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- G e n d e r G a p p e r s T M
BENDING THE TWIGS
| Should women
be involved in politics? Certainly as citizens they should.
Already many have shown great ability both in leadership and in lawmaking
political offices. Yet despite this, few women run for the higher offices.
We are told that it is because "they don't have the stomach for politics"
or that "they don't have the fire in the belly for power."
In the coming generations this all may change. Certainly if one is to believe the social scientists these days, some girls at least are getting meaner, especially to other girls. They have developed overt bullying and coercion tactics that rival that of boys who have had eons of practice.
That sure seems like excellent preparation for the political fray to us, but Wiseman and others find this horrifying. The contention is that the girls who are bullied by other girls grow up and have "abusive relationships, unwanted pregnancies, drug and alcohol addiction and a whole subset of poor self-image manifestations from anorexia to bulimia." It seems Wiseman and others are telling us that it isn't the restrictive societal pressures on girls that cause their problems but the girls themselves. Due to girl's "superior social intelligence" they are more competent bullies than boys are. Girls are meaner because they are more creative, because they are "highly socialized." This is great! Now we can get rid of all that frou-frou about battered women and rape and teen-age pregnancies. All we have to do is whip the girls back into the perfect little darlings mold they appeared to be in before some women started escaping from that mold and became human beings. Well, hey! That's the Cheney/Bush "FINAL SOLUTION" for poor women. Hang women high with the twin nooses of marriage and religion. This will marginalize women even further from equality and power just as the Bushie war games are doing. http://www.opendemocracy.net/forum/document_details.asp?CatID=98&DocID=1114 The authors make a point of saying that yes, boys bully too but they are direct about it while girls are underhanded and sneaky. Well, duh! Most parents and teachers have observed that. In our society, boys are allowed, even expected to act out. Girls learn very early to internalize their frustrations and anger. If some have now come to the point of acting out against each other and being more obvious about it then in the past, let's put the blame on the culture where it belongs, not the girls.
Actually Sharon Lamb, a professor of psychology at Vermont's St. Michael's College may have a more realistic take on the situation. She believes that we must acknowledge sex and aggression as part of who girls really are instead of just concentrating on teaching them to be "good girls." She found that girls could be "overburdened with trying to be good" and would express it in meanness which in turn made them feel guilty a guilt that could affect them as adults. Lamb advocates a broader definition of "good girl."
But we are so rock hard in our gender concepts. It's still different strokes for different genders. Few will recognize the name Adair Garcia, 30, a father charged last week with murder in the deaths of five of his six children who died from inhaling the fumes from a barbecue ignited while they slept. But everyone has heard of Andrea Yates, the Texas mother now on trial for the drowning of her five children last year. 2002-010
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Little
has changed for centuries. We STILL teach boys
how to handle their anger by giving them opportunities, and encourage them
to channel their aggressions in positive ways such as sports. We provide
a place for them in the culture with massive amounts of role models. They
automatically belong in the ruling class at birth simply because of their
gender. It's way past time that girls were treated equally.
Surely if we treat anger and aggression in girls as "normal,"
the way we do boys, we'll not lack for female political candidates.
