This provocative look at gender is in a class of its own
‘Men have harder jobs, so they earn more.” “Men are better at being in charge.” “Men are cleverer because they can be President.” These feminist-baiting statements came out of the mouths of babes on
No More Boys and Girls: Can Our Kids Go Gender Free? (BBC Two). But this two-parter documented a fascinating experiment.
Dr Javid Abdelmoneim took over a Year 3 class at Lanesend Primary School on the Isle of Wight to see if genderneutral treatment could change how seven-year-olds think. These children, fittingly enough, were born in 2010 – the year the Equality Act became law.
Abdelmoneim began his project by running psychological tests on his cherubic-cheeked guinea pigs. The results were dispiriting. Girls defined themselves by looks and underestimated their own intelligence. Boys were overconfident and had trouble expressing emotions except anger.
Together with teacher Graham Andre, Abdelmoneim promptly embarked on six weeks of “classroom interventions”, before the children retake his tests at the end of term.
He eradicated blue and pink from the decor. He replaced books about passive princesses with ones about action heroines. He made Mr Andre randomise who he chose to answer questions in class, as he was subconsciously skewing towards the boys.
One lesson saw the children draw what they thought people in various professions look like. Abdelmoneim then confounded their expectations by bringing in a female mechanic, male ballet dancer, female magician and male make-up artist. The incredulous looks on the pupils’ faces made a lovely moment.
Another highlight was the “Test Your Strength” machine, which caused an epic tantrum from macho Riley, who scored zero, and touching tears of happiness from shy Lexi, who scored 10.
Abdelmoneim initially seemed a strange choice as host, mainly by dint of being, well, male. However, he bought a puppyish passion to proceedings and bonded well with the class. Mr Andre was admirably ego-free, even when taken to task for calling girls “love” and boys “mate”.
The stars of the show, though, were the children themselves. They were refreshingly unguarded on camera, saying the first thing that came into their heads. As we’ve seen on Gogglesprogs and The Secret Life of 5 Year Olds, what children lack in stature, they make up for in entertainment value.
Cynical viewers might have rolled their eyes at the stereotypically Bbc-ish political correctness of the premise but this was provocative and engaging fare.
The Big Family Cooking Showdown has begun. The Great British Bake Off is imminent. You might think that was an ample portion of cookery contests for any peckish viewer but Celebrity
Masterchef (BBC One) begged to differ as it served up its 12th series.
The first five famous faces into the kitchen were comedian Jim Moir (aka Vic Reeves), presenter Angellica Bell, snooker champion Stephen Hendry, newsreader Julia Somerville and French tennis smoothie Henri Leconte.
Moir was excellent value, calling himself “an abstract impressionist cook – my food looks a mess but tastes all right”. He had a habit of adding an incongruous ingredient to otherwise decent dishes: lamb with rhubarb, corned beef hash with beetroot. His parsnip soup was so gloopy, the judges said it was more like porridge. Moir preferred “flavoursome grout”.
Sent to work in restaurant kitchens, the celebrities handled such ingredients as liquorice salt and sea buckthorn, plus more celeriac and samphire than is strictly necessary. Good luck recreating these dishes without the aid of a fully stocked Waitrose warehouse.
Bell’s husband, fellow presenter Michael Underwood, reached the final five years ago and she was desperate to match him. She duly stole the show with her desserts, described by pud aficionado Gregg Wallace as “a stroke of genius”. Never underestimate the motivational power of spousal rivalry.
Hendry was sent home after snookering himself with a halibut. The winningly flamboyant Leconte punched the air with relief, as did 70-year-old Somerville, who had the temerity to cook a dish that didn’t require any actual cooking.
It was all as smartly edited as ever. There might be too many cooking contests on TV but Masterchef still merits its place on the menu.