And it starts at age 4 and a half, sometimes younger, in our schools and pre-schools.
In my son's Primary School, they are awarded rosettes for good work in forming letters and numbers. All well and good, right? There's a pink one for the girls, labelled "Formation Queen" and a blue one for boys labelled "Formation King". Hmmmm.
My son LOVES the colour pink. He had pink wellies for 6 months and might well choose pink wellies again in the future. He really really REALLY wants a pink transformer. He isn't gender non-conforming that we know, but it wouldn't surprise me if that was part of his story later on. What I don't want? For him to be teased because he likes pink. For him to win that prestigious rosette and be denied the pink one because that's the girls' one.
I've got a solution to this, but I don't know how well it's going to go down with the staff...
Instead of "Formation Queen" and "Formation King", there could be (should be) "Formation Stars". Gender neutral. Still awesome.
It's early in the term (week 2) but so far there have only been "Formation Kings" and "Formation Queens" and then, they always appear together as a hetero duo. I've not yet seen two "Formation Queens" or two "Formation Kings". This is also troubling, because now it's not just gender stereotyping going on, it's relationship stereotyping.
We've got a "Meet the Teacher" session later this month. That's gonna be interesting.
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