commentaries

Forcing children to play in certain ways is as ridiculous as forcing children to play in certain ways, whether it is telling boys and girls they must be gender neutral or if it is telling boys they must be boys and girls that they must be boys(just let them be with alternatives to choose from!) Don't confuse people being who they "are" as being the same as determining who they should be. What a strange soap box to launch off from to say we need to fear the genderless parent. I know great mom's who played with trucks, and fantastic single dads and dad/dad combos that never played with dolls. Gender doesn't define values or character and certainly isn't the measure of being a good or bad parent.

The reality is that men and women are biologically and physically different. Passing and/or rewriting legislation to show absolutte equality is sad and that's an understatement. What is even sadder is the movement in the U.S. that will emerge to do the same in the name of absolute geneder equality which by the way does not exist.

From the article: "In reality, men and women complement one another physically, socially and emotionally in the bearing and rearing of children. Fathers, for example, tend to encourage risk-taking and independence, while mothers nurture, soothe hurt feelings and often have more trouble 'letting go.'" The timing of this commentary is incredibly bad. Photos of grieving parents from Newtown show both fathers and mothers, both sisters and brothers--males and females of all ages nurturing and soothing.

Nor is gender the determinative factor in encouraging risk-taking and independence. Encouraging risk-taking and independence is the primary task of competent parents in both genders of any "higher" animal, that is any animal which nurtures its offspring (birds and mammals for the purposes of refuting Ms. Kersten's current thesis). All good parents provide for and nurture their offspring. All good parents encourage their offspring to fly.

From the article: "Some in this country would [rid the world of gender], like Sweden already does -- another dangerous European export." (1) Sweden does not suggest ridding the world of gender; Sweden suggests ridding the world of gender stereotype and gender bias. (2) From what other "dangerous European export(s)" do you wish to save us, Ms. Kersten?

Every book deals with single parents, SS parents and adoption along with "traditional" parenting/families. And "emotions" are gender neutral. Men cry. Women compete. Get over it already. This is last year's news. Literally. Kersten must have been out of current outrages to write about since this was news in June of 2011.

From the article: "For example, at Egalia -- a government-funded model preschool in Stockholm -- [w]hen children are 'playing "house" and the role of the mom already is taken and they start to squabble,' the director told CBS News, 'we suggest two moms or three moms and so on.'" None of which would be necessary with the new words "mappor" and "pammor"....

The upside would be that fathers wouldn't be removed from their kid's lives and relegated to being a paycheck as in our current family law divorce system. And no draft for men, unless there was one for women also. I assume that women would also have to compete with men on the same sports teams.

Forcing men to sit down when they urinate... Doesnt that, in and of itself, show how utterly ridiculous this line of thought is?

Were almost there. There is little difference between men who vote left and women.

"One is the campaign to convince Americans that parenting is a gender-neutral activity, and that fathers and mothers are entirely interchangeable" quote without comment :)