What do people think of this going on at my daughter's primary school?

[DoctorBeat]

Nationalism with some gender stereotyping thrown in for good measure? Girls bring in something sweet?! 😒

Anyway more daughter doesn't like sweet food and neither is she sweet so she'll be taking something she likes

Completely missing the point. The food is meant to be shared.

Yeah, ok, I give in. She'll take lovely pretty, pink fluffy cupcakes like a good little girl. Just would have been nice for her to make/buy something she actually likes, regardless of whether it's to share or not.

When I lived in the states I would celebrate Independence Day because you know like, I was in the Stares! I did wear my Union Jack tshirt though, lol. I don't see the issue at all.

Or she could just take in a pack of chocolate chip cookies...

BUt what are you offended by OP?

It doesn't say "Girls should bring sweets because they are girls"

But my point is it may as well do... IN MY OPINION.

Why does "girls bring in sweet things" mean she 'has' to bring in pretty pink fluffy cupcakes?

Well, if you're going to infer things that just aren't there, then you will get offended by a lot of things in life.

But saying 'girls bring sweets because they are girls' would be actively sexist. I think they've paid no thought to it and just allocated it. My point is that without even realising it, their subconscious chose girls for the sweet option. I will try and find a link to the kitten/puppy study to prove what I mean. Every one of the teachers in that study swore they had allocated the animals randomly. Yet over 90% had given the kittens to girls.
I don't think the school would even be aware of this. But I'm sure if 1000 schools did the same thing everyone involved would be shocked at how many had 'randomly' allocated sweet things to girls.

Whether there's any real harm with subconsciously allocating sweet to girls 9 times out of 10 without any issue or malice is debatable. That doesn't make it any less prevalent.

"" I DID NOT WANT OR INTEND TO BE OFFENDED."
But you went on to say you were offended by it OP. "

Seriously? You made yourself look very intelligent there. Well done.

Yeah, ok, I give in. She'll take lovely pretty, pink fluffy cupcakes like a good little girl.

Oh ffs......

Ffs just send in something savoury - no one will care or notice!

Thanks mini but I think you're banging your head against a brick wall here. To think that people who call themselves feminists but have no grasp of subconscious gender stereotyping/conditioning is eye-opening!

I will new. Thanks. (As I already said down thread)

You didn't intend to be offended.

But you are offended never the less.

Offended by something you have inferred and that was not intended as an offensive statement. You appear to be offended because you have come to the conclusion that "Girls brings sweet things" actually means "girls bring sweet things, because you're girls"

I am still confused.

You are over-thinking this. It's a simple way of getting equal amounts of sweet and savoury.

It is lazy, low level, everyday sexism plus, as a PP said, they got the sweet/savoury mix wrong!

I don't have a problem with the celebrating Britain thing though.

Asi have explained, numerous times, i didn't reach into my dd's school bag thinking "hmm, I wonder if there is a letter in here I can get offended about! I do hope so!"

What actually happened, is that I saw this, and I was offended. Not on purpose, but I was. It was my gut reaction and like all emotional responses, it is not something I have any control over.

I came on here to see if others would feel the same. It turns out that many wouldn't, but that a small minority would.

That is not being wilfully/professionally offended. I do not look for things to be offended by. THIS JUST HAPPENED TO OFFEND ME.

001, right, last post from me. Nobody is suggesting that the school intended to offend or would even realise the issue. Nobody who offered kitten considered they were making a subconscious choice. They genuinely thought they had randomly allocated the pets. None of them considered that perhaps something subtle they participated in when they were 7, such as, I don't know, a sweet or savoury allocation, may have trained their brain to make a certain choice 30 or 40yrs later when faced with such a thing without even realising they'd made anything other than a random choice.

But saying 'girls bring sweets because they are girls' would be actively sexist. I think they've paid no thought to it and just allocated it. My point is that without even realising it, their subconscious chose girls for the sweet option.

Maybe they tossed a coin?

And actually I don't think I am overthinking it, because my initial reflex response was that it pissed me off. Sorry.

I do have an understanding of subconscious bias but IMO this one poster, in and of itself, does not show subconscious bias.

If you have other posters of a similar nature that show that 'sweet' items are, in fact, always given to girls then fine.

On the basis of this one poster they could have chosen it by flipping a coin for all I know.

If a second event was held with the same split of sweet/savoury I would see it as subconscious bias but IMO it's a bit presumptive to call it at this stage.

Anyway it's Famous Britons not Famous Britains. Fucking philistines.

I was under the impression that splitting into boys and girls for anything was discouraged in guidelines these days - there are other ways to do it (as an earlier poster suggested - year 3 sweet, year 4 savoury) - or, do what my kids school did, and they put up a list in the playground and people put their name against what they could bring - to save asking people to bring something they can't.

I don't think it's particularly sexist in this case, but it is a bit lazy to fall back on separating into boys and girls rather than using some other kind of non-sex based split. Especially given in many other circumstances, that split does result in overtly sexist treatment.

Really?

Girls: Victoria sponge, strawberries
Boys: pork pies, pasties

Must just be me then...

I'm a bit at this:

"I find this offensive, do you?"

"Not really, no"

"Then you don't understand subconscious bias because I'm right"

Anyway I'm going to send my dd in with black pudding (even though she's actually vegetarian)