Rigid gender stereotypes in children's literature is one of the contributing factors to high levels of family violence, campaigners say.
The Respectful Relationships program is suggesting teachers in Victorian public schools encourage students to analyse gender stereotypes in classics such as Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel.
Your thoughts?
Presonally myself and basically everyone I know were raised on fairy tales, and I don't know a single dude who beats or oppresses his wife (from what I can tell, of course...Generally those things are pretty obvious too, even if not stated nor out in the open.)
I think this whole thing is a work of an overactive imagination, personally.
I feel as though things like these are simply designed to further muddy the issue. They seem to have (mostly) given up on campaigning against videogames as a cause for violence, instead opting to target other forms of media.
But at its core, I think one thing has to be kept in consideration at all times. If you allow fantasy to skew your view of reality to such an extent that it brings you to violence, the problem does not lie in the fantasy.
It's just another attempt to ignore the problem. The issue in the US is if you punch a woman, there's a very real chance you won't see over a week of jail time. I remember a few years ago, a professional football player (keep in mind, he's about 5-11 and 220+ pounds) knocked his fiancee unconscious in an elevator, and there was a video that everyone saw. Before the video went viral, he only got a 2 game suspension by the NFL, then after they saw the video, they made the suspension indefinite. It's like our society doesn't know what knocking a woman unconscious looks like. Rice didn't even get sent to jail, which shows the true failure in our legal system. Someone who knocks a defenseless woman out like he did should spend years in jail. However, he didn't, and the cycle can start again. This time, I'd guess he won't be stupid enough to do it in front of a camera where the world can see.
Gender roles are an idea put forth by feminazis. Men and woman are different, and in most countries, are allowed to be as independent as they so wish.
Well, there are a huge number of factors that go into developing each person's sense of self when they're young. Fairy tales probably aren't a big factor in this. Important factors include the toys kids play with, the movies and TV shows they watch, and how their parents and other people treat them. There are also some basic inherent differences, although I personally think that men and women are both capable of achieving the same things with enough hard work. Gender roles just push people, statistically, in certain directions (at least IMO) according to how our society is structured. They don't prevent people from taking on whatever role they want. Although, there is some sexism. It's getting better, but very hard to remove altogether.
Lots of people play the same video games, read the same kid stories but act way differently. I mean, in the end it's about coming from a bad background vs a good one - and there's not much that can be done about it.
I mean, as I'm alluding to, if some guy plays violent video games and he comes from a broken home, then sure, he might want to lash out and the game will just cheer him on. In fact, people like that who can't handle such stuff - would be better off watching Mr. Rogers (or Bob Ross) honestly - you know, something calming.
Representation matters. That goes for gender roles, romantic relationships, skin tone, and so on. What we see influences who we are and how we act. Is that the only or largest influence? I'd question if either of those are true, but it also depends on how many other influences exist in a person's life. If someone spends all their time consuming media, they're likely to take more of their cues for behavior from said media than someone with a more well-rounded, holistic developmental experience.
I think people make too big a deal about "influences". I mean, the same sort of people - but on the conservative side, would say "Certain music is inspiring rebellion against parents, society dysfunction.".
