Sweden is a bit different. Dances to its own tune occasionally. Its approach to sex is one example.
There is another.
Gender neutrality. Sweden's position is that male and female are to be treated alike. No preferential treatment one over the other. Described by the Swedes themselves as equality. Equality in the work place and society. A Swedish obsession.
One example of the obsessive ends Swedes go to achieve gender neutrality is how teachers refer to students. Not as him or her, he or she. Rather as friends.
In 2008, a sixth grade class in Sweden was studying gender discrimination. The Toys 'R Us catalogue drew their attention. The six graders decided the catalogue was discriminating and not gender equal. For example, boys generally were shown wearing blue and girls pink. Girls wore princess dresses. The boys never. Guns for boys, not for girls. Dolls for girls, not for boys. Girls pushing baby carriages, boys playing with miniature soldiers. Girls with tiny kitchens cooking, boys with sporting equipment. Girls alone playing with Barbie dolls. No boys doing the same.
The sixth graders felt everything in the catalogue should be for both sexes.No stereotyping. I have to ask at this point: A princess dress for a boy?
Sweden has a State Agency to hear gender discrimination complaints. The sixth graders filed a formal complaint. Justice is slow moving in Sweden. The State Agency decision came out this year. The State Agency agreed with the sixth graders. The decision included phrases such as outdated gender roles, narrow mindedness, and degrading to both genders.
Toy 'R Us took heed. Out went the old catalogue. In came a new. Just in time for Christmas.
The new catalogue is under scrutiny .It did not go so far as to put a boy in a princess dress. However, it did dress the girls in blue and boys in pink in some instances. It has boys playing with beauty instruments. Hair blowers and the like. Doing a doll's hair.The boys are also shown doing housework like ironing and vacuuming. The girls were portrayed holding all types and sizes of guns and playing battle games. The girls were on the sport pages advertising gloves, bats, basketballs, footballs, and the like.
Will the new Toys 'R Us pass muster? Time will tell. I suspect it will, even though no boy was portrayed wearing a princess dress.
Is this right? I don't know. I never really thought about gender equality in this fashion. Sweden may be at the forefront, the wave of the future. Thirty years from now as male and female roles and responsibilities in society will have changed, persons of that era may look back at Sweden 2012 and ask.....What was the big deal? Why all the fuss?
No comments:
Post a Comment