A few days ago, I was studying with Humza for his upcoming English test and we were reviewing the lesson on pronouns. We get to a section where he has to replace the bold word with a proper pronoun. The first one says the following:
The pilot flew the airplane
A. It
B. They
C. She.
For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what the answer was. I was convinced that they had made a mistake in the textbook, having forgotten to include the correct answer (He). I mumbled something to the effect: ‘Hmmm..where is the right answer? There seems to be a mistake..hmmm..not sure…maybe they want you to use the pronoun ‘it’…hmmm…’
That’s right folks, I even considered using ‘it’ before Humza knocked some sense into me, ‘Abujee, the answer is right here…its She’
And he said it so nonchalantly, oblivious to the scourge known as gender bias. How sweet. Too bad it won’t last past middle school, I chuckled to myself.
Turns out that Humza’s way ahead of the game when it comes to the chauvinist learning curve:
I decided to do a quick experiment with Maryam and Humza with a short quiz to determine how much they’ve been effected by society’s overall predisposition on gender relations:
The leader went to visit Saudi Arabia
A. It
B. They
C. She
Humza chose They, Maryam picked She. When I asked Humza why he chose They, he shrugged and replied, ‘There was no HE.’
Atta boy Humza!
Me and my brother wish to meet the president.
A. Them
B. Her
C. Him
Humza selected Him and Maryam chose Her. When asked why, Maryam defiantly responded, 'Why not?' Just great, a feminist at the tender age of nine. Good luck to my future son-in-law!
The nurse gave me my medicine.
A. He
B. It
C. She
We saw the doctor in the surgery.
A. Them
B. Him
C. Her
They both answered these two questions in the typical way (nurse being female, doctor being male) – seems like a typical learned bias from the way society employs these roles. What’s odd is that their current pediatrician is a lady. Go figure.
The driver could not start the car.
A. She
B. It
C. They
Not surprisingly, they both had trouble with this one, especially for kids who've been in Saudi Arabia for the past 4 years. :-)
Just don’t call it genocide
1 week ago
13 comments:
Assalaamu alaikum,
Alhamdu Lillah for your daughter! Rather disappointed in her answers to the last two questions though! Must try this on my girls and see what gender role preconceptions they have. :)
AA- Umm Ibrahim,
Yeah, it seems that Maryam is a not a full fledged feminist. She still has hope! HAHA.
I'd be very interested in hearing about other kids taking this gender-bias quiz...lemme know how your kids do!
As salamualaikum Brother,
Nice blog! I got many things here to read & explore :)
i'll have to try this quiz on my kids on the weekend inshaAllah..mashaAllah your boy is bright, and maryam is defininlty cool :-) may Allah protect them leading you and their mother into jannah..
Assalaamu alaikum,
I can't remember if I asked my 10 year old daughter yet but my Maryam (12) answered the first question appropriately... I think that was the one about the president=she. As for the other questions she has a long way to go as far as feminism goes. Dr=he, nurse=she, pilot=he etc. She fits right in here in Saudi obviously!
I should try this one on my little bros :D
Salaam 'alaykum dear brother Naeem,
Lovely story, thanks for sharing - it certainly brought a smile to my face!
Warmly,
Baraka
The answer in the singular is always "he" unless specified to be feminine. Because while the masculine pronoun is inclusive, the feminine pronoun isn't.
In the case of the pilot, the only available answer was "she," so the fact that you didn't know it is kind of embarassing for you. And there are plenty of she-pilots in the world (aviatrix).
But if the choice is between masculine and feminine (i.e., He or She) then the answer is always "he" unless you know it to be a "she." So the nurse is a he, the doctor is a he, while the pilot and the driver are both "she."
AA-
@Suhaa and Anonymouse, please let us know how your experiment turns out...
@Umm Ibrahim, "She fits right in here in Saudi obviously!" Haha! Actually, she'll fit in well in most every society...
@Baraka, thanks for enjoying!
@Amy, so you consider yourself an expert on the American language, eh? Ok then...riddle me this, lil' sis: Should I spell 'Ms. know-it-all' with or without hyphens? :-P
As-salaamu Alaikum Naeem
The answer is that you need to capitalize the "K".
I loved this post :)
Haha! I like it.
mas7a Allah great kids :D
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