“Show me yours and I’ll show you mine” used to be the extent of discussing gender among children when I was a child back in the dark ages. Boys weren’t allowed to play with dolls or wear pink and girls were discouraged from being a cowboy. I never experienced this myself as I suppose my family might have been called liberal today.
It seems now that every politician wants to tell children “what” they are, how to be and not be and force their morals, values and ideas on children in classrooms and even their own homes. Some examples were sighted in this opinion by Nicole Hemmer: (CNN) – “Are your children being brainwashed?”
Excerpts:
“It’s surprising, then, that it’s taken so long for the right to go all-in on children’s entertainment and literature. That’s in part because children’s literature has long been packed with moral lessons and social values. In the colonial era in the US, books like the New England Primer instructed children as it taught them the alphabet, warning against idleness and faithlessness. Well into the 20th century, children’s books inculcated conservative values, like the 1945 children’s book “Tootle,” a story about an adventurous train whose ultimate message was a warning against straying from the approved path.”
“…they join a growing array of conservative children’s literature and programming which coincide with the current right-wing attacks on schools and children’s entertainment that conservatives claim are sites of political and sexual indoctrination”.
“In addition to the Tuttle Twins, there are the “Heroes of Liberty” series (biographies of conservative icons like Rush Limbaugh and Margaret Thatcher aimed at middle school readers), the Brave Books series authored by prominent conservatives (like Dana Loesch’s pro-gun book “Paws Off My Cannon” and Rep. Dan Crenshaw’s cancel-culture book “Fame, Blame, and the Raft of Shame”), and an array of anti-trans books like “Johnny the Walrus” and “Elephants Are Not Birds.””
How do you feel about it? Do you think biased governors and/or political leaders have the right to determine what books you and your children read or public school curriculum when it comes to gender?
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