In questioning the following lyrics in DS's christmas play?

[Chickenshavenolips]

The song is called 'Girl Power':

'We have got the brains
We have got the skill
We have even got the brawn
We don't need a man, that's overkill
And besides, they make us yawn'

And

'We have got the strength
The mental push
We have got the driving steam
We don't need a man with brains of mush...'

And

'We can do anything better than you, better than you'

DS is 6. AIBU in thinking that this isn't a great message to be sending out to young children? That one sex is 'better than' the other?

So did you keep the shit and tit in ? ...

Actually, I was 9 (I was 7 when Star Wars came out - got mixed up)

No I only supply taught there so no idea what they did. And things like "the chicks'll cream" too and all the virginity stuff. Bizarre.

Condom in the car bit?
That must've gone over my head too, because I still haven't noticed it

There is no 'reply' song. I think I'll go and ask the teacher about the plot of this play, and see where the land lies (so to speak). I'm assuming that the pirates are going to be boys, although that is only an assumption based on the 'Girl Power' song. Even if it is a case of 'horrible boy pirates won't let the girls play', I still think it's a shitty message.

YANBU! Nasty dangerous opposite of misogyny fecking bollox of the highest order!

I'm on R's behalf.

I'd be raising hell at the school 1st thing in the am.

Urgh thats horrible.
I cant stand little girls being fed this fake feisty-grrrl attitude - what are they being groomed for? The ricki lake show?

This is absolutely unacceptable
You must have this bolleoux stopped, pronto. Kerrist, I would love to have a word with the Über-Numpty who composed this trite...

YA so NBU x

Thought Christmas was the season of goodwill to men?

Quick update - I spoke to DS's teacher, who quickly passed the buck to a more senior staff member. Said staff member said that she understood my concerns, but that it was just 'light hearted fun, like a pantomime', that it's 'very difficult to find new plays for the children to do every year' and that she'd 'look into it, but can't promise anything'. When I suggested that this song was cut and replaced with another, she said that none of the other songs were 'suitable'. I am trying not to go off on one like a deranged terrahawk. Any suggestions?

'Light hearted fun', 'Cant promise anything'?! As in everyones christmas experience will be ruined if we change our sexist dribble at such short notice and we should put our moral code on hold for festive entertainment?

What a crappy response. Who cares if they have to sit up for an entire week to think up a new song, and a new plot for that matter? They can't pass on this attitude to young children out of laziness, they were irresponsible to pick it in the first place.

It takes alot to make me complain but this would have me drumming on the heads door.
I would speak to other mums at the school gate later and see what they make of it. Strength in numbers!!

weird WTF YANBU maybe you should "go off on one like a deranged terrahawk"

This is awful. Small boys are getting ideas abou themselves from everything they encounter at this age - they don't need something that 'balances' out a general bias against girls (which is there later on - I think feminism really matters) because they haven't yet got it. My ds would take this seriously and be really miserable about it (has done in the past about quite lighthearted remarks in this vein from adults - has even said to me that he 'knows' girls are best and it makes him sad).

can you send a letter of complaint/concern to the governors, pref signed by a group of parents?

you could casually mention the Daily Mail to the head. should do the trick. not that i'm saying your concerns are DM-ish; i agree the lyrics are very inappropriate and demeaning to boys, it's just that the head might be worried that they'd take up your cause, so it might scare him into a hasty bit of re-writing.

Doesn't it depend on the play? If, for example, it's being sung by the crew of a girls only pirate ship who are all in character as girl pirates then surely that's show business!

I wouldn't be happy if it wasn't in that sort of context, though.

Well I was going to say that if the context of the song was in response to a similarly nasty one sung by the boys...

But no, I'd be very unhappy about that. That sort of thing isn't light hearted or fun at all.

YANBU at all and I would pursue it further. Well done for challenging it. As someone else said earlier, it wouldn't be seen as 'lighthearted fun' if the song was about girls/black children/Muslims being rubbish mush-for-brains, and I think that you should point that out to them.

Outrageous.

That's awful, imagine if it was the other way around with a group of boys singing about how they're superior to the girls? there would be an uproar.

Apart from that, I think it's innapropriate for6 year olds to be singing about men etc!

I wouldn't be happy.

Wtf have pirates got to do with Christmas anyway?

I think it's bordering on inappropriate but not really worth complaining about.

"Wtf have pirates got to do with Christmas anyway?" - we had pirates in ours last year and that was my sentiments exactly.

"Apart from that, I think it's innapropriate for6 year olds to be singing about men etc!"

But Virgin births and the massacre of all the first borns of Egypt are OK?

Gosh femininst brainwashing at such an early age I would make a complaint to the school its totally unacceptable and should not be tolerated. If the lyrics were about women than there would be such a hoo ha, and i am not a mum just a normal thinking mum.