IN a strongly worded submission to the Senate inquiry into family violence, the Australian Toy Association has 'strongly rejected any links' between the type of toys children play with and domestic violence.
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This was in response to a Greens' submission on domestic violence and gender inequality, which included the role toys played because this 'emphasises the differences between boys and girls'.
The toys that littlies play with is an issue that has been around for ages and is a load of twaddle. The simple fact is that boys are different from girls, not only because they have dangly bits and girls don't.
Your ancient scribe is a bit of an expert on this difference between the two genders, as father of three daughters, grandfather of nine (mainly female) and great-grandfather of a wonderful mixture of seven great-grandchildren.
The day before writing this epistle, your scribe had survived an unbelievably noisy gathering of three girls and one boy, all under the age of four.
The boy brought out his toy cars with flashing lights and a helicopter that made strange noises. Those vehicles were taken over the settee, and over your scribe, with sufficient and appropriate noises.
The girls were playing somewhat more quietly in another room. They, too, had some cars, but they were simply part of some sort of house they were building and their cars made no noise at all.
Even at the age of two, little boys and girls are quite different people.
Years ago, one of my daughters swore she would never let her two sons have toy guns, but after they were seen running around aiming broken sticks at each other going 'pow-pow', she decided a couple of plastic guns would be much safer.
This suggestion that boys and girls are different because they are trained to be different is a centuries-old argument. Only a few decades ago there was a strong campaign to get workers in the obstetric units to stop speaking to boy and girl babies in different tones and using different words. It was the start of a campaign to defuse this difference between girls and boys. It was a campaign that failed. The staff instinctively spoke to these babies differently because boys and girls are different creatures. It's not a case of training them to be different.
The problem today is that the roles of males and females have become blurred. It was only a few generations ago that, after puberty, girls had a habit of producing children and they were
kept busy being a full-time mum, trying to clothe, raise and feed her children. The boys were trained at puberty to become warriors, hunters and protectors of their family and tribe.
The roles today have been blurred with women able to get into the workforce and live independent lives free from the possibility of pregnancy. The male is no longer the only provider, protector and decision maker with his role being to provide for and protect his wife and children.
Somehow we have to return to that message that the boys' role is to protect women and children from violence: it was once a male role. If this is no longer the case, then, what is his role?
