The above is a picture of Chief Chirpa- the (made up) Chief of the (made up) Ewoks on the (made up) moon Endor. Of course the (made up) Ewoks are part of the (real) movie Star Wars which is about a bunch of (made up) people in a (made up) galaxy at a (made up) time long, long ago and far, far away.We are trying to make all this clear to the children.
They acknowlege that Star Wars is made up.
But they refuse to believe that Chief Chirpa is a man (or at least a male Ewok).
They all insist that the Chief of the Ewoks is a woman (or at least a female Ewok).
I told them that Chief Chirpa was male.
My sister told them Chief Chirpa was male.
Noah told them Chief Chirpa was male.
But they still call him her.
They asked me how I knew.
I told them that He was a Chief and typically Chiefs are male (ok, so I don't know much about Star Wars, so I have to go with "typicals")
They stared at me blankly.
Oh, yeah. They were all born after the year 2002.
Google and the Internet are mainstream.
They don't know what a film camera is.
and they are used to women being able to be in authoritative positions, just like men.
Chirpa sounds female to them, so (she?) (he?) is a woman (or at least a girl Ewok).
I am not going to argue about a (made up) Chief from a (made up) moon anymore.
But, I was born in 1980 during the Jimmy Carter administration
and I think
that Chief Chirpa is a man. Or maybe not a man. Maybe just a male Ewok.
3 comments:
"Mommy, what do *insert animal* eat?" "What flower is that?" "What...?" "I don't know." "Well, look it up!" Yes, when I can't give an answer, they direct me to the internet to get the answer. In my day, I had to wait until we could get to the library or use our old encyclopedia set...
During his management, Chief Chirpa was known by his sapience and severity.[3][4] Beyond this, he was one of the strongest Ewok warriors, and he knew at least one magic device: Chirpa used prism pebbles to tell legends and stories for the young Ewoks.[5]
His chores included the training of his younger daughter, apprentice, and heiress Kneesaa a Jari Kintaka, who was appointed as the Heir Princess against the initial opposition of the most of the Council of Elders. For some time the Elders did not consent to have a female leader, but after Kneesaa led the Ewoks to victory against the Zorbian space pirates, and after other tests, Chirpa agreed to continue Kneesaa's training and saw her becoming an honorary member of the Council.[6]
sometimes gender neutrality is nice...other times, not so much
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