Well I’m not a regular “Sunday Night With Megyn Kelly” viewer. But I cannot help catching things out of the corner of my eye from time to time, and I was intrigued when I saw that she was covering a study of gender perceptions among 5- and 6-year-old children.
The results of the study were pretty straightforward:
- When asked whether they thought boys were smarter than girls or vice versa, 5-year-old girls tended to favor their own gender.
- 6-year-old girls, meanwhile, almost universally (if not universally) answered that boys were smarter — even those whose mothers were working women (even, in fact, the daughter of Kelly herself, whose husband is a work-at-home author, and therefore more often home with the kids while she is out “making it big”).
Okay — so what can we make of this?
Limitations
First of all, we would do well to remember that one segment in an hour-long show will not likely delve into all of the pertinent details of any given study. To expect it to do so would be unreasonable and unwise.
But even what did make it into the show gives us some cause for reflection.
Part of this segment showed the interviewer putting a series of pictures before the children and asking them which person pictured was the smartest.
In these instances, only one of the pictures was of a man. When you ask a 6-year-old child to make a selection almost any reason, it seems the child is likely to pick the item that stands out.
Nevertheless, there were instances in which only one photo was presented — said photo featuring one man and one woman, each equal to the other in apparent status and temperament.
The results here were the same: The man was smarter. So there is legitimate cause for concern.
Reasons?
It must be admitted that the popular culture doesn’t help. And let’s face it: Despite the wise words of their parents and teachers, children nowadays are inundated from a very early age with the cultural influences that saturate society.
Look at the news. Look at the various advertisements on and offline. Listen to popular music. Who are the most prominent women in these areas? Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, the “twerking” Miley Cyrus…add whatever name you like.
Look, moreover, at the immense popularity of the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise. It seems like even soccer moms are into this salacious saga of a woman who willingly makes herself the victim of a suave tycoon’s sadomasichism. The fact it has been so embraced suggests at least a subconscious disrespect, on the part of some women, for their own dignity as human beings.
What’s my point? Whether intentional or not, whether articulated or not, the ubiquity of these images and ideas cannot but impress upon the minds of little girls that a woman’s value lies not in her brains, but in her sex appeal.
In matters of intelligence, therefore, they will be led to give boys the upper hand.
The fact that people are surprised, and unable to account for, the results of the above study is evidence against arguments for the innocuousness of what we may be tempted to call “just fiction,” “mere entertainment,” or, God forbid, a “healthy expression of our sexuality.”
None of this is to say that other factors are not at work. But I think that to overlook this issue can only be to the peril of our cultural mindset and, most importantly, the welfare of our children.
Okay…so the next logical step, I think, is to look at possible secular responses along with a robust Catholic response (I am a devout Catholic, remember). Having given you this as a preview of what to expect, I leave you in suspense until next time.
Acknowledgements
By MattGagnon – This is a photograph that I, myself, took on the floor of the convention on August 26, 2012, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60376947
By Jen Keys – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3034245
By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35559151
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