I want to emphatize this, because I think it’s very important.
Often times, we (I don’t have children of my own, but I mean we as a society) forget that not all kids automatically grow up to understand all the nuances of sexism or racism. We teach them about the history of slavery and segregation, and women’s suffrage and movements, but we forget to tell them how the past abuses have affected our culture and how some ideas still prevail, rooted deep in our cultural consciousness. No one thinks their kid will grow up to be racist, sexist or homophobic, but they can easily become clueless. If you aren’t taught about past and present unequality or experience it yourself, it’s easy to assume that the current state of affairs - the status, opportunities, way of life and preferences of people - is the way it is solely because it’s natural.
It’s important to poke the brains of our children as much as we can, to make them think about what they’ve learned about the world and question the messages around them. When watching TV or movies, point out the things you find sexist, racist or homo-, trans- or xenophobic, and then explain why you feel that way and ask the child’s opinion. Have a conversation about th issue. Or, if you hear a child try to insult someone by calling him a “little girl”, ask them why they used that phrase and where they think it stems from. Some people don’t seem to like the implication that language might have sexist or racist connotations - perhaps they fear it’s the same as calling them sexist or racist. But it’s not that, at all. Certainly not in the case of children - they get their words and ideas from around them, they don’t think about why. So it is good to try to be aware of everything around you, and to teach your children to do the same. This article is a good example of a bias that sneakily got itself rooted in one part of our culture through a cycle of marketing, and often we forget to question it.
