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Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

theatlantic.com

91–100 of 166 posts

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#91
post #6

I thought that getting to ride on the outside of a vehicle was the coolest thing ever.

I hadn't thought about this since I was a kid, but I loved watching the garbage truck. Especially when they used the compactor after emptying the cans. I guess I was lucky that they came to our house during the day because everywhere I've lived since a kid the trash pickup has been extremely early. I don't know if my kids have ever seen it.

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#92
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All this back-and-forth about whether and how it's nature or nurture. The point of modern gender freedom is not to deny there is a strong nature influence, it's to nurture kids to go whichever directions they like. All these anecdotes about how this kid and that kid displayed common traditional gender preferences seem to be offered as an argument against trying to upset the traditional nature of these preferences. Su…

That's the correct way to see things but it's contrary to public policies that say things like "there are less girls doing physics, so we're going to make quotas to get more girls doing physics". That's not supporting individual propensities at all. Overwhelmingly the feminist position that's pushed to the fore is "any lack of equal representation of females in a roles that're desirable is down to patriarchal actions…

Wow, parent comment and this one summing up what often turn into X000 comment flame wars that dang has to bag up and send out to the flag truck, now that is a feat of summarization.

> Overwhelmingly the feminist position that's pushed to the fore is "any lack of equal representation of females in a roles that're desirable is down to patriarchal actions and unrelated to any natural differences between the sexes; which differences are an illusion".

How do we as a society address this point? Whether one argues that the above statement has merit (me) or not, many people on both sides (and probably me in many cases) have such emotional investment in their points that attempting to soberly look at where society is and where society should be on the spectrum between 'the above statement is categorically true globally in 100% of cases' and 'the above statement is categorically false globally in 100% of cases' can feel to me like trying to do laproscopic open-heart brain surgery.

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#94
Gave it a quick read, and there seemes to be no mention of garbage trucks that aren't "modern": where there are other men running around carrying heavy trash bags and single-handedly throwing them into the back of the truck

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#95
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the correct way to see things but it's contrary to public policies that say things like "there are less girls doing physics, so we're going to make quotas to get more girls doing physics". That's not supporting individual propensities at all. Overwhelmingly the feminist position that's pushed to the fore is "any lack of equal representation of females in a roles that're desirable is down to patriarchal actions…

Wow, parent comment and this one summing up what often turn into X000 comment flame wars that dang has to bag up and send out to the flag truck, now that is a feat of summarization. > Overwhelmingly the feminist position that's pushed to the fore is "any lack of equal representation of females in a roles that're desirable is down to patriarchal actions and unrelated to any natural differences between the sexes; which…

I'd have more sympathy for critiques of feminism (and similar policies designed to help minorities) if even basic indices of equality like pay for equal work were fixed, and there wasn't clear evidence of discrimination on grounds of gender in interviewing, police treatment etc.

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#96
post #90
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All this back-and-forth about whether and how it's nature or nurture. The point of modern gender freedom is not to deny there is a strong nature influence, it's to nurture kids to go whichever directions they like. All these anecdotes about how this kid and that kid displayed common traditional gender preferences seem to be offered as an argument against trying to upset the traditional nature of these preferences. Su…

Anybody that is not making room for girls to play with race cars, if they want, was is a jerk in the past, present, and future. Unless they are Betty Draper, I can't imagine a parent that would take a toy away from their kid.

Except that many girls are made to feel abnormal for expressing an interest in stereotypically male activities (as are boys in reverse).

The key is to acknowledge first that our society is incredibly gendered (and racist) in ways we often oblivious to.

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#97
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I totally agree that insisting it MUST be social conditioning is close-minded and silly. Isn't it somewhat likely though? Kids are born with all of their genes and they can't do anything straight out of the womb. What has zero impact at that point is nurture though. Nurture therefore seems to have a huge influence, this somewhat downgrades genes to only push what's already been established by culture.

Well, that's assuming that genes are all maximally expressed from the moment somebody is born, and that nothing can lie dormant, so if we don't see the behavior right away it must have been "added later" by culture. I don't think that's a safe assumption to make.

> I don't think that's a safe assumption to make.

I agree, but the reality is we don't know. Also there's evidence that cultural norms do substantially shape our opportunities (e.g. Denmark vs Saudi Arabia) and we should be mindful of this always. This cuts both ways too — men in Scandinavia are much more likely to be involved in child rearing through choice, and this is something men in other cultures miss out on.

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#98
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All this back-and-forth about whether and how it's nature or nurture. The point of modern gender freedom is not to deny there is a strong nature influence, it's to nurture kids to go whichever directions they like. All these anecdotes about how this kid and that kid displayed common traditional gender preferences seem to be offered as an argument against trying to upset the traditional nature of these preferences. Su…

That's the correct way to see things but it's contrary to public policies that say things like "there are less girls doing physics, so we're going to make quotas to get more girls doing physics". That's not supporting individual propensities at all. Overwhelmingly the feminist position that's pushed to the fore is "any lack of equal representation of females in a roles that're desirable is down to patriarchal actions…

This take disingenuously ignores the fact that society has forced gender roles since the beginning. Policies like that aren't an attempt to disregard nature, they're an attempt to undo some of the damage that has been done by society.

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#99
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, parent comment and this one summing up what often turn into X000 comment flame wars that dang has to bag up and send out to the flag truck, now that is a feat of summarization. > Overwhelmingly the feminist position that's pushed to the fore is "any lack of equal representation of females in a roles that're desirable is down to patriarchal actions and unrelated to any natural differences between the sexes; which…

I'd have more sympathy for critiques of feminism (and similar policies designed to help minorities) if even basic indices of equality like pay for equal work were fixed, and there wasn't clear evidence of discrimination on grounds of gender in interviewing, police treatment etc.

In your opinion, is that viewpoint shared by a plurality or majority of what we can loosely define as the feminist crowd and adherents?

Admittedly, I don't have a big world-shattering new point to add or logical argument to segue to based on the results of the question, I'm just curious.

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also think there is a crazy push to say that no, boys/girls definitely don't like certain things naturally, it MUST be social conditioning, and if you even dare to suggest that there is any natural difference to how children develop you must be sexist/patriatrchist/etc etc. All I want to say is that there seems to be a stupid amount of aggression towards even the mere idea that statistically girls/boys might like s…

Are you really saying that in our society there is a more stupid amount of aggression towards things being gender neutral that are actually gendered than the reverse? This seems absurdly out of touch with reality. To give just one example, but I hope you'd agree there are literally millions if you think about it for a second: There was a recent Hollywood movie and documentary about the true story of a man who was bea…

I don't know why you are being downvoted because I wanted to say much the same. There is a clear asymmetry in our current cultural practices, and the assumption is often that activities are 'naturally' gendered, even when there is evidence to the contrary.

This has changed over time too. Just look at lego adverts from the 70s https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/LEGO-81-768x...

They don't look like that now!

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