Tuesday, January 03, 2006

STATE OF CONFUSION

The Religious Right is at it again. The brave souls over at Concerned Women of America are defending the innocent children of the United States from evil villains.

Are these intrepid heroines fighting the rising child homicide rate in Michigan?

Muskegon Chronicle
  

No.


Or tackling the lack of health care in the United States

MonstersandCritics.com

No.


Or doing something about the climbing poverty rate and stagnating wages?

Thinkprogress.org


No, our saviours over at the CWA are worried about----DRUM ROLL---Barbie.

CWFA

It seems the little minx has a drop box on her site that asks 4-year-olds whether they are male, female, or “I don’t know.”  


I have worked in the early childhood field and it is normal for tots to have some gender confusion. A five-year-old, a very bright five, asked me how you can tell boys from girls. When I told her the anatomical difference, she was embarrassed and replied, “No, boys have short hair.” When she was younger, she went around calling herself a boy until she realized that boys misbehave and girls are good. It was a nice sentiment but I know plenty of girls (myself included) who like to, um, misbehave, once in a while. Gender is a gradual process because person is not born with the intellectual distinction between male and female. Genital orientation is just that, only plumbing.  Everything else is culture. There is not a God-given mandate as to how one will express one’s unique and individual personality simply because there’s something swinging between the legs or not.  

To illustrate the absolute nonsense of the Religious Right’s take on gender, I think about my interests. I like going into hardware shops and doing repairs around the house.  The music that I listen to is dark Goth and melancholia. I abhor pinks and pastels in all their manifestations.  I’ve known men who would rather not bother with such pedantic household tasks and who listen to classical or new age while they cook.  Oh, and by the way, I’m hetero. So there aren’t any hard and fast delineations about gender save for the biological ones. There are more important issues to concern Americans.

The economy with a growing trade deficit.
International Herald Tribune

A continued weak dollar.
Austrailian Financial Review
Investors.com

Outsourcing:
Canada.com

You get my drift.
The machinations over at the CWA against Barbie, Tinky Winky, and Sponge Bob Square Pants show that the organization’s members are not concerned America citizens who are working toward thoughtful and productive solutions that will genuinely aid children. Instead, the CWAers are floozies looking for cheap tricks to turn for their own financial and political benefit.
----Izzy