to be shocked and disappointed by this sexism?

[awfullyproper]

This is the sticker page from dd's activity pack from the lounge at Gatwick. The male chracters: captain, Steward, photographer and spy.
The female characters: stewardess, movie star and model.
Not only that, but the male characters are 4 times wider than the females. The stewardess looks like an exaggerated Barbie.
AIBU, or is this just so wrong!

[pigsDOfly]

Am I the only one who thinks this is getting worse?

I'm sure when my DDs were growing up (now 28 and 31) there wasn't all this 'girls can't do this' stuff around, or maybe I just didn't notice it (no internet, and DDs would not have gone down the pink sparkly route themselves).

One of my DDs played 5 a side football in a mixed sex team when she was about 9/10 and there was no notion of boys being better than girls.

My DS who is now 35 was in a cadet flying thing when he was about 14 and there was certainly no idea there that girls would take a lesser role. Everyone was treated as equal. No question.

On these threads, as LilacSpunk says, there's always someone who will come up with FGM remark, but it's these little things, like that sticker pack, that keep these ideas of the 'little woman' going, likewise with the thread yesterday, so it's always a good idea to complain when you come across them.

[BestBeforeDate]

Check out this woman www.irishtimes.com/business/agribusiness-and-food/inside-track-sisters-flying-high-with-luxury-confectionery-for-the-jet-set-1.2315017 - not only an airline pilot, but she has her own chocolate company. And she has children. Not bad going!

[goodnightdarthvader1]

YANBU.

[WilLiAmHerschel]

This might be a true-ish representation in that more men probably are pilots and more women air stewards, but was the leering necessary? Do the women have to be half the size of the men? And also, can we not challenge the norm and show children women pilots and male air stewards, minus the leering?

Pigs I'm 28 and I think it's worse than in my childhood. There certainly wasn't the great pink aisle in the supermarket you get now (although let toys be toys are doing a great job sorting this!) In fact I don't remember pink being a big deal in the way it seems to be now.

And yes I do think it makes a difference to how women turn out. Women aren't naturally completely paranoid about their looks, born wanting labia surgery and lipstick. They get the message that they are decoration first and foremost from a very young age (baby gros even send that message!)

[TooOldForGlitter]

My daughter wants to be a train driver. She told her great-aunt who laughed at her and told her it was a mans job. She told her grandma (my mum) who laughed and told her it was a mans job. She is now more determined than ever to succeed.

It is damaging to have ridiculous sexist stereotypes reinforced in day to day life.

[Decanter]

YANBU, this would piss me off too.

[AdrenalineFudge]

BestBeforeDate Yes, but can she iron and hoover?

[BadDoGooder]

YADNU.
I hate stuff like this, I work so hard with DS, I really want him to understand tha women and men, can be, or do, whatever they want, and then something like this pops up in a book and it makes me despair!
It's insidious and really telling, why couldn't there have been a female pilot and a male movie star?

[Muskateersmummy]

I guess what I'm saying is that surely it's our jobs as parents and the people closest to them to not give them that message? I have never felt I am decoration first.

for me, I don't think the imagery has changed, but people's tolerance of those images has, and as yet the images haven't caught up to our new tolerances. I do agree that images like this should be challenged, but I feel that a woman's biggest role models and influences are those closest to her.

[WilLiAmHerschel]

Not everyone is lucky enough to have good role models close to them.

[BestBeforeDate]

adrenaline I expect she could do that with one arm tied behind her back! I saw her interviewed on TV and quite honestly she's the sort who could do anything she put her mind to. She said she had embraced Richard Branson's motto of 'screw it, just do it'.

[uglyswan]

"I feel that a woman's biggest role models and influences are those closest to her." I agree, but if these role models simply aren't available, wouldn't it be helpful to have imagery that provides children with a larger range of choices? And wouldn't it be nice to bring up your daughter to feel she won't just be valued for her looks, without having to constantly battle against media that states the complete opposite of that?

[Muskateersmummy]

Yes uglyswan i do agree.

Although I'm not sure I feel a constant battle. Maybe I have a higher tolerance, or am very fortunate in my life to not feel that way about myself or my circumstances. When these topics come up at home we do simply say "of course you can do xyz, you can do anything you choose to. Would you like to do xyz?" It's a conservation, a learning thing much like any other.

Maybe I'm just brain washed into acceptance for an easy life

[MackerelOfFact]

YANBU. It lacks imagination, doesn't it? TBH though I'd struggle to determine which of those people is the movie star, the model or the spy. Maybe the lady in the shades is the spy and the chap on the left is the movie star?!

[ptumbi]

I live near Gatwick and used to work there;- the local pub, after a refurb, renamed the loos 'Pilots' and 'Stewardesses'.

After a bit of a twitter/fb campaign, in which I was called 'humourless' and 'feminist', they changed them to Men and Women.

I know several female pilots, and when I suggested to the bar-staff that one of them could quite legitimately use the 'men's loo, I got blank looks....

[Muskateersmummy]

That is awful ptumbi For a start it makes no sense and is just stupid!

Would have loved one of the female pilots to have done just that!

[LumpySpacedPrincess]

I thought someone had hacked Lilac's account for a minute there!

YANBU, sexist shite.

[AdrenalineFudge]

Steering a bit off topic but still within the realms of sexism. Did anyone else read the story regarding the sports presenter Lynsey Hipgrave. After her comment regarding the Messi & Suarez penalty she was subjected to a tirade of abuse - she was told that women have no place in football and some even went so far as to say that she should "shut up" and "stay in the kitchen".

Granted, a lot of online trolls only do so because they can hide behind their monitors but it does actually reflect on society and I'm ashamed to say I do regard her as being quite novel whereas had it been any sort of male presenter I wouldn't think much of it.

[Pseudo341]

That cracked me up! I do rather wonder at the person who drew it, and then presumably all the people who saw it and agreed it was a good picture for a children's sticker book, before it made it to print. How did noone realise? It's also quite interesting to see the very superior caucasian pilot in the middle with the asian steward off to one side.

[StealthPolarBear]

"
Inever thought anything like that (child of the 1970s"

I do think this crap is getting worse. I think legislatively and policy are ahead of the 70s but culturally we've gone backwards. My dcs school and teachers are fantastic about this stuff.

[LilacSpunkMonkey]

That toilet thing. Do we even have 'stewardesses' anymore? Aren't they all, - male and female - flight attendants now?

Where were the male flight attendants meant to go pee-pee? No one ever thinks of the male flight attendants

[MorrisZapp]

Yes, pilots can be non binary too :)

I have a Richard Scarry book with an airport page featuring a 'pretty srewardess', those actual words.

Meanwhile my DS informed me this morning that 'girls can't know stuff, they're just pretty'. This is despite the millions of clever females he's surrounded by, I bloody despair.

[AutumnLeavesArePretty]

I've only ever once had a female pilot, the rest were always male. Had a few male cabin staff but the bulk are female so the picture is pretty accurate.

A childs main influence is their parents and close family members. As a lot of households still subscribe to the man working with the woman not or just doing a small part time job. This means men are always ahead in the business world and more career dominated as they have to be to earn the household income. Boys see they have to work and girls see they aren't expected too.

Changing a few posters won't help until many many more adults change themselves.

[IceBeing]

autumn I disagree that children's main influence is their parents. They spend more (awake) time at school than at home and much of their home time is spent online/watching TV.

If you want to address sexism you need to address it in schools and in the media...

[IceBeing]

My DD has a full time scientist mother and a SAHD, she still trots out girls can't be engineers...