Chicken Little modern cousin, the
extremist Moralistic Right, is telling us the sky is falling in because of left
wing social engineers. The latest
version of this tripe comes from the unchristlike Australian Christians
and those who are really against marriage, Stand 4 Marriage. All the fuss is because the European Parliament
had a lengthy motion that is simply full of good intentions. According to the European Women’s Lobby
the motion was tabled on the 5 July 2012.
It was schedule for debate on 10 July 2012.
However, the Australian Christians posted it in their Facebook page on the 13
December 2012. So why the five months gap? I suspect that the British Daily Mail published a sensationalist
article at the end of November. It was Daily Mail that published the lie that
our children will be banned from reading English language classics such as Peter Pan, Paddington Bear, and Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five series. From
there the US based antiabortion Life News
pick up the story adding a lot of antiabortion dribbleand and repeating the Daily
News exaggeration. It was picked up by who glorify their Liberal university
students days, Menzies House. They wisely edited out the antiabortion dribble
and the newspaper exaggerations.
The unchristlike Australian Christians picked it up for the Stand 4 Marriage Facebook
page.
So what was in the motion?
The draft report is on the net. The motion was is just over four pages
long and comes with explanatory notes.
It starts by listing the international obligations that the European
Union has agreed to preventing gender equality.
It points to the current situation. Point D complains children and young
adults are having gender stereotypes being reinforced by, among other things,
educational programs (p.4). One of the many sources is the for characters portryed in chidren's fiction. In response the European Union is called to
provide support for any action that reduces gender stereotypes among children
(p.5). “Special career guidance” was
specifically mentioned. The explanatory
notes tell us tells us that within the European Union, one point concludes
with,
Special
educational programmes and study materials should therefore be introduced in
which men and women are no longer used in examples in their ‘traditional
roles’, with the male as the breadwinner of the family and the female as the
one who takes care of the children (p.9).
As the Australian far right groups seem to agree, it is
impossible to stretch that to banning Enid Blyton. However, the motion is just telling it as it
is. Schools do reinforce gender
stereotypes. Part of the problem is that
children classic literature reflects the era in which they are written. That era was when men were breadwinners and
women did take control of their children.
The problem is that young girls do need positive female role
models. We might have a women prime
minister but leadership in politics, commerce and other community organisations
is still mainly male. The economic and community damage must be immense. But A D Hope pointed to the real cost when he asked can we trust “the servile womb to
bred free men?" No!