I just despair.

There is sexism everywhere, and there are battles to be fought. I agree completely that there are strong strains of odious stereotypy running through our culture, and that we have to be vocal in opposing them. Much of it is unconscious and not intended maliciously, but it still perpetuates a problem. It’s good to oppose it.

But this morning a raging flame war exploded in a thread about a cute bunny cartoon. The bunny who is the voice of religion is wearing a dress; the practical bunny playing the role of science wears pants. Some people said it’s sexist; some people said it wasn’t. And then the war was launched.

Yipes! PZ is right; it’s the wrong battle.

I used the boy bunny because I knew the main bunny needed to do more pointing and be more expressive. Both the girl and boy bunnies suffered the unfortunate event of being buried by my dog (he buries almost anything he can get his mouth around). I cleaned them both but noticed that the girl bunny suffered more damage–her dress would barely stay on (look at the first panel to see how poorly the dress is fitting). Her now ill-fitting dress made it difficult for some of the poses to “read” nicely, but the boy bunny’s nice red-strapped suspenders lent well to the task.

The funny thing in all this is that my wife and I are very sensitive about pushing (that is to say, not pushing) gender roles. My wife has a Child Development background so she (and myself) take it seriously. I also have a not-so-secret hope that she’ll gravitate to the sciences (especially biology).