Just had to share this little tidbit that happened recently. We don't watch a lot of TV although lately with all the illness we have had we have let our standards slip. We don't watch the news, we try to never allow the kids to see commercials, and we monitor what they do watch closely. One of the reasons I absolutely HATE commercials is because of the blatant sexism and racism exhibited. Rarely do commercials show interracial families, rarely are toys presented as gender neutral despite their themes or colors.
Teilee has recently started listening to The Magic Tree House series on CD's that we checked out from the library. I love this! It is a media that has her entranced without all the nasty effects of TV. The basic premise is that this brother and sister have a magic tree house that transports them back in time. They go on missions to learn, find clues, and recover ancient objects. Seems pretty innocent and safe, so I left the room while she was listening. Teilee came crying to me in the other room that she didn't want to listen to the story anymore. One of the chapters in one of the books dealt with, by Teilee's description, Roman times. Upon probing she explained that back in Roman times girls couldn't do everything that boys could. She was horrified that the little girl in the story had to dress up as a male soldier so she could go with her brother and do everything he did. Teilee was in tears! She had yet to experience that kind of blatant sexism.
I know that we often become complacent in the sexism that we see, hear, and experience. How far we have come, and yet how far we have yet to go.
Also heard from the mouth of my 6 year old. "If I were a bear (brown bear), I would have been mated by now." Try holding it together when you hear that!!!
My new umberella!
4 comments:
oh my goodness! what mother bear would allow that??!!??
We had a "TV moment" last night. Our standards have slipped a bit (Okay, A LOT) with us all being ill and I was watching The Bachelor and fighting wooziness and 'dang it!' I just didn't want to change the channel when Paxon walked in. Well, as soon as the bachelor and lady crawled into the hot tub paxon laughed and said "are their pee-pees gonna touch?" OOOHHHH EMMMMM GEEEEE!!!!
Did you tell him, "Probably Paxon."
too funny!!!!
I have lots of moments where I think, "If I had been born a century ago" or "If I had been born into an Indian tribe a century ago" or "If I had gotten married after college like so many of my friends did (no offense) I'd probably have 10-year-olds by now!" (I like kids, but don't want any of my own.)
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