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Thursday, September 13, 2007

From the "You Can't Be Serious" Department

This afternoon, my husband pointed me at this Wall Street Journal article, which details how difficult it is for men to be around children because people are so prone to assuming that any man, even the father of a child with whom other children are in day care, is up to no good. I thought this was a sorry article and had all kinds of trouble with the way the people described in it behaved.

(Among them, the director of the day care center, mentioned above, who apparently scolded a father for letting children, including his own, sit on his lap while he read stories to them. A parent saw this spectacle and said he was touching the children inappropriately. Why on earth didn't day care center director either tell the woman she was off her rocker or establish some sort of "no lap-sitting" policy instead of scolding the father, who probably didn't assume this was a big deal?)

Oh anyway, then I saw a similar issue raised in Slate's Dear Prudence advice column today (second question in, but they're all intriguing).

So what's the deal? Are people really more scared of men suddenly? If so, why? Or are people just generally getting more and more stupid? Because this is hardly a reasonable way for people to live and participate in society, even if they're scared.

posted by Elise at 2:23 PM

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2 Comments:

leighs said...

I ti sone of the saddest things I know, thatchildren get the idea that men a re non-touching, indeed, non-feeling people becasue they are hamstrung by fear. I think out media promotes this, and while predators are very very real, creating this culture where every man is a secret pedophile hurts all of us.

9/14/2007 10:21 AM

Chloe said...

I wonder if this attitude about men reaches beyond the states. We just moved out of the states for a year with our toddler, and can't help but be shocked by the differences with regard to children and safety. I do not mean to say that we are upset at the lack of "child friendly safety precautions" in public areas, but just the opposite. It is quite refreshing to be in a place where we are expected to have brains, use them, and teach our child to use his. People are not scared of other people here. All children, and adults, here are expected to greet strangers on the street with, "Good Day," and it is considered rude not to.

9/16/2007 4:55 AM

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