| In Canton, Ohio, a 6-year-old boy who jumped from his bathtub and ran to a window to stop a school bus was suspended by his school for sexual harassment. The boy's mother said she put him in the tub so he wouldn't see the bus go by -- he had a doctor's appointment and couldn't attend school that morning.
But when his sister said she saw the bus coming, the boy ran to the window and shouted for the driver to wait. Since he was nude at the time, the school ruled that he had harassed youngsters on the bus. The school forced him to sign a paper admitting that he knew the nature of the charges against him.
Seth Shaw, a counselor at a public elementary school in Fort Worth, Texas, said "Hello, good-looking" to a new female employee. Big mistake. She turned out to be the no-nonsense instructor of the school's sexual harassment workshops. Shaw was suspended without pay for 20 days.
HOME OF THE FIGHTING SCHOOL SUPPLIES
A tiger was the emblem of Thomas Lake Elementary School in Minnesota. Officials decided it was too mean and violent-looking, so they asked the students to pick a new symbol from a list that included a sweet-looking tiger and some school supplies. The students voted for the school supplies -- a pen, a pencil and a ruler.
NOW SIT, INGVAR
Young women in Sweden, Germany and Australia have a new cause: They want men to sit down while urinating. This demand comes partly from concerns about hygiene -- avoiding the splash factor -- but, as Jasper Gerard reports in the English magazine The Spectator, "more crucially because a man standing up to urinate is deemed to be triumphing in his masculinity, and by extension, degrading women." One argument is that if women can't do it, then men shouldn't either. Another is that standing upright while relieving oneself is "a nasty macho gesture," suggestive of male violence.
A feminist group at Stockholm University is campaigning to ban all urinals from campus, and one Swedish elementary school has already removed them. In Australia, an Internet survey shows that 17 percent of those polled think men ought to sit, while 70 percent believe they should be allowed to stand. Some Swedish women are pressuring their men to take a stand, so to speak. Yola, a 25-year-old Swedish trainee psychiatrist, says she dumps boyfriends who insist on standing. "What else can I do?," said her new boyfriend, Ingvar, who sits.
CAN'T THEY PLAY WITHOUT VIOLENCE?
The British Labor government authorized a pamphlet urging teachers to ban the children's game of musical chairs on the grounds that it promotes aggression and allows the biggest and strongest children to win. Sue Finch, the booklet's author, said: "Musical statues is better because everybody wins." Good idea. Let's get rid of ALL the damaging kids' games. Goodbye to pin the tail on the donkey and monkey in the middle (violence toward animals), jacks (sexist), and hopscotch (obvious mockery of limb-deficient disability).
BUTCHERING THE TRUTH
The federation of meatshop owners in France is offended that reporters refer to murderers as "butchers," since most butchers are "gentle, peace-loving" workers. An architect in New York complained about a news report identifying "the architect" of a shooting spree. "There it is," wrote columnist Clyde Haberman of The New York Times, "the ugly face of anti-architect bigotry."
NEW, NICER LANGUAGE!
Mutilative elective surgery (the declawing of cats), pet guardians (pet owners), peace room (war room), guest service employees (bellhops), people of advanced chronology (the elderly), non-discretionary fragrance (body odor), states of concern (the State Department's new term for rogue states) and Green Bay Pickers (new name for football's Green Bay Packers, suggested by the animal-rights group PETA, which doesn't think anyone should eat meat, or even pack it).
WHAT ABOUT HISSING AND HERPES?
Because it begins with the masculine-sounding syllable "his," the word "history" has been banned at Stockport College, in Manchester, England. Also banned are the phrases "ladies and gentlemen" (offensive connotations of class), and "slaving over a hot stove (which "minimizes the horror and oppression of the slave trade"). No word, though, about that offensive first syllable of "Manchester."
A government-run employment bureau in Walsall, England, banned the words "hard-working," "reliable" and "smart" on grounds that they discriminate against the disabled. The phrase "commitment and a desire to succeed are vital" was banned as well, apparently for insensitivity toward lazy people. Striving to be reliable and smart, the Labor government rescinded the ban.
|