Bias Against Male Babysitters

Submitted by charlie on Tue, 2013-04-30 20:31

It seems that only women are allowed to write about sexism against men, as this writer notes the reaction of the public toward her choice to hire a male babysitter. Excerpt:

'I wasn’t trying to be subversive when I hired a male babysitter this month. But it is apparently something that few parents would do.
...
Even our new sitter, whose mom I’ve known for years and a man whose caring and kindness aren’t in question, came prepared for doubt. He showed up on his first day with a photocopy of his driver’s license, one for me and one for the school where he would be picking up my younger son.
...
It’s no wonder. At the kids’ old preschool, the only male teacher confessed to me that he definitely felt a little more monitored and scrutinized because he was a guy.

The other teachers almost never let him take a child to the bathroom by himself. Parents often assumed he was another parent. “Because why would a man be working here in the classroom?” he told me.
...
Here is the real problem when we err on the side of statistics. By telling the millions of men that they cannot be trusted with children, we are reinforcing gender stereotypes at school, at home and at work.

If men can’t take care of kids, women have to do it. And that’s holding us back.

So tell me, would you hire a male babysitter?'

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Comments

Save yourself the grief. No reason to expose yourself to hostile suspicion or worse yet, jumped-to conclusions, false accusations, who knows what else.

You couldn't pay me enough to babysit even the best-behaved children.

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Submitted by Matt on Wed, 2013-05-01 00:05

"In one government study of sexual assaults on children, the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that 96 percent of the offenders they studied were male."

Of course, statistics have consistently shown that women are more likely to abuse children than men. The only area in which men rank higher for abuse is sexual abuse. In all other areas, women rank higher. Yet we still trust women to teach and care for our children.

And for years no one even studied sexual abuse of boys by women. Now that some researchers are studying the issue, it turns out a far greater number of boys are sexually abused by women than previously believed. Further, many women believe a boy they sexually abuse is "lucky"--and a lot of men believe this as well. Of course, no one says an underage girl is "lucky" if she has sex with an adult male--even though she may have wanted it and found it enjoyable.

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Submitted by el cid on Wed, 2013-05-01 13:41