Thomas the tank engine and gender politics

[Autocar Publicity]

A silly season article... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvan ... -says.html

This sort of piece has been around before but I'm surprised it's taken so seriously...

[2512silverfox]

I knew Wilbert Awdry in passing and I am sure that he would be turning in his grave at such publicity. A very old fashioned gentleman, he was polite to ladies but not necessarily to their children who, if allowed to transgress anywhere near his layout, would receive the wrath of that particular god. Such equality, or even the suggestion of it, would have been totally foreign to him!

[Goathingham]

More drivel from the loony left.......
Sheesh.

[Bill Bedford]

Loony Left or Loony Torygraph?

[S.A.C. Martin]

It was in the Mail and a few other papers too, mind.

I'd like to see some gender equality on the flip side of the coin. Are we seriously stating that we cannot write books and television shows aimed at specific genders and age groups? If that's the case, Angelina Ballerina needs a whole ballet school full of boy mice to add to her cast and all the rest…

I can't fathom the discrepancy in asking one program to do one thing and not have that apply equally in the opposite direction. It is difficult enough to write for young boys in this day and age without this sort of rubbish.

If the actual issue - only 4% of train drivers are female - was actually as a direct result of watching Thomas the Tank Engine as a child, I'd maybe have some sympathy, but that's not the case. There are more serious gender equality issues in the profession first off, and then there's the question of how you get into the profession in the first place. One children's television show is not the problem.

[Mickey]

Deleted.

[Bill Bedford]

More drivel from the loony left.......
Sheesh.

Don't you mean 'another straight banana story from the right wing press'?

I wonder what Mary Creagh really said that so frightened the oligarchs.

Still, looking at the reactions here and in another place they seemed to have suckered in most people.

[PGBerrie]

Let's be honest, it's a stupid comment and does not get to the real root of the problem of why there are so few women engine drivers - add to that bus drivers, lorry drivers, airline pilots etc. It's not the need for mechanical background that is the hurdle, it's the work - you can't stop and pick up the kids from school when you're in the middle of a trip - plus the MCP attitudes of male colleagues.

Peter

PS: I just looked the requirements for being a driver on the Basel trams - they are really trying hard to recruit women - you need to have completed a recognised apprenticeship before you can become a driver. Driving is a skilled job and should be kept that way.

[strang steel]

Why is this MP so concerned that women are portrayed as sitting a home eating cake, while men do the train driving jobs?

From reading many of my Facebook contact's comments, that is exactly what happens - ("cup cakes" seem to be the current craze).

Sorry, that is rather O/T.

[Autocar Publicity]

Why are stereotypes so persistent? Because there's at least some truth in them...

I can think both of women who have made their own way in this world and not let their gender affect their life-choices and those who play up to 'society's' prejudices and perceived 'norms'. I know some who are as keen on mechanical things as 'the lads' and some who are very (sometimes excruciatingly) 'girly'. I would suggest that this whole story arose because:

a) we currently live in an era when governments insist on all fields of work, study, and other activities being participated in by an exact representation of the country's different groups, whether gender, ethnicity, socio-economic groups, beliefs, etc. and if they don't that must be inherently wrong and due to 'unfairness' somewhere in the system. It doesn't seem to occur to them that there might be another explanation and one that isn't 'unfair' to a particular under-represented group.

b) An MP opened their mouth before engaging their brain.


I would agree wholeheartedly with Peter's comments on driving skills - and would just add that as some of the older members and footplate volunteers know, driving steam locos is an even more skilled job - in fact I'd say there's a case for looking on it as a profession.

[manna]

G'day Gents

If you going to rename 'Gordon' into 'Georgina' and you want 'her' to run express trains, make sure 'she' has a tender 'pick up scoop' otherwise it'll never make it

manna

[Bill Bedford]

Why are stereotypes so persistent?

Because they are perpetuated by the yellow press who use them to denigrate people and institutions they dislike cf the EU 'bans', immigration policies etc, etc.

It comes as something of a shock to discover just how many seemingly articulate and intelligent people have taken this story at face value without questioning either its veracity or the motives of the paper that published it.

[auldreekie]

[quote="Autocar Publicity"]Why are stereotypes so persistent? Because there's at least some truth in them...

b) An MP opened their mouth before engaging their brain.


Par for the course.


auldreekie

[Mickey]

Deleted

[richard]

of course they were buns and fairy cakes when I was younger... (and Eccles cakes were from t'other side o 'ill)


Anyway I think this is the time to call an end of this thread. As many of you probably know I have a bit of a distaste for political threads (cf. my threats to ban all Daily Mail postings!).