken and they start to squabble," she says. "Then we suggest two moms or three moms and so on."

Again, they're not just allowing the kids to decide what they want, the staff is pushing their ideas on the children. Its not any different that other schools. They're just pushing from a different angle.

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Posted on 06-28-11 05:45:16 PM Link | Quote




Originally posted by Orlandu

"A concrete example could be when they're playing 'house' and the role of the mom already is taken and they start to squabble," she says. "Then we suggest two moms or three moms and so on."

Again, they're not just allowing the kids to decide what they want, the staff is pushing their ideas on the children. Its not any different that other schools. They're just pushing from a different angle.

What you say make sense, but it's also their work to prevent fighting. Simply telling people to stop fighting won't help for the most part, it's better to suggest solutions.

I agree though, going the other extreme won't help. But honestly, at this point, I think it's a better starting point. They will surely get more of the other extreme as they go on in life from that school. :/

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Gabu

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Posted on 06-28-11 06:39:21 PM Link | Quote

Nearly all the children's books deal with homosexual couples, single parents or adopted children. There are no "Snow White," ''Cinderella" or other classic fairy tales seen as cementing stereotypes.


This part I am somewhat iffy on. I mean it's great they have an extensive library of children books that have these concepts, though it feels kind of awkward that it's ALL that they have. :\

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Posted on 06-30-11 05:20:39 AM Link | Quote
I think this is shitty.

Kids don't need this shit on them.

Especially if you look at that part where they're gonna play house and they suggest two or three moms and just ugh.

This is stupid and it shames my country.


That is not to say that I'd like for the generic pre-school to be less gender orientated, but having it gender-neutral is just stupid and unnecessary.

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Posted on 07-01-11 02:54:35 AM Link | Quote
Originally posted by Gabu

Nearly all the children's books deal with homosexual couples, single parents or adopted children. There are no "Snow White," ''Cinderella" or other classic fairy tales seen as cementing stereotypes.


This part I am somewhat iffy on. I mean it's great they have an extensive library of children books that have these concepts, though it feels kind of awkward that it's ALL that they have. :\

:/ Well that is hardly neutral. Wouldn't having books solely dealing with those topics be cementing different stereotypes as opposed to the typical classic fairy tales?

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Posted on 07-01-11 07:31:04 PM Link | Quote
I wasn't talking about the classic fairy tales not being included that made me feel iffy on the whole thing, it's the fact that they seem to only want to read stories that fit their criteria, and that just seems no better than a parent only reading their girl princess stories and their boy construction stories and not letting them intermingle every once in a while.

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Posted on 07-06-11 12:14:44 AM Link | Quote
You know, at first I read the posts here and though, "it's about time". But then I read Orlandu's thoughts on the subject, and... it seems like they're going to opposite extremes by eliminating "stereotypes". I agree that stereotypical gender roles are overplayed, unnecessary, and often just cause pain for those who defy them, but I also see little good in trying to basically reverse the stereotypical roles, either, since enforcing stereotypes is enforcing stereotypes, even if you *are* trying to change them into "Pink Boys, Blue Girls". If my hypothetical boy wants to wear dresses and play Barbies, I'll let him. But if he wants to play with cars and wants to do other rough-n-tumble "boy" things, I'm not going to stop him from doing that, either. To deny our sons and daughters access to stereotypical boy/girl activities would be no different than many of our families not accepting that we didn't want *to* do those things...

In the end, it's a noble idea, which could work with some modification, but as it stands, it's not really "diversity" if you're *only* exposing children to 'alternate' lifestyles. Heterosexual relationships and dual parents may be "stereotypical", but that's only because they're extremely common. Trying to make it out like heterosexual marriage, living with mommy and daddy, girls playing house, and boys playing cars are all just outdated/negative stereotypes is just forcing a different kind of hate. It's best to teach a child that, yes, usually what happens is a man and woman get married and have children, but that's not *always* the case, and there are many, many different ideas of what a "family" are in this day and age. Basically, move forward, but don't discard the past as silly and outdated, when that's far from the case.

I'm not homosexual, but I have many friends that are, and I'd like to hope that what they want is simply to be treated as equals, and that they don't go overboard and start hating heteros the same way many heteros hate homos. Battling hate with hate is counterproductive, hypocritical... and the cycle needs to be broken somewhere...

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Posted on 07-06-11 12:31:16 AM (last edited by paulguy at 07-05-11 09:35 PM) Link | Quote
Paulguy's Post configuration
YK makes some good points, especially with respect to heterosexual relationships.

I'm homosexual and have no problem with it and have no issues heterosexual relationships, either. It's how reproduction works. I can't really argue for the "natural"-ness of homosexuality, but heterosexual sex is the intended way to make more of a species (though I do have to say that everyone making tons of babies wouldn't be good.). They should be taught both sides, because it sucks when you're a preteen and you find yourself attracted to males and you think it's wrong but can't do anything about it, because you were never really taught that it's normal, and peers certainly don't make it any easier at that age.

EDIT: To clarify: They should obviously taught that heterosexual relationships are obviously the way that babies are made, I just didn't go on about that too long because of my obvious bias towards one end of things, and I have no personal experience with respect to it.

On the other hand, this would all be just kind of weird at pre-school age. Maybe just mention that the alternatives can happen but not go in to detail about it, so they get the idea that the other possibilities aren't so wrong, the way I kind of grew up to think about myself when I was pre-teen. So maybe kind of reinforce it at pre-teen age, when all of that sort of stuff is kind of developing for people.

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Posted on 07-06-11 12:39:43 AM Link | Quote
Originally posted by The Doctor
Originally posted by Gabu

Nearly all the children's books deal with homosexual couples, single parents or adopted children. There are no "Snow White," ''Cinderella" or other classic fairy tales seen as cementing stereotypes.


This part I am somewhat iffy on. I mean it's great they have an extensive library of children books that have these concepts, though it feels kind of awkward that it's ALL that they have. :\

:/ Well that is hardly neutral. Wouldn't having books solely dealing with those topics be cementing different stereotypes as opposed to the typical classic fairy tales?

Maybe the thought is that the children will be exposed to those sorts of "normal" topics outside of school (though I admit to having a general lack of knowledge about what kinds of things young Swedish children are exposed to)... after all, school is not the entirety of a child's life, even at that age.

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