Sissies are on their way out on British playgrounds. At the government's request, guidelines produced by the country's Institute of Physics for the Department of Education have been sent to schools in England, and will recommend that teachers strongly discourage sexist language at school. The aim is to make it as socially unacceptable as racist language.
The crackdown will target phrases such as 'sissy', 'man up, cupcake' and 'you're being a girl'. Teachers will be appointed as 'gender champions'. Volunteer squads of girls have already been appointed in some schools to monitor their fellow pupils' use of sexist language.
The backlash has, as expected, been swift. Internet forums are replete with admonitions from members of the public furious at the erosion of so-called free speech. Accusations of an encroaching nanny-state mentality and the death of resilience are rife. Yearnings have been expressed en masse for the good old days, when children could be children.
But the guidelines are a welcome tool in the long and exhausting fight for female equality — and Australia would do well to consider adopting such procedures for its own playgrounds.
Sexist language is as powerful an influence on the perception of women as are the images used relentlessly to represent them. When boys and men insult other boys and men by suggesting they are girls, the notion that females are weak and malleable, second-class citizens, is thoroughly cemented.
According to Professor Peter Main of the Institute of Physics, 'Sexist language has a considerable impact, but in our research we found that it was often dismissed as just banter and was much more common than teachers were aware of.'
Dismissive though most people are of such 'banter', when used repeatedly it creates a pattern where thoughts and expressions influence action; it builds a solid foundation for children's future attitudes towards women. The language children learn on the playground (and at home) informs their values, and if casual sexism is invoked during childhood, boys will be more likely to grow up into sexist men.
'We cannot condone the use of sexist bullying in schools and then wonder why it's so widespread in adult relationships and workplaces,' writes feminist commentator Clementine Ford in an article that envisages an anti-sexist curriculum in Australia.
'See the problem, name the problem. Make it understood that sexist language will not be tolerated in your classroom — not even as a joke. Because amazingly, the only people to ever find it