Boys and Girls
Simulus
This session arose when I was given a ‘top’ English group to do some philosophy. It started when I overheard the following:
Unidentified child: “There’s more girls in this group, so girls must be cleverer than boys”
Angry retort: “That’s sexist!”
Use the above anecdote as your stimulus, embellish as you will.
Task Question:
- “Girls are better than boys”, Is this sexist?
Task 1
- “Boys are stronger than girls"
- “Most boys are stronger than girls”
- Is there any difference in the two statements?
- Are either of them sexist?
- What is ‘sexist?’
Task 2 –Thank you to Phil Gaydon for this
"Girls can't play here"
- Is this sexist?
- If 'here' is the playground?
- If 'here' is the boys' toilets?
- If 'here' is your back garden?
- If 'here' is your treehouse?
Further Stimulus
Taken form David Birch’s session on 2-eyed Ugas
Imagine you are in a parallel world, much like ours. You write a newspaper that only writes the truth. You discover that scientists have actually unpick the male and female brain and discover that females are naturally more intelligent than males.
- Do you publish this story?
Nested Questions
- Is it sexist if it is the truth?
- Is truth important?
- What is ‘being sexist’?
- Can you be sexist against your own gender? (give an example from what they’ve said)
- Is it ok to be sexist about your own gender? (if you can be sexist against your own gender)
- Is sexist kind? Honest?
