Dealing with Bigots

Finally, after two millennia of ignorance, we progressives are tossing aside the strangle-hold of tradition like a sweaty garment clinging to our skin. For a prime example of how we are shining our “light” into the darkness, we offer the following for your enjoyment. A school in Sweden has pioneered some bold changes by banishing gender pronouns:

• In accordance with a national school curriculum that seeks to fight the “stereotyping” of gender roles, a preschool in the Sodermalm district of Stockholm has incorporated a gender-free pedagogy that eliminates any reference to gender completely.

• Staff at the “Egalia” preschool avoid using words like “him” or “her” and instead address the 30 or so boys and girls, aged 1 to 6 years, as “friends…the school has hired a ‘gender pedagogue’ to help staff remove masculine and feminine references in language and behavior, going so far as to make sure that lego blocks and other building toys are kept next to kitchen and cooking toys to avoid any gender roles being given preference.

• The Swedish pronouns “han” and “hon” (him and her), for instance, have been replaced in the school by the genderless “hen,” a made-up word that doesn’t exist in Swedish but is used extensively by feminists and homosexuals. There are also no traditional children’s books such as Snow White, Cinderella or the classic fairy tales…The shelves instead have books that deal with homosexual couples, single parents, adopted children, and treatises on “new ways to play.”

Before the hopelessly narrow-minded conclude that these are mindless, ideologically-driven policies, we want you to know first that these innovations are being subjected to intense scrutiny. To cite just one example of how our “side” in this debate is in the absolute educational vanguard where these issues are concerned, please take pride in the knowledge that…

• …the state-funded Swedish Science Council has granted $80,000 for a post-doctoral fellowship for research into “the trumpet as a symbol of gender.”

So you see, friends, you can rest assured – we are definitely on the right track! And yet, perhaps you are wondering whether it might be more appropriate to directly assess the impact of these innovations on the students in question. However, this line of thinking just reflects your underlying homophobia. Only a hate-filled bigot would suggest that such improvements in our fine schools could possibly adversely affect our children.

We know all about your type. You’ll try to make some outmoded appeal to reality – like the outlandish proposition that males and females are different and require appropriate terminology to reflect those intrinsic differences. Bah! Such foolishness! We know so much better now. What you call “reality” is nothing more than a social construct, which the dominant repressive culture has imperialistically imposed on the rest of us.

But hear this, loud and clear—your time is happily over. We have decisively won over the media and the universities. They are now solidly in our camp. They refuse to use your antiquated terminology of “he” and “she.” In fact, we have made such strides that anyone who does use those wretched terms will be laughed into a corner. We now even have the politicians in our pocket. It might have required some intimidation, but if intimidation is required to silence you bigots, then so be it. And if that doesn’t work, well, there’s always violence. Who cares about the lives of a few when the rights of so many are at stake!

After all, we are on an enlightened campaign to eliminate discrimination. And eliminate it, we will, even if we have to curtail freedom and use discrimination against the forces of repression in order to accomplish our high and lofty goals. We’ve already succeeded by sending many of the repressive elements for “sensitivity training.” OK, to be totally forthcoming here, we freely admit that there is absolutely nothing sensitive about the training. It’s a matter of force-feeding our propaganda, but it works. We’ve already convinced large swaths of the public that by calling their children “he” or “she,” they have scarred their children for life, even driving them to masochistic acting-out. As a consequence, we have triumphantly succeeded in convincing the voters that it is we who are the caring and sensitive ones.

Finally, make no mistake about it--anyone who opposes us, we will malign. After all, that’s what they’ve done to us. To heck with their democratic processes, as some might call them! They have long been the tool of the oppressor, but now we will use them to bring true enlightenment and liberty!