The Real Wizard wrote:
Just cultural differences I guess. I'm in Canada, and it was the same thing. Perhaps we're less evolved than you folk across the pond?
As a teenager I regularly endured insults from people because I listened to a gay guy singing songs on my walkman. Some people even thought all Queen songs were about gay sex and that it would make me gay if I listened to it enough.
I wish I was kidding.
It's interesting...it's my sense that Canada is far from homophobic. It was among the first handful of countries to enshrine gay marriage, word and all, in the basic rights and freedoms of all citizens. The current right wing federal government has recognized that there is little appetite to revisit that, even among mainstream conservatives. What we may be though is unusually 'traditional' in attitudes towards gender roles for a fundamentally liberal first world nation. There was <a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/09/22/many-canadian-youths-believe-in-old-fashion-gender-roles-study/
">an international survey</a> that made news earlier this fall that showed Canadian youth had unusually old fashioned views relative to countries like the UK and even Rwanda. Some findings:
The report, released Thursday by the development agency Plan International, found 31 per cent of Canadian boys aged 12 to 17 believe a woman’s most important role is feeding her family and taking care of the home.That compared to 15 per cent of boys in the United Kingdom, but well short of 73 per cent in India and 68 per cent in Rwanda, who answered the same way.
When the question was asked of Canadian adults, 24 per cent agreed that a woman’s primary role should be in the home.Almost half — 48 per cent — of the Canadian adolescents polled said men should be responsible for earning an income and providing for their families. Among Canadian adults, 43 per cent felt the same way.
Among the other findings, 45 per cent of all the Canadian youths in this survey agreed with the statement that “to be a man, you need to be tough.” That compared to 13 per cent in the U.K. and 26 per cent in Rwanda.When the question was asked of Canadian adults, 38 per cent of men equated toughness with masculinity and that fell to 21 per cent among women.As well, 42 per cent of the young Canadians polled agreed that being a man meant taking more risks. Among Canadian adults, 41 per cent of men felt this way and 19 per cent of women did. That last paragraph is the most striking to me. 13% in the UK vs. 45% in Canada regarding the idea that men need to be 'tough' is an incredible gap for two areas of the world that share so many other fundamental values and outlooks. And Rwanda! Canadian youth are nearly twice as wedded to the idea of male toughness compared to a country torn by violence and civil war. It's really very striking. I was musing about why some of this may be, and I wondered if perhaps the ruggedness of the land and the preponderance of blue collar jobs that flow from a resource based economy, and the harshness of the climate in the winter come together to still favour a more traditional division of labour and a reliance on and appreciation of typical male attributes like strength, endurance and stoicism in the face of grinding physical work. Even our national sport is a tough, physical game, including an occasional fist fight in the middle, which even I think is kind of crazy and unnecessary, but apparently an important aspect to many.
I think my point is are we less evolved or have we evolved in a way that suits the specific character of this country? The survey was as interesting to me in the feedback on the various outlets that covered it as was the actual data. There was little fretting about it and a whole lot of 'so what'? There is a growing impatience in the North American online commentariat with women's issues and the attempt to blur and erase all lines between the genders. It's been fascinating and sometimes unnerving to watch over the last few years. Having finally rented 'Polytechnique' on the weekend, the anniversary of which is tomorrow, I wonder if it's notable even that the deadliest mass killing in the history of this country was a rage against feminism in which all 14 victims were female? Hard to say.
How this might translate to teen attitudes about things like gay artists is probably not clear, but on one level it's probably as much about being different as about being interested in Queen and their gay singer. Teens value conformity, and if you're off listening to some ancient 70's band you'll probably be getting a second look anyway. Still, being gay and bullied of course remains a significant issue on it's own, so anything that props that up even obliquely maybe needs to be a concern.
Sorry all for the thread jack, I just found RW's experience and that of MadTheSwine kind of interesting and it made me think of that rather surprising survey.
