Tani "gets it"
May. 18th, 2009 09:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhuTani was reading a library book about fighter jets this morning, and said, "Hey, Abba, listen to this: 'The boys in the class all got Hurricane kites, and the teacher gave Erin a kite with the graceful wings of a Spitfire.'" [I may have the quote a word or two off.]
I responded, "Interesting. What about it?"
Tani: "I don't know. It seems odd. I mean, why should Erin get something different from the boys? I mean, a Spitfire is cool, too. Well, maybe she liked a Spitfire better."
Me: "Did the book say that she liked a Spitfire better?"
Tani: "No. I guess that's what's odd. Why should the teacher think she would want a Spitfire just because she's a girl?"
We had a good conversation after that about sexism, and how even though Erin in the story got a kite with a cool fighter jet, there were still three things wrong with the story: that there's a single girl in the class who is clearly intended to be a token, that the girl got a different kite than the boys did, and that the boy's kites were simply identified as "Hurricanes" while the girl's kite had "the graceful wings" of a Spitfire.
I'm proud of my child for being a sensitive enough reader to be uncomfortable enough with that passage to want to discuss it, even if he couldn't put his finger on why at first.
I responded, "Interesting. What about it?"
Tani: "I don't know. It seems odd. I mean, why should Erin get something different from the boys? I mean, a Spitfire is cool, too. Well, maybe she liked a Spitfire better."
Me: "Did the book say that she liked a Spitfire better?"
Tani: "No. I guess that's what's odd. Why should the teacher think she would want a Spitfire just because she's a girl?"
We had a good conversation after that about sexism, and how even though Erin in the story got a kite with a cool fighter jet, there were still three things wrong with the story: that there's a single girl in the class who is clearly intended to be a token, that the girl got a different kite than the boys did, and that the boy's kites were simply identified as "Hurricanes" while the girl's kite had "the graceful wings" of a Spitfire.
I'm proud of my child for being a sensitive enough reader to be uncomfortable enough with that passage to want to discuss it, even if he couldn't put his finger on why at first.