Battle of the sexes
Channel 4, 8pm
WHEN the five-year-old boys in the nursery are asked to swap clothes with the girls in this episode, they are absolutely horrified.
“You want me to wear a dress?” asks one, utterly bewildered. Tonight’s episode reveals just how ingrained gender stereotypes are from a very young age. But will the cross-dressing experiment help to break down some of their wellformed conventions? As Oscar quite happily lets Siena apply some lipstick for him, it seems to be so. The kids are split up into boy and girl groups at the beginning of the day, with the boys charging around like puppies on Red Bull while the girls calmly play mummies and daddies. “They are so noisy,” says little Tiara, while the watchful psychologists backstage pull their headphones away from their ears. Naomi isn’t bothered though. She likes boys and once the children are mixed, she is keen to recruit as many as she can. Elsewhere Harry boasts “I have 20 girlfriends”, while the quiet and considered Eva reveals, “I have two boyfriends and they’re both cats”. But it’s not just love that’s in the air, as a case of the green-eyed monster appears in a love triangle between Oliver, Oscar and Naomi – and it even ends in fisticuffs. Other tasks reveal further differences between the sexes. A smoothie making challenge and a magic carpet puzzle test their spatial awareness and abilities to communicate, empathise and take risks. And interviews reveal their views on the opposite sex, with Jude surprised when Eva teaches him karate. “She was very strong like the Hulk!” he says. The scientists don’t really offer a huge amount of insight – they are mainly narrating and laughing their heads off – but kids really do say the funniest things. THE SECRET LIFE OF 5 YEAR OLDS