The Rural Voice, 1980-05, Page 18Keith Roulston
Farmer's image stereotyped
There's a lot of concern these da s in the
media about stereotypes.
Woman's groups have been demanding
action to try to rid the future generations Of
the kind of sexual stereotyping that has
been present in the past. You remember
your public school readers that show daddy
going off to work while mommy stayed
home and did the housework. Women that
did work were always nurses or teachers or
secretaries. That's the kind of thing the
women's groups arc upset about. They
think that if women arc shown being
doctors and lawyers that more little girls
will be encouraged to be doctors and
lawyers; in other words the top dogs not
the underdogs of the economic and work
world.
Racial minorities have also been on the
anti -stereotype bandwagon. They want to
see people with all skin colours shown in
those prestigious jobs. not just white
skinned people.
It seems to me it's about time farmers
got a little militant on the subject. Recently
my children were given a story book. It
showed the stereotyped farm and farmer.
A little of this, a little of that. A few
chickens running around in the barnyard,
one cow. some sheep and horses. not even
a tractor if I recall rightly. The picture was
pretty much out of date when I was
growing up 20 years ago. Today it's
laughable.
The picture the hook gave of farming
was so typical of such books that 1 probably
wouldn't have noticed it at all if it wasn't
for the producers of the book. It was put
out by the people who run the highly -
acclaimed_ Sesame Street program and
contained some of the characters from the
program. The irony is that one of the
original ideas of the Sesame Street
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PG 16 THE RURAL VOICE/MAY 1980
program was to bring new reality to the
screen. It was set up for the ghetto children
of the U.S. cities. to show real black people
and real Spanish speaking people on
television. Most of the programs until then
had shown neatly dressed white children
living in the dream world of the well-to-do.
spacious and clean suburb.
So here was an organization d,-1•atcd
showing reality in the media, pt petuating
the false picture of farm life.
This false image isn't only prevalent
south of the border. One school holiday
recently. I happened to wander into the
.living room while the children were
watching the popular Mr. Dressup
program. He was drawing a picture of a
farm. the same cute little farm with rail
fences and old fashioned barn complete
with hayloft. Thankfully his picture. unlike
the Sesame Street book. at least didn't
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