My son is sexist.

[Clarabumps]

My son has just turned 9.

Dp has always treated me with the utmost respect and although I am a stay at home mum, I have free financial rein and I have never felt in any way held back by my non working outside the home status if you know what I mean.
My son has increasingly been making sexist statements about strength and abilities of women to do things. I'd consider myself a feminist as is dp and I'm honestly struggling to find out where these views are coming from.
"Sure boys are far stronger than girls?"
"A woman can't be a builder"
"Boys are better at maths and stuff than girls"
I'm totally dumbfounded. He says things like this a lot. I keep reiterating that women can do anything a man can do but I'm not sure I'm doing enough.
I don't know if it's the fact that I'm at home that he sees my role as worthless. Maybe I'm over thinking this. I'd appreciate any advice on where to go from here. I feel both me and dps are talking to the wall when trying to combat this.
It really seems ingrained in society. It's worrying me.

Reverting to the assertion that it's still "women and children first" off a sinking ship I have read that the survival rates for men on disasters at sea is much higher as their physical strength has allowed them to push weaker passengers out of the way - and that women are more likely to try to save their children rather than look out for themselves.

www.newscientist.com/article/dn22119-sinking-the-titanic-women-and-children-first-myth/

DD comes home from school with a lot of this crap. Strangely enough is biased against boys. Boys cant have long hair,wear clips,wear pink,be princesses whatever. I always challenged it,but I love the fact that she does not believe the opposite applies to her ever(i'm sure society will soon try to change that). For example, i asked her how she would feel if someone told her she can't play football because she's a girl ,answer "but i can play football!" , i asked her how she would feel if she was told she couldn't be an astronaut ,answer "i'll just be a lady astronaut". Long may it continue,without the boys can't thing though

Rebel

What reason does she give for boys not being able to have those things?

None really,she just says they can't. I asked her who told her that,and rarely the answer will be one of the boys in her class,but mostly it's "no one,they just can't". The scary bit is,they're only just starting reception this year and this stuff already gets said.

whattheseithakasmean
Your idea of feminism is from way back in the 60s and seventies, I fear. I was never very clever at traditional women's work myself, but it is very valuable and creative work.

Just because very few men ever valued it and a lot of women were denied much chance of doing anything other than that, does not mean that it is just sheer drudgery. Cookery is vital and creative, as is educating our children.

I'm all for people finding and being able to do what suits them best and I am grateful to feminism for making that possible. So some couples decide that they are both going to work fulltime and some prefer for one of them to stay at home.

As for Mega's grumbling about the inadequacies of paternity leave, why don't start a campaign, Mega. Join a union and chase up politicians. I am 100% in favour of paternity leave, it is also a feminist demand.

I always challenged it,but I love the fact that she does not believe the opposite applies to her ever(i'm sure society will soon try to change that).

It seems she has a healthy sense of self esteem! Congratulations!

I don't think society will be able to change that. She has already seen through this shit.

But challenging the idea that boys cannot wear pink or have long hair will be difficult, considering that very few boys do this ... uh ... watch the Hobbit movies with her? Elrond really rocks that long hair and robe look.

Sorry to derail a little but with regards to parental leave...the thing with this is that a mum isn't just taking time off to look after her child, it's also to recover from pregnancy and birth. I had SPD, a second degree tear, various other issues. It took me a good 6 weeks before my back and pelvis was stable enough to actually comfortably walk. There's a hell of s lot of physical recovery post birth. I understand Rich might be aiming for equality, but there isn't equality in childbirth and recovery and I think parental leave reflects that.
However, it would be fair to access equal leave arrangements if you were adopting for example.