TALKING POINTS
There’s nothing like controversy and current events to kickstart conversation. Seize the day and get talking with your kids about these recent news stories…
1
AI models like ChatGPT think all nurses are women and senior doctors are men, study shows (Euronews, 23/9/24)
“In a study of stories made by artificial intelligence (AI) tools, women are overrepresented as doctors (50-84%) and surgeons (36-80%) – but 98% of nurses are women. This shows that AI perpetuates gender stereotypes in medicine. Women were generated with prompts like ‘agreeable’, ‘open’, ‘conscientious’ or ‘inexperienced’ while male doctors had the prompts ‘arrogant’, ‘impolite’, ‘unempathetic’, ‘incompetent’, ‘angry’, ‘unimaginative’ and ‘uninquisitive’. Women were associated with medicine for kids or pregnant women and men with heart-related medicine. Other studies show AI perpetuates racist ideas in medical care”
TALKING POINT Why are AI models generating gender stereotypes? Read the article >
2
How teens benefit from being able to read “disturbing” books that some want to ban (Sierra Nevada Ally, 29/9/24)
“Young people aren’t harmed by reading books banned in America – they’re helped, say 2 literacy professors who spent a year observing kids age 13-14. The ‘disturbing’ books the kids read helped them have positive changes in their social, emotional and intellectual lives – they were able to ‘heal from depression and grief’ and improve their relationships, were happier, felt better, and they became more empathetic and thoughtful – and better readers. Kids who talked to each other about stories with social themes were motivated to read”
TALKING POINT Have you read a book that was “disturbing” but helpful? Read the article >
Homophobic “locker room” talk hurts straight boys more than gay boys (LGBTQ Nation, 22/9/24)
“A study shows that a culture of toxic masculinity and anti-LGBTQ+ language more negatively affects straight white boys than queer kids. Locker room talk with homophobic undertones like ‘man up’ or ‘don’t be a sissy’, even if it’s done jokingly, pressures boys not to act feminine and ‘polices’ the right and wrong ways to be a man. It affects boys’ self-esteem and means they get less out of sports. LGBT+ boys may be more resilient to this kind of belittling talk because they’ve already developed coping mechanisms. Coaches, brought up with these attitudes, don’t often think of the impact this language has on boys”
TALKING POINT How does hearing this kind of language make you feel? Read the piece >
3
4
Fake Babies in Slings Are Showing Up on Statues of Men in the United Kingdom — Here’s Why (People, 18/9/24)
“Activists from the campaign group the Dad Shift who want to improve paternity leave laws in the UK have used slings to tie life-size baby dolls to statues of men like Gene Kelly and Thierry Henry, among others, in London and Edinburgh. The campaigners said: ‘We want to draw attention to the important role that fatherhood plays in men’s lives. Proper parental leave for fathers and co-parents is good for mothers, babies, fathers and society too.’ The UK gives dads up to 2 weeks off, which is the worst paternity pay offer in Europe”
TALKING POINT What do you think of the fake-babies-on-statues idea? Read the article >
5
Midwife in Japan publishes picture book on sex education in response to parents’ voices (Mainichi, 16/9/24)
“A Picture Book About The Mind And Body – An Important Story was written by Kazuko Motodate, a midwife in Japan who says parents often tell her: ‘I don’t know when to start sex education and how to talk about it with my child.’ The book, 20 pages long, begins: ‘Hey, hey, a little seed wants to talk to you’ and explains various aspects of sexuality such as: ‘Don't touch any private parts other than your own. You can’t even stare at them. This is a rule.’ Motodate says it’s important to talk repeatedly with kids about sex-ed stuff”
TALKING POINT Would you like to have read a book like this? Read the article >
And finally: to discuss…
Actor KRISTEN BELL, age 44, and actor DAX SHEPARD, 49, let their daughters Lincoln, 11, and Delta, 9, roam the Tivoli Gardens theme park in Copenhagen unsupervised for 7 hours. Bell explained:
“Our hotel opened up into the theme park, so we just were kind of like: ‘Are we going to do free-range parenting and roll the dice here?’
Last year Bell said no topic is off limits with her girls: ‘The word taboo should be stricken from the dictionary. I talk to my kids about drugs and the fact that their daddy is an addict and in recovery’ (referring to Shepard’s battle with substance abuse. He’s been sober for 16+ years).
Bell and Shepard often share photos of Lincoln and Delta online but always cover the girls’ faces with emojis”
BELL PREVIOUSLY SAID… “There should be no topic that’s off the table for people to talk about. [With my kids] we talk about sex. There are all these ‘hard topics’ that don’t have to be if you give the person on the other end your vulnerability and a little bit of credit”
TALKING POINTS What is are taboos, are they a good or bad thing and why do you think Kristen Bell dislikes them? Do you agree with Bell’s opinion: “There should be no topic that’s off the table for people to talk about”? Can you talk to even a young child about anything if you do it age appropriately? Is it a good idea for parents to talk openly with their kids about things like their drug addiction or about sex – or could it sometimes be a bad idea? Why is it good for parents and kids to talk openly? How does talking openly with people make you feel?