Kindergarten, AKA Introduction to Male Privilege
I met one of my daughter’s classmates who’s been infuriating her. He keeps telling her she can’t do things because she’s a girl (this week’s obsession being that she can’t play team sports, she has to be a cheerleader). Well today I watched him grab the glue stick in my kid’s hand, pull with all his might, literally screeeeaaaming in this horrible guttural demon-voice that she had to give it to him for (I’m not fucking kidding) over a full fucking minute. Meanwhile I kept saying no, she would share, but she had it first and he shouldn’t take things without asking. His tiny little face stayed contorted in this horrible grimace while he kept demanding she give it to him NOW and trying to pry it out of her fingers, and his mother (literally right next to him, touching him) just watched and said nothing.
And this is kindergarten rape culture, folks.
The teacher didn’t even notice any of this (even though there were only ~20 students and 10 parents in the room), which helps explain why my daughter constantly comes home talking about how this boy says and does awful things and doesn’t get punished. I need to have a parent-teacher conference, too, because when my daughter reports this bullying behavior to the teacher (which is what I tell her to do), she’s told not to “tattle.”
Don’t tattle on your bullies, kids, let them be disgusting bullies who never get punished for their actions. That’s not a fucking gross message to send to children or anything.
So glad it’s almost summer you don’t even know.