There’s an interesting question included in September 13th’s “Dear Prudence”:

Dear Prudence,
My younger, 13-year-old sister is having a slumber party for her birthday, and invited three or so of her 13- to 14-year-old girlfriends to our house. Shortly after, “Sara’s” mother suggested that my sister’s party should be held at “Tammy’s” house. Why? Because Tammy has a single mother. Sara’s mother is concerned that my father will be in his house during the festivities. There is no reason to be concerned about my father doing anything inappropriate to any of the girls (all the parents have met each other), but she is just uncomfortable about the idea of her daughter sleeping in the same house with another nonfamily man. She has also convinced the other parents that a change of venue would be a good idea. Although Tammy’s mother is willing to host the event, my family is offended that the situation has come to this. Since when is it a crime to have a happy two-parent household? Should we cancel the event altogether, at my sister’s expense? Ask my dad to go on a mini vacation? Go along with the venue change? Tell this lady she is overreacting?

—Befuddled

In her response, Prudence points out some of Jeff Zaslow’s articles about our culture’s tendency to demonize men. For example, in his September 6th article, Zaslow writes about a father who was reprimanded by his son’s day-care center:

In Skokie, Ill., Steve Frederick says the director of his son’s day-care center called him in to reprimand him for “inappropriately touching the children.” “I was shocked,” he says. “Whatever did she mean?” She was referring to him reading stories with his son and other kids on his lap. A parent had panicked when her child mentioned sitting on a man’s lap.

The first Zaslow article linked above, from August 23rd, includes this snippet:

Virginia’s campaign was designed to encourage people to trust their instincts about possible abuse, says Rebecca Odor, director of sexual and domestic violence prevention for the state health department. She stands by the ads^[a], pointing out that 89% of child sex-abuse perpetrators in Virginia are male.

Just because most sex-abuse perpetrators are male does not mean that all males should be feared. That eighty-nine percent of child sex-abuse perpetrators in Virginia are male does not imply that eighty-nine percent of males are child sex-abuse perpetrators. This is the same sort of logic that says, “100% of the perpetrators of mass shootings on college campuses in Virginia are of East Asian descent, therefore we should avoid all individuals of East Asian descent.” It’s ignorant bigotry, and it should be denounced as such.

It’s completely advisable to not leave your children in the care of anyone that you’re not familiar and comfortable with, but if the sole reason that you are uncomfortable with an individual is because of that person’s gender, you are a sexist, and should be ashamed of yourself.

( þ Instapundit, via Electric Venom )

1. The ads in question show the hands of a grown man and a young child, with the quote “It doesn’t feel right when I see them together”, implying that a man holding a child’s hand (even, for example, a father with his daughter or even his son) is automatically an abuser. [↩]