http://i.imgur.com/eKWJh4F.png

So the kid was asked to fill out a worksheet about themselves in the third person. It went like, "<blank> lives in Santa Monica with his <blank>. He likes to play <blank>" etc. The child crossed out the incorrect pronouns to write in the ones that referred to herself.

The parent wrote a post about this, and about how sad it was that children are exposed to the male default so early, and how that teaches children that men are superior to and more important than women.

r/feminism...disagrees!

the author's got problems if she thinks that the takeaway for the kids is that they "learn[ed] that men are the dominant and most important gender." This is the feminist equivalent of a slow news day.

Yes, it's a slow news day indeed when all feminists have to talk about is feminist topics.

Is this what people mean when they use the dog whistle "western/first world feminism"? That if women aren't treated as 100% chattel then they'd better not complain about their status in society?

I also feel that the author is exaggerating a bit. This does not make kids think that males are dominant and more important. What it perhaps does however is teach kids that it's completely normal to leave out the female pronoun.

Oh gods. /r/feminism is so dense sometimes. What does it mean to teach children that it's normal to "leave out" feminine pronouns?

What could it possibly mean? I just can't put my finger on it! Is it...is it...the male default? My lands.

What does it make kids think when their sex isn't even represented in a story that's supposed to be about themselves?

Yes, I'm passionate about feminine and gender neutral pronouns. Language is important. How we speak shapes the way we see the world. And don't give me any "Sapir-Whorf sux" blather as a distraction. We both know I'm not speaking deterministically.

I have recently also stumbled upon quite a few academic texts that exclusively use the female pronoun. As in "if the candidate decides she[...]" in a context that both applies to males and females. Can't provide a concrete example. I have to say I did feel a bit irritated by it

Awwwwww, seeing feminine pronouns made him feel irritated, why? Because he felt...left out? Goodness sakes, get me the smelling salts! He's got to be close to a breakthrough!

(maybe because I felt it was one example of feminism gone wrong in my opinion)

Oh, whew. It was just feminism gone wrong. NOTHING TO SEE HERE.

I am of the opinion that we should focus on more severe problems of unequality.

Ah, once again, telling feminism what it's allowed to discuss. It can't be a wide movement with lots of areas of focus, it's only allowed to discuss problems whose solutions don't involve changing the pronouns in his textbooks.

Wait, who's not focusing on severe problems now?

Truth be told, I don't even think this kind of writing has anything to do with people thinking males are superior. It's just faster to write and easier to read than he/she.

THANK YOU FOR MANSPLAINING THAT.