Friday, January 11, 2013

Acceptable Bigotry


Everyone is against bigotry. Not everyone practices what he preaches.

Bigotry against Christians is commonly practiced. No one much cares.

In schools boys are being systematically downgraded in favor of girls. No one much cares about it, either.

When they go out into the world beyond their homes, boys are being taught that the system is rigged against them. They are being taught that success is not rewarded. They are being taught that feminine behavior is more valued than masculine behavior.

It didn’t start yesterday. People did not start pointing it out yesterday. Christina Hoff Sommers has written extensively about it. Susan Walsh at Hooking Up Smart has exposed it. Even your humble blogger has opined about the topic.

Yesterday, Walsh posted again about the problem. She reported on a recent study that quantified the extent of the bias. The study compared the scores that boys and girls achieved in aptitude tests and the grades they were awarded by their teachers.

The results demonstrated that schoolteachers are prejudiced against boys. When teachers do not just grade on performance, but include a number of intangible qualities that girls are more likely to possess, they are acting as bigots.

Boys are, in Walsh’s words, punished for being boys.

Walsh points out, however, that some boys receive more favorable treatment. If their mannerisms are more effeminate boys not subjected to the anti-male bias.

None of this comes as a revelation. One can only wonder why American parents have been cowed into allowing this prejudice to be inflicted on their sons. 


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

one wonders why...

"we will rule through corruption."
-Giuseppe Mazzini

-shoe

Hamlet's Fool said...

As the father of 3 boys and 1 girl some thoughts about the "cowed" parents:

1) As an individual complaining about the mistreatment of your kids results in other problems. It's not worth the risk to rock the boat unless it is a major problem (which I have done on more than one occasion for other issues).

2) As a parent I want my kids to be prepared for the big bad world after they leave the nest. They may as well learn to deal with that kind of crap now because they'll certainly have to deal with it as adults.

3) Despite the school culture my boys have done very well for themselves and don't care about political correctness. In other words, despite all of the institutional bias it hasn't become ingrained into their personalities. Quite the opposite in fact.

The Kids' Mom said...

As the mother of a strongly math/science oriented "classic" boy (now a young man), I can back up what Hamlet's Fool has observed.

I sent my kids to a small, Catholic school where the PC staff are present in smaller numbers, can't hide behind union rules and were reminded, when necessary, by my husband and myself, of the true nature of boys.

My son has quietly resisted the prevailing culture and is currently considering two positions in the field of civil engineering. He joined the Marine Corps partway through college and observed that the Corps was the only place he felt he truly fit in. He had a difficult re-entry into college, but he sucked it up and is now reaping the rewards.

My new prayer is that he finds a young woman that appreciates a traditional male!

DeNihilist said...

Stuart, thanx for the point to Susan's blog. Kept me up way past my bedtime last night!

Susan Walsh said...

Stuart, thanks so much for the link. It's high time we were honest about what's really happening with boys in schools. Sommers was kicked out of the feminist corps for speaking the truth - it's taken the whole "end of men" phenomenon to get people to sit up and take notice.

As several commenters noted on my blog, the rewarding of effeminate behavior isn't doing those boys any favors either, as they reach adolescence and learn that girls do not appreciate those qualities.

Stuart Schneiderman said...

It's good to hear that there are some parents who are standing up for their boys and are not allowing them to be influenced excessively by the culture in schools.

For a long time I have thought that Susan Walsh was exemplary for standing up for her children, so I am always happy to link her blog.

I fear that most parents do not have the courage to stand against the ambient culture, whether it's the schools or the media.

Everyone is happy that girls are doing so well, but no one seems to care that boys are being systematically being pushed to the rear.

As Susan points out, once girls become women and start looking for suitable mates, they will discover that there are not enough of them around. The boys who were pushed ahead in school because they were more effeminate will not become the men that women want to marry.

Of course, the nation's economic future will be less prosperous if we systematically devalue and demoralize the great majority of those who have a Y Chromosome.

Anonymous said...

Look at what our feminist education system is doing to our boys:
http://www.illinoisloop.org/gender.html
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/eliminating-feminist-teacher-bias-erases-boys-falling-grades-study-finds

The Wage Gap hubbub is a lie, that's actually harming our men:
http://www.aei-ideas.org/2013/04/race-and-gender-wage-gaps-discrimination-still-to-blame/

Any culture that does not honour its boys and men is doomed to fail. This country needs to wake up!

Muggins said...

I'm from the UK and very late coming to this. Most of this applies where I live. People are deliberately obtuse about bias against boys/men. They literally can't see it.

There's another phenomenon I've seen more than once. One or 2 female teachers are sometimes very feminist and, as such, very convinced that girls haven't been encouraged enough at school. They therefore think it is ok to "focus" more on praising girls for the most minor achievement, rather than boys when they do something good.

I'd heard of this happening in secondary school. Then when my young son was (for a while) 2 years ahead of schedule on reading, I saw it for myself. One teacher (while talking to me) was praising him, then another teacher there changed the subject to say how clever some girl was for learning her vowels or something. It really was surreal.