The Santa Claus we "know" has been tamed down from the earlier versions. Our Santa is not associated with anything unpleasant. Not true of the earlier version of Santa, St. Nicholas Consider this medieval story about St. Nicholas from a play by Henri Gheon called “The Sausage Maker’s Interlude.” A…
Via Daily Dish, I learned of the "Pink and Blue Project" by photographer Jeongmee Yoon. Here's his approach: To make "The Pink and Blue Project" images, I visit the child's room, where I display and rearrange his/her colored accessories. I ask my models to pose for me with their pink…
It is often observed that girls do not perform as well as boys in mathematics. This difference is often overstated and it's cause is often highly debated. Many people have suggested that the basis for this difference is essentially biological. It is now well established that a society's attitude toward…
It's the political season and there are a lot of bad arguments being made these days. There are plenty of non sequiturs, red herrings, ad hominem attacks and ex hominem attacks. It is the season when we vividly see that there is no such thing as pure reason. Instead, cognition…
I know that pre-written store-bought greeting cards are not the cause of America’s current downfall, but they are a symptom of America’s cultural, moral and educational decline. Really. I know that many of you are thinking that I’m way off base here, but let me give you a few examples based on today’s trip to my local grocery store (the name of the St. Louis grocery chain is “Schnucks”).
First of all, I just don’t get why we need to segregate “boy” cards from “girl” cards. Take a look at these cards for boys and you won’t be surprised at the themes. There are lots of superhero cards and other action/adventure characters and themes.
Now compare the “boys” cards to the “girls” cards, where you’ll find princesses and other characters much more concerned about their looks than with their accomplishments.
As if girls don’t enjoy superhero stories (my daughters certainly do) or anything other than trying to look pretty. This greeting card sexual segregation reminds me of this recent post on America’s rampant sexualization of young girls.
There are also cards for men and cards for women, of course, and they too are segregated. Why do we use greeting cards to instill a message into our girls and women that they should be interested in their own looks and body image to the exclusion of their accomplishments? This destructive message should be stopped immediately, especially when so many girls are getting messed up by this message, which causes them to …
