What's a "Purple Penguin"?The gender inclusive name for boys & girls in Nebraska public schools

[Quintessence]

Too progressive for most people, it seems. I'm not surprised about that either. Attempts to shake up the status quo on the topic of sex and gender have historically been met with a high degree of resistance. It is a testimony to the solidity of the grip these things have on our culture, and our general blindness to how language profoundly influences how we think about the world. What ought to be a minor thing - shifting the cultural language away from describing a spectrum territory in terms of black and white - is seen as rage-worthy outlandish. I mean, how dare we think of children as children instead of pervasively indoctrinate them in black-and-white thinking about sex and gender from the cradle (which is what we currently do)? And things like this are definitely, definitely terrible:

Help students recognize ”all or nothing" language by helping them understand the difference between patterns and rules. Teach them phrases like "That may be true for some people, but not all people,” or ‘frequently, but not always," or "more common and less common.” Avoid using "normal" to define any behaviors.

Oh the horror! But FOX News is good at this sort of thing: it's good at making a mockery of progressive ideas and swaying public opinion against the intended target. On top of that, they routinely (and probably deliberately) misconstrue the reality of the situation. Which, as the link Sunstone pointed out, was once again the case here.

 

[Revoltingest]

What a surprise that Media Matters would carp about Fox.
Anyway, "too "progressive"? Nah...that claim ignores the utter stupidity of
an attempt to ignore gender differences with silly labels like "purple penguin".
This isn't (at least on RF) about conservative vs liberal or Foxophilia vs Foxophobia.
No one here is arguing against better treatment of students by their fellows & by
teachers. It's this approach which we (a multi-cultural coalition here) find bonkers.

 

[Apple Sugar]

Sure, it's a progressive infrastructure in child education to name children after colored animals so they can have their actually gender specific biological processes and reproductive organs marginalized into cartoon characterizations. So that others, who are engaged in dealing with emotional issues per their gender dysphoria, bring that condition to all children due to the labeling supervisors have affixed in a effort to make all kids dismiss their sexual identity.

Genius! Let's make everyone dysphoric! Then the minority will feel at home. That's what inclusion is all about baby.

 

[Sunstone]

Why those darn liberals will blow up the whole wide world one of these days, and it will start just like this. My heart can barely take it. Where ever are my smelling salts!

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Implanting animal labels on human children because the traditional gender identities are thought to be intolerable isn't progressive. It's deviant. And smacks of a predisposition to zoophilia.

I lived through this horror myself.

Not in Nebraska, and not in school, but this story echoes an experience that I've tried to bury: when I was in Scouts, they gave our groups animal names!

Really. Our Scout troop was divided into patrols with animal names. I was in the Fox Patrol. To this day, this fact makes me still feel less like a person and more like an animal.

And you're right about the zoophilia: ever since then, I've felt strangely turned on by woodland creatures. I'm slowly working through this with theraphy and medication.

I support your position. No more children should have to go through the hell I went through of doing fun character-building activities in a setting where the kids are divided into groups with fun animal names instead of dividing them based on gender. It's inhuman (no pun intended).

 

[Apple Sugar]

Is this horrid experience why you call yourself 9/10th penguin today?

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

It smacks not of some notion of conflating gender roles, but rather as a sideways method of mocking trans children. Dismissing the very real societal hurdles that they face as minors and shall as adults, and dismiss all that by lumping all children into some idiotic Grr-animals coral so that they can abandon the typical pronouns, which trans children hope to have associated to them when they identify as a particular sex, and adopt instead some cartoon identity that marginalizes the gender role itself.

Did you even read the article? The whole "purple penguin" thing is just meant to address the fact that sometimes teachers need to divide the class into roughly even groups. All they're suggesting is that when you do this, instead of splitting the class into boys and girls, you can split them randomly and give each group a fun name that the kids will like (e.g. "the purple penguins"). That's all it's about. It's not about calling all children "purple penguins".

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Is this horrid experience why you call yourself 9/10th penguin today?

My only solace is that it didn't get so bad that I would name myself after a plant, Apple Sugar.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I wonder how many people who are swooning over the idea that their children might be referred to as some sort of animal at school don't bat an eye when their kid's school sports team is called the cougars, wildcats, mustangs, etc. "See here, coach! Ethan isn't a 'Bobcat!' He's a little boy and that's what you'll call him!" "Mackenzie isn't a 'Spartan' - she's an American!"

 

[adi2d]

I lived through this horror myself.

Not in Nebraska, and not in school, but this story echoes an experience that I've tried to bury: when I was in Scouts, they gave our groups animal names!

Really. Our Scout troop was divided into patrols with animal names. I was in the Fox Patrol. To this day, this fact makes me still feel less like a person and more like an animal.

And you're right about the zoophilia: ever since then, I've felt strangely turned on by woodland creatures. I'm slowly working through this with theraphy and medication.

I support your position. No more children should have to go through the hell I went through of doing fun character-building activities in a setting where the kids are divided into groups with fun animal names instead of dividing them based on gender. It's inhuman (no pun intended).

Was your terrible experience in the BOY scouts or the GiRL scouts by any chance?

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Was your terrible experience in the BOY scouts or the GiRL scouts by any chance?

Neither. By the time I was a Scout, Scouts Canada had opened up its program to both boys and girls. It was just "Scouts".

Let new indignation commence.

 

[Apple Sugar]

My only solace is that it didn't get so bad that I would name myself after a plant, Apple Sugar.

Funny guy.

That is too bad. (And it's spelled, sugar) Otherwise you would have made a play on words to afford you a screen name at a religious forum. And because you make a fortune creating home made apple wine and micro-brewed apple beer. :yes:

 

[Alceste]

We could call them "children" instead of "purple penguins."

I know, it's a crazy suggestion.

Sugar totally misunderstood the "Purple Penguins" thing. It's only an example of a way to create groups by coming up with a team name of some kind, instead of "boys vs. girls".

But that's far too trivial a suggestion to get histrionic about. Tea Partiers thrive on outrage, and they're willing to completely misunderstand and misrepresent the facts in order to get it. Their contempt for teachers and schools is based on the fact they believe Halliburton would do a better job than the government, I suspect, and really has nothing to do with the fact that some teachers are drifting away from a gender binary teaching environment as their understanding of the relevant issues evolves.

 

[Alceste]

It's extremist buffoonery being demonstrated in the reported Nebraska school system.

Transgender children want to be accepted as the sex they feel they are inside. A boy who feels like he's a girl wants to be addressed and seen as that which identifies them by the proper pronoun. "She", "her", etc...

This recommendation in the school devalues that and actually makes mockery of those children and their struggles. Presuming to dismiss the pronoun usage and replace it with something as inane as animal labels is either a bad joke, or an indicator of a predisposition to depraved indifference to child welfare with a predilection toward emotional abuse of children in general.

Yeah, they haven't outlawed pronouns.

 

[Alceste]

Ok.. I read about half of the article before I started to throw up in my mouth; both from the complete slant on the article, and from the fact that there is a school doing this to begin with.

Instead of calling kids in school something gender neutral, which is ridiculous, as we are born with a biological gender (regardless of whether or not that is our chem/brain gender). Call them boys and girls, teach diversity and tolerance. Then, hopefully, we come to a place in the future, when these kids can decide for themselves whether they want to be called a boy or a girl. It's up to them to choose their pronoun, the one that makes them comfortable, when they understand and can make that decision on their own. Until then I see nothing wrong with using the gender binary we have as it is accurate from a biological/physical perspective.

You called them "kids" instead of "boys and girls" twice in this very post. How does it feel to be ridiculous?

 

[Buttercup]

After hearing the word "zoophilia" and the sentence "emotional abuse of children in general" thrown around regarding this penguin pamphlet, I lost interest.

I don't do well with histrionic proclamations, in general.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

After hearing the word "zoophilia" and the sentence "emotional abuse of children in general" thrown around regarding this penguin pamphlet, I lost interest.

I don't do well with histrionic proclamations, in general.

But it's true! It's unnatural to refer to children by animal names... unless they're wearing tight pants and giving each other concussions as God intended. Bison pride!

 

[Alceste]

Dear me! I do so hate that Media Matters and the way they are always correcting the godly FOX News Network. Shame on them! Shame!

Gretchen Carlson Lashes Out At School Recommendations For Transgender Students | Blog | Media Matters for America

How is it that out of this whole thread, only the two of us recognized this story as complete horse puckey on sight, while everyone else is discussing it as if it were true?

As a former teacher from a family of teachers, it amazes me what nonsense people are willing (possibly even eager) to believe about us.

Edit, oh yeah, and Quint, Buttercup and the Penguin, but he's personally invested.

 

[Buttercup]

But it's true! It's unnatural to refer to children by animal names... unless they're wearing tight pants and giving each other concussions as God intended. Bison pride!

Agreed. And I'm going to watch some bears and ducks beat the crap out of each other at 12:30pm today. I can't wait!

 

[Buttercup]

Overreact much?

I have many friends and family members who are elementary or middle school teachers. I actually don't think it's common usage to call kids out by "boys or girls" these days. If they're communicating with groups of students, teachers tend to call them "kids" or "students".

I'm not sure how I feel about the Purple Penguin pamphlet, need to give it more thought. But, I most definitely wouldn't overreact by saying this particular gender inclusiveness format smacks of a "predisposition to zoophilia."

Absolutely. I'll let the teachers and school districts decide age appropriate curriculum. Hopefully, parents are involved and have a say as well.

I feel as though I don't know the whole story behind this pamphlet. I think it's quite possible (duh) it was used to start a fire....this motive works wonders these days.

How is it that out of this whole thread, only the two of us recognized this story as complete horse puckey on sight, while everyone else is discussing it as if it were true?

As a former teacher from a family of teachers, it amazes me what nonsense people are willing (possibly even eager) to believe about us.

Edit, oh yeah, and Quint, Buttercup and the Penguin, but he's personally invested.

I'm happy you edited with that edit or I was gonna have to spank your pretty ***. :angel2: