I found this little gem in “The Politics of Experience” by R.D. Laing, p. 60.
“In a London class, average age of ten, the girls were given a competition.
They had to bake cakes, and the boys were to judge them. One girl won.
Then her ‘friend’ let out that she had bought her cake instead of baking it herself. She was disgraced in front of the whole class.”
Comments:
1. The school is here inducting children into sex-linked roles of a very specific kind.
2. Personally, I find it obscene that girls should be taught that their status depends on the taste they can produce in boys’ mouths.
3. Ethical values are brought into play in a situation that is at best a bad joke. If one is coerced into such game-playing by adults, the best a child can do is to play the system without getting caught. I most admire the girl who won, and hope she will choose her ‘friends’ more carefully in future.”