China is concerned that its boys are becoming too "effeminate"—a problem some believe could lead not only to social issues, but also snowball into a national security problem. The country's solution: giving boys more to read in the form of a masculinity-promoting book called Little Men, aimed for use in grades 4 and 5. The illustrated book talks about fathers and sons, as well as what makes boys different from girls, with money management and other ostensibly guy-geared topics thrown in. NBC News reports the concern is widespread and that citizens blame the "gender crisis" on everything from too much homework (and too little physical activity), to idolizing effeminate Korean and Japanese pop stars, to being spoiled rotten by parents allowed just one child. "Girls are becoming more like boys while the boys are becoming more like girls, introvert[ed] and shy," one parent notes.
The new required reading was printed in December 2016 by Shanghai Educational Publishing House and has already been given a test drive in some schools, reports Yibada. An English-language Chinese newspaper says there's an actual "gender crisis," while an anthropologist says she found in a study she published last year that experts are calling for "gender-difference education" to fend off the "inferiority" and "feminized passivity" that existed in China when it fell to colonizing powers. She firmly disagrees with this stance, telling NBC that the diversity of humans should be celebrated, not crushed, and that we should "challenge" instead of "reinforce" the "entrenched cultural notions of femininity and masculinity that imprison us all."
The new required reading was printed in December 2016 by Shanghai Educational Publishing House and has already been given a test drive in some schools, reports Yibada. An English-language Chinese newspaper says there's an actual "gender crisis," while an anthropologist says she found in a study she published last year that experts are calling for "gender-difference education" to fend off the "inferiority" and "feminized passivity" that existed in China when it fell to colonizing powers. She firmly disagrees with this stance, telling NBC that the diversity of humans should be celebrated, not crushed, and that we should "challenge" instead of "reinforce" the "entrenched cultural notions of femininity and masculinity that imprison us all."