{"id":5927,"date":"2013-05-24T15:28:01","date_gmt":"2013-05-24T14:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/?p=5927"},"modified":"2013-05-24T15:31:29","modified_gmt":"2013-05-24T14:31:29","slug":"2013may24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/2013may24\/","title":{"rendered":"Boys &#038; girls swop guns &#038; dolls in Scotland"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_5928\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5928\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/TOYSRUS.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5928\" alt=\"The Swedish arm of Toys R Us is suggesting girls play with guns. Zero Tolerance think this will reduce violence. But only against women.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/TOYSRUS.png\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5928\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Swedish arm of Toys R Us is suggesting girls play with guns. Zero Tolerance think this will reduce violence. But only against women. \u00a0Violence against men doesn&#8217;t matter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Nursery children in Scotland are the target of a new campaign that aims to end sexism in pre-schools and prevent future domestic violence by encouraging boys to swap their cars for dolls and little girls to dress up as pirates, <strong><a title=\"You will need a subscription to view the whole article\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thetimes.co.uk\/tto\/news\/uk\/scotland\/article3773782.ece\" target=\"_blank\">says The Times<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The &#8216;Just Like a Child&#8217; initiative being launched this week by &#8216;Zero Tolerance&#8217;, a charity that claims to &#8216;fight violence against women&#8217;, aims to &#8216;end gender stereotyping in nurseries&#8217; by giving boys dolls to play with and encouraging girls to play with guns and be &#8216;strong and tough&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Jenny Kemp, Zero Tolerance coordinator, writes: &#8220;We believe that it is never too early to question what is seen as &#8216;normal&#8217; or what is traditionally expected of boys and girls in our society. In fact, we believe that doing so from a very young age helps to protect children from the negative consequences of inequality and discrimination as they grow into adults.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Liz Ely, a &#8216;development officer&#8217; at Zero Tolerance, said: &#8220;From the moment children are born they are told that boys must be strong and tough, and girls are delicate and pretty. These stereotypes have real and lasting consequences. The fact that as a society we tell boys not to express their emotions, and girls that they are not suited to science and maths, sets children on a path to inequality; this inequality lays the foundations for abuse and violence in later life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dr Sarah Morton, a &#8216;family expert&#8217; and psychologist at the University of Edinburgh, said &#8216;our research has found a clear link between gender stereotypes and violence against women and children.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>It would be interesting to see that research, and how &#8216;gender stereotypes&#8217; were quantified, because common sense might lean to the view that it is insecurity rather than some supposed &#8216;inequality&#8217; which lies at the heart of a desire to lash out, and that by encouraging insecurity in their gender identity this programme will increase the likelihood that these boys and girls will grow up unbalanced and abusive.<\/p>\n<p>The website <strong><a href=\"www.zerotolerance.org.uk\" target=\"_blank\">www.zerotolerance.org.uk<\/a><\/strong> says the organisation &#8216;is a charity working to tackle the causes of men&#8217;s violence against women. Too many women in Scotland, and around the world, experience violence from men &#8211; most often men they are close to and\/or who are in a position of power over them. Men&#8217;s violence against women is caused by gender inequality, and it helps this inequality to continue.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>There is so much wrong in that unbalanced statement it is hard to know where to begin. For a start, women&#8217;s violence and abuse against men apparently either does not happen or does not matter to &#8216;Zero Tolerance&#8217;. The idea that men are always &#8216;in a position of power&#8217; over women is laughable. Lastly, where does the idea come from that violence is simply and exclusively &#8217;caused by gender inequality?&#8217; Abuse of any sort is caused by sin, and the roots of it can lie in insecurity, irritation, drunkenness, provocation, mental problems or plain old wickedness. And the fair sex are not immune from any of those.<\/p>\n<p>One strongly gets the impression that there is either an anti-Christian, feminist political agenda behind the approach of &#8216;Zero Tolerance&#8217; or there are some personal issues becoming rather too public. \u00a0Either way, it is not just sad but frankly mendacious to involve children in a social experiment which could leave them trying to work out problems with gender identity later in life.<\/p>\n<p>It would be better and more effective to teach boys that they have a responsibility to protect and care for girls, but of course that would reinforce the very &#8216;gender stereotype&#8217; that the feministas at Zero Tolerance so detest.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Genesis 2:18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Isaiah 3:12 As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>1Peter 3:7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Find out how to join Christian Voice and stand up for the King of kings (clicking on the link below does not commit you to join)<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/wp.me\/P1OVTZ-gb\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3940\" style=\"border: 0px;\" title=\"Join Today!\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Join_donate_Logo2.jpg\" width=\"185\" height=\"180\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Please note that persons wishing to comment on this story must enter a valid email address. Comments from persons leaving fictitious email addresses will be trashed.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nursery children in Scotland are the target of a new campaign that aims to end sexism in pre-schools and prevent future domestic violence by encouraging boys to swap their cars for dolls and little girls to dress up as pirates, says The Times. The &#8216;Just Like a Child&#8217; initiative being launched this week by &#8216;Zero [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[181,86,184],"tags":[781,782,15,785,783,784,62,780,786],"class_list":["post-5927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feminism","category-secularism","category-uk-christian-constitution","tag-just-like-a-child","tag-zero-tolerance","tag-christian-voice","tag-dr-sarah-morton","tag-jenny-kemp","tag-liz-ely","tag-scotland","tag-the-times","tag-university-of-edinburgh"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Stephen","author_link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/author\/stephen\/"},"rttpg_comment":8,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/homosexuality-trans\/feminism\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Feminism<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/uk-christian-constitution\/secularism\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Secularism<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/uk-christian-constitution\/\" rel=\"category tag\">UK Christian Constitution<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Nursery children in Scotland are the target of a new campaign that aims to end sexism in pre-schools and prevent future domestic violence by encouraging boys to swap their cars for dolls and little girls to dress up as pirates, says The Times. The &#8216;Just Like a Child&#8217; initiative being launched this week by &#8216;Zero&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5927\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}