I published an essay on CNN today about gender norming in pre-school. I'll offer a few key quotes, but please read and share the essay there, if you are willing. Below the fold, I'll share some of my favorite pieces of right-wing hate speech from the comments and a conspiracy theory website. I figure if I am making people that angry, I'm doing something right.
Opening:
When the rocket scientist Yvonne Brill died in March, The New York Times celebrated her as the maker of a "mean beef stroganoff" and "the world's best mother." When my 4-year-old daughter, Ellie, a wildly creative and interesting girl, finished a year of preschool last week, her teachers gave her an award for being the best dressed.
The essay works through what happened recently at this pre-school award ceremony, then turns:
Sometimes, I find the prospect of raising a girl to be terrifying. The forces of patriarchy conspire to render girls weak, subordinate and sexually objectified. When we respond to infants by gendering our speech, strong for boys and lilting for girls, we immediately start to shape their interactions with the world.
I move through examples, talk again about the award, then say:
Our culture constantly projects the message that only appearances matter, and this message is aimed squarely at our children. We can fight this only by working against the grain, resisting gendered language and emphasizing the internal over the external.
At the end, my daughter looks at her award, and declares herself, "Best Bowler," transforming the passive to the active. That's the meta-message. Can we raise our girls, and our boys, to have the tools to write their own stories, rather than adopting the ones society forces on them.
Please read the essay, but follow me below the fold for an extra helping of amusing hate.
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I am a long-time DailyKOS member, but also a public opinion writer. Please consider following me on social media as I try to build a public profile.
I've reached a new audience - conspiracy theorists.
I pretty much doubt that "David M. Perry" is the author's real name, and I doubt even more that he's even married, because he looks like a fag.
I just wish I still had long hair. Seriously, they are deconstructing my intentions based on a tiny CNN headshot.
"Earring, domesticated face, most likely a limp wristed handshake. Needs to be taken care of by mommy, yet believes that women that conform to "traditional" roles are weak. This contradiction is a recognizance of his own inability to compete and a need to have a woman provide for him. Pathetic."
Or even more exciting -
Here is a guy earning a living (!) with no true skills, except as Poltically-Correct parasite. Let's cut the funding to the university there for liberal arts propagandists like him, who add no value and do great damage. Note his cute little earring--almost like his Party card--he must be a fairy nice fellow. We can be sure he'll do all he can to drive any femininity or traditional female role-playing from his daugher. Feel veral nonsense but he's sure to shout down any whispers of anything but far Left, in-your-face feminism from her. Don't we already have an all-time record-high count of non-female females here? The Left's relentless push for gender-bending has left legions of young people (male and female) utterly confused as to interactions and roles...Thanks again, liberal fools.
1. My university is a private, religious, school.
2. Spelling is really not that hard.
Then they are the people who wanted me to be a psychic, and know ahead of time what kind of awards the schools and camps were going to hand out, so that I could have "taken more responsibility" for myself.
This is likely a lie by the author, but in case it isn't, it is HIS fault for sending his child to such a camp.
Find a camp that is nurturing for your children. It is YOUR FAULT you sent your child to such a camp. You are the parent. Take some responsibility.
I get accused of being part of the Communist plot. I got, "The Jewish effort to destroy our civilization is almost complete." And so forth.
All this is to say - it's been a very good day. Riling up the hatred, but also hopefully articulating ideas that matter.
I am a long-time DailyKOS member, but also a public opinion writer. Please consider following me on social media as I try to build a public profile.