To think primary schools now days are more misogynistic amongst the boys, than in the past?

It's a fairy tale, not real

I’m late 30s and agree - things are much more stereotyped now. At the weekend we all wore sweaters, jeans and wellies and everyone got muddy. I remember some of my friends wearing dresses to parties (which only stands out because I refused to do so) but generally kids were in fairly similar clothes boy or girl.

OP it’s social media. I’m a TA in a Reception class and the kids talk about their favourite YouTubers. It is really, really depressing.

It has themes of/normalises
arranged marriage
Slavery
Sexism
Eg. At the end she is allowed to live in her husband's castle.
Is that the language we should be still normalising when for decades now in reality women have been paid less and took on lower paid jobs to bring up families but are now supposed to have paid as much pensions etc. Times should be changing but they aren't.

I just refuse to buy into anything unicorn I just feel it's a conspiracy against girls progression. I guess it's just easy to sell with no patents like dinosaurs. But my house is definitely a unicorn free zone!

I'm late 40s.

Boys didn't wear pink but girls definitely wore blue.

I remember boys being interested in skipping so allowing them to join in.

It helped that boxers skipped. It got to the point were we often had large skipping games at break times taking over the play ground. (We also played British bulldog until we got caught.)

We girls also played football but it wasn't until just before secondary school the boys refused to play with us.

I suspect it was down to numbers of children plus ratios of girls to boys, as we were a low birth rate year.

My DS was talking about this today. He's year 7 and says a significant number of boys in his class buy into the Andrew Tate / sigma mindset. The Christian Bale American Psycho character is really popular (in loads of sigma memes).

He said a lot of his class were happy Trump got elected. There's a lot of homophobia. He's finding it incredibly difficult to deal with.

I find it really worrying. We've lived in a time where we assume society always becomes more progressive/accepting. It definitely feels like there's a shift happening.

Goodness - that reminds me we used to single eeny meeny miney mo (not sure how to spell that), catch a n*** by the toe.

Had no idea what it meant nor that it was bad to sing.

What are girls and boys made of?
Sugar and spice and all.things nice
Frogs and snails and puppy dogs tails
That what we sang in the playground. Seems like that sort of a thing , kids have always done it.

I'm late 40s and would say things are far more stereotyped now than when I was a child.

Kids colours were primary colours and we didn't really have girls colours but blue was for boys. We played a lot more with unisex toys like lego and cars and ball games and board games but girls played skipping and boys played football.

I don't remember anything pink and sparkly unlike when my early 20s DD was born and Disney Princesses and mounds of pink plastic were everywhere.

Why shouldn't it be?

Although society is generally more educated and less sexist in lots of ways,

im not sure it is, there is certainly a lack of critical thinking & I think it’s more sexist in some ways, a lot more pressure to look a certain way for example.

State schools have to supply the text books, so I would think much depends on what's in the stock cupboards of English department in cash-strapped schools.
When I taught in the UK there was scramble when a text came off GCSE to have it placed in lower school, usually much-repaired with sticky tape.

Oh absolutely I agree

@OneBlackHeart I'd hope it's taught well. I just think there must be so many better, modern options these days that kids could enjoy or relate too, but we can't move on from the old classics. Everything needs to change. X

If taught well and with proper discussion of mice and men could be good for discussion on gender inequality, race and disability. If not then it's just perpetuating the problems

Apparently, rape is OK and to teach boys that it's disgusting and shameful is to "control" them according to a PP.

My 14 year old boy is currently reading of mice and men at school. Is there not anything better for a teenager to read since the 1930s. Life is progressing, but sitting teenagers in a classroom listening to boring old fashioned stories that they hate isn't exactly molding positivity. I can't see a single benefit for a child to study Shakespeare anymore

Trump boasted about sexually assaulting women. He tried to remain in power against the wishes of the electorate when he was voted out of office.

I’m north west where football is religion. Tons of girls play here. But no attitudes have changed. They're girls playing footy, good for them. It doesn’t equate to equality here

Oh no, @CCreasty, I absolutely agree that girls playing football (or boys doing ballet) doesn't change much in itself. It's more that I was taken aback by how anxious other parents were to get their kids into very gendered activities from a very early age, with very little crossover. It was like all the boys had to play football from the age of two, and the girls had to do ballet, or something bad would happen. I was expecting, in 2019 (when my daughter started her football classes) that there'd be at least a couple of other girls, but nothing. Meanwhile she's the only one of 15 girls in her class who doesn't do ballet and gymnastics.

Yes, definitely too much exposure to social media. I haven't heard all this sigma, alpha stuff, but I've heard 5, 6 and 7 years olds saying things like "Hashtag [insert own name]! Like and subscribe!" after doing a cartwheel or a handstand or something. I'm not sure if they know what it means or if they are parroting it back because they have watched clips on social media of people doing a cartwheel or trick and saying that at the end of their video. It's very odd.

I have several friends who are teachers who are still having to deal with primary kids using "gay", "girl", or "retard" to insult each other. It isn't just picking things up from parents or social media - kids get these things from other kids in the playground too and these insults rattle around playgrounds being passed down from older kids to newer ones year in, year out.

Not sure why it matters that the school is very good in a middle class area as if it's shocking that this would make a difference to this behaviour. Misogyny unfortunately crosses all classes, whether the education is great or not, and I've seen the worst happen from boys from very wealthy backgrounds idolising Tate and the like.

Mikes 7, made the odd comment, asking me who trump was but nothing overtly misogynistic. More of an exploration of the things that have been said at school and then asking me about it - which I'm happy to discuss and just think it gives me an opportunity to educate.
I think it's mainly been sexist tbh, pinks not for boys, boys and girls games etc but I would say 99% is from home, older siblings and shite they get to watch on TV (others at school). I can't stop that but I can give him enough nounce to question everything that will see him through.

The upshot of all of this is that we've decided we'll be sending DD to a girls' school for secondary

I would have done the same if I’d had a daughter. But once she leaves she’ll be dealing with boys and men day to day. You can’t insulate her from that, and she won’t change the world despite her single sex education

for four years now my daughter has been the lone girl in her Saturday football class, and we're in supposedly liberal north London

I’m north west where football is religion. Tons of girls play here. But no attitudes have changed. They're girls playing footy, good for them. It doesn’t equate to equality here.

I have a 4 yo DD, she already comes home from school (reception) and says things like “girls can’t be friends with boys, I can’t play with X because girls don’t play with boys” “why is that lady wearing boys clothes

Seems pretty standard unfortunately. My other bugbear is boys taking over the entire playground for football and refusing to either let the girls join in or give them space for their own games. I raised this with DD's school in Reception and again last year ( I have a bit of leverage as I'm a governor) and although initially I got the 'boys will be boys' brush off, they now provide a dedicated area for girls' football/ball games, which means the girls can finally get a bit of exercise if they so wish, rather than standing around the perimeter watching the boys.

This kind of stuff all sounds so trivial on its own, but it all feeds in to an overall climate of toxic masculinity and males taking precedence, even in early childhood.