to be outraged by Nativity casting as 'Innkeeper's wife'!!!

[PIPERHELLO]

Daughter (6) has been cast as 'someone's wife' in the Nativity play at school. 'Innkeeper's wife' to be precise.

Err...hello!?

This is fucking not OK! In 2019, to be identified as 'someone's wife'.

Normally I am pretty relaxed about all things school, and I certainly feel sorry for he teachers' workloads, but come on people!? This is 2019 - no woman should be identified by her relationship to a man!? SURELY!

Itching to call them out on this. Itching!

I know what you mean OP, this kind of subtle sexism really hacks me off too.

If it's flipped out, they could have been described as Innkeeper and Innkeeper's husband - the husband therefore becomes an accessory to the woman's role as the worker/innkeeper. But that doesn't ever seem to happen.

The same thing annoys me about women being so casually defined as Miss, Mrs, Ms according to marital status, when men are just Mr. We are women, and our marital status is irrelevant in 99% of situations!

So I am with you OP.

One of the only things that make me cry is primary school children singing Little Donkey.

With the erosion of born-women's rights, I think we need historical examples of how far we have come, or we might end up back there.

I was "the wind" in my nativity play at school 🙈

“At dc’s school about 5 of the kids who are picked for everything get an actual role in the nativity. Everyone else just lurks in the background wearing whatever costumes the school happens to have lying around. Last year ds was a member of the RNLI”

Bloody hell my son is only two...I'm not sure I am ready for this level of 'concern' when he goes to school. Are these the sort of 'issues' I need to protect him from

I do hope that the OP will double check that the Nativity props department have assigned an anatomically correct doll from the home corner to play Baby Jesus. If they are so lax as to fail to grant the partner of the innkeeper a defined role then it occurs to me they could easily have grabbed the first doll they saw, which if it is sans penis makes a mockery of the whole enterprise in my opinion.

www.itv.com/goodmorningbritain/news/school-nativity-role-job-prediction

@viques 🤣

Life's too short for this nonsense frankly. It's a nativity play, based on a story at a time when women were defined by their marriage. Do you really want to rewrite everything pre 2000? As that's about the start of time mass population women started to be taken seriously in terms of work.

Explain to your child the difference between then and now and make your 6 year old aware of how far humanity has come since this time in defining equality. That conversation is of far more wealth than crying to a teacher.

I was "the wind" in my nativity play at school
I hope you have a photo of the costume

I once played the innkeepers wife...I was always cast as Mary, Angel Gabriel, etc. This role was far and away the best I ever had. She was an absolute harridan and was really funny and scary. Was the best thing about that play.
Take a chill pill.

My friends daughter was the Innkeeper’s wife last year and she was thrilled as there were lots of lines. As she put it “ much more to say than Mary”.

This year she is Melchior and equally pleased. She is not bothered whether the part is for male or female as long as there’s lots to say.

Bloody hell confused my son is only two...I'm not sure I am ready for this level of 'concern' when he goes to school. Are these the sort of 'issues' I need to protect him from

Well he's a boy so probably not

This is giving me fond memories of Nativity plays. This will be my last one for my children. DD1 was a camel and a sheep. DD2 has had a more stand out nativity career... Page to the King's (where she refused to act unless they used her proper name, so the script was rewritten to refer to the King's and their loyal page, LittleAround). Then she was Mary, where she had an argument with Joseph on stage and dropped baby Jesus. Last year there was no Nativity. This year she is a Midwife which is one of the main characters. I can't wait to see what goes on this time (the three plays were all in different schools and countries).

“ may we introduce you to the concept of "Joseph", from the same nativity?”
Not Mary’s husband, though is he? Even though she’s the main character....

I am with you on ths OP. There should be two "inn keepers" - a male one and a female one.

@AryaStarkWolf good point. But that should be its own thread right. He might want to be the innkeepers wife

This is where historic revisionism starts. No wonder students are so batshit these days.

Dunno - personally i'd get more worked up about a child virgin being impregnated as the central focus of the story

”Do you really want to rewrite everything pre 2000?”

How is casting a girl as the Innkeeper rewriting anything?

My kid was a sheep, your being dramatic 😂

What would you say/do if you're DD was cast as Mrs Tanadier in Les Misérables ? Who is indeed an Inn Keepers wife. Would it have been better if she was cast Mrs Surname the Inn Keepers wife.

For the record YABU

Can someone please link to the Ur Nativity Play. We need to make sure that nobody ever deviates from the historical fact........

Are you religious OP? If you are then you definitely have bigger fish to fry with how women are portrayed secondary to men's importance. If you're not why is your child taking part in the nativity?

Do you really want to rewrite everything pre 2000?

Err no. Just give the "innkeepers wife" a name.