A link I buried in the comments got such a strong reaction so quickly that I thought it best to move it up into a fresh post.
The following is a (2009) poll of about 900 Americans, as to whether or not women should take men’s surnames for their own/ new last names, after they enter into marriage:
A 95 year old woman had to remove her adult diaper during TSA pat down.
Given that the decision to demand that a 95 year-old mortally ill woman remove her diaper before she can pass security check looks like a really bad decision, where does the fault reside? E.g., in the fact that there wasn’t any presumption about what is reasonable? Or maybe the fault lay in the assumption that a lump in a depends diaper is suspicious? Or perhaps TSA agents need a course in critical reasoning? Or all of the above and more?
What do you think?
According to the results of this recent Gallup poll, if Americans could have only one child 40% would prefer that the child be a boy, compared to only 28% who would that it be a girl. This level of preference for boys over girls is, dishearteningly, the same level of preference Americans reported in 1941.
There’s been a lot of discussion about preference for male children is some Asian countries, and the potential gender imbalance that China’s “one child policy” could create as a result. There’s also been a predictable amount of scrambling around to explain the displayed preference for male children in Asian countries by some deep East-West divide, or some ingrained sexism in Chinese culture.
The results of polls like this one call those explanations into question. Differences between Asian and American culture aside, people just tend to prefer boys.
At the “Egalia” preschool, staff avoid using words like “him” or “her” and address the 33 kids as “friends” rather than girls and boys….Breaking down gender roles is a core mission in the national curriculum for preschools, underpinned by the theory that even in highly egalitarian-minded Sweden, society gives boys an unfair edge.
To even things out, many preschools have hired “gender pedagogues” to help staff identify language and behavior that risk reinforcing stereotypes….Lego bricks and other building blocks are intentionally placed next to the kitchen, to make sure the children draw no mental barriers between cooking and construction.
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.
Rajalin, 52, says the staff also try to help the children discover new ideas when they play.
“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.”
From here.
Feminist Philosophers 