Kids say the darnedest things, even when presidential contender Hillary Clinton is in the room.
Jimmy Kimmel conducted an experiment on gender equality in the White House during Thursday night's episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! Instead of a token focus group, the late-night comedian rounded up a cluster of children—two male, two female—to gauge their perspective on having a madame president.
"Old biases are hard to shake. Our best hope for equality is our next generation," he said while introducing the "Kimmel Kids: Out of Focus" segment. "Children are our future whether they like it or not and I wondered if they might have a more evenhanded take on this kind of discrimination. Things have changed a lot over the last 30 years."
Unfortunately, they aren't as unbiased as we'd like to hope when it comes to electing the first female commander-in-chief.
After establishing the current president ("Orack Obama") and how long he has been in office (just two, according to Jayden), Kimmel asked the kids if they could name a previous female president. They understandably could not produce any names.
"I think women are not presidents," Andrew chimed in hesitantly.
"They're too girly. They'll make like girl rules," Jayden added. Such"girly rules" included free makeup for the whole world and painting the White House pink.
The boys and girls quickly found themselves at a divide when Kimmel posed questions like "Do you think women can do anything men can do?" and "Are women smarter than men?" The boys at the table asserted women are too girly and not buff enough to handle the responsibility of the White House while the girls at the table said women are absolutely smarter. When Kimmel asked the kids to imagine a female president at war, the little ladies defended female capabilities, claiming a woman would "make it stop so people could be more healthy and they won't die."
Jayden, on the other hand, knocked the suggestion, saying a woman would be scared. Clearly, traditional gender norms were at serious play.
At a loss, Kimmel called in an expert—Clinton herself.
The girls at the table immediately recognized her, but Jayden was confused. "Are you president now?" he questioned Mrs. Clinton. "I'm running to be the president," she replied.
When the kids are asked to suggest some future laws for Clinton if she does in fact end up inhabiting the White House, the ideas they proposed were...interesting.
One asked for free food in restaurants while another campaigned for free toys from stores. Not surprisingly, Jayden begged for no school—ever.
Still, the boys at the table are not convinced that a woman can be president, so Clinton offered a few words of wisdom.
"Well, you know, we haven't had a woman to be president yet, so we need to have a woman to be president and then you would have more evidence to base your decision on," she said.