Justin Trudeau's wonderful response to sexism is a lesson for all fathers

Justin Trudeau has, from the beginning of his premiership, outlined his view that feminism and gender equality should be at the forefront of his policy-making.

He backed up his words by naming a gender-balanced cabinet last year, and has spoken at length about the role of feminism in his family life.

In a recent interview with Vox he outlined his beliefs that fathers should make efforts to engage in dialogue with their children about a broad range of social issues early in their lives.

There's a challenge to be thoughtful about all those things together (LGBTQ+ rights, imbalances to gender, economic differences,), we had a great conversation about mental illness and what that means - sick not weak, that sort of stuff.

My son who's eight now - the two year old we're still easing along - he's getting it, but you look at conversations they have in the schoolyard...

One incident in particular stuck out in his mind - the issue of how the media perceives women and how children's impressions of people's value are altered by it:

I caught Ella-Grace at one point leafing through a magazine, a Vogue or a Cosmo, or something and saying 'Yep, she's a ten, she's just sort of an eight but the face is sort of medium'.

I was like, 'My God Ella! Sophie, come here and tell Ella! Ella, you can't judge people by their appearances.'

She said, 'But this is a magazine that is all about judging people on appearances' - so I thought 'Ok, I'm raising a good debater there', but just talking about it and getting through those reflections and engaging and real people and inner beauty is important.

It's messy being a parent, but it's exciting.

Watch the full video, below:

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