I did some research for you Bubba Fred:
Saturday, January 15, 2005
Laura Bush Says US Neglects Boys, Favors Girls
Parade Magazine interviewed First Lady Laura Bush for the issue of January 16, 2005. In this interview, Mrs. Bush surprised me with her comments about how American boys are raised:
"I think we really need to pay more attention to boys. I think we've paid a lot of attention to girls for the last 30 years, and we have this idea in the United States that boys can take care of themselves. We've raised them to be totally self-reliant, starting really too early. They need the nurturing that all humans need. And I think there are a lot of life skills that we teach girls but we don't teach boys. We actually have neglected boys."
Not only do boys now attend college at lower rates than girls, Mrs. Bush points out, but "they're the ones who are in trouble, who have been adjudicated, who can't read, who are not doing well in school and drop out in frustration and embarrassment. A lot of the times, they're the ones with the drug and alcohol problems."
I don't remember any other high-profile person articulating the over-emphasis on girls and the neglect of boys. And, women wonder why boys don't emote in ways that would please them. In my book and articles, I stress repeatedly that men and women are the same -- unfortunately, though, we are socialized differently and programmed for conflict. Well, according to Mrs. Bush, through neglect, boys are also programmed for failure. Thank you, Laura Bush, for bringing this critical issue to light.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Girls Taught Early to Hate Boys
Read the outrageous article below from today's Wall Street Journal. It's about these new shirts girls are wearing to bash boys. The maker of the shirts, Todd Harris Goldman, even has a book called Boys Are Stupid: Throw Rocks at Them.
Can you imagine such a negative-titled book targeting girls like that? Can you imagine boys wearing shirts that trash girls and advocate physical abuse against them? Our double-standard society NEVER would tolerate that?
The question is, Why does our society tolerate the trashing of males? If men and women don't put an end to this, by protesting against David & Goliath Apparel, boycotting shirtmaker and author Todd Harris Goldman, and boycotting the stores selling this trash, we will never have harmony between the sexes. Any girl who wears these shirts should be ashamed of herself, and her parents should be ashamed of themselves.
Society deserves the behavior it tolerates and advocates.
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Girl Power as Boy Bashing: Evaluating the Latest Twist In the War of the Sexes
by Jeffrey Zaslow, Wall Street Journal -- Personal Journal
April 21, 2005; Page D1
Seventeen-year-old Bryan Blase sees girls at school wearing T-shirts that announce: "Boys are stupid. Throw rocks at them!"
Bryan, who lives in suburban Detroit, isn't offended. The shirts remind him that boys are often disrespectful to girls. "We are stupid," he says. "Girls should throw rocks at us."
The age-old gender war is being sold to our children in new, and some argue, insidious ways -- and kids are spending millions of dollars to buy it. Marketers today are pitching the battle of the sexes to younger and younger consumers, using misogynistic rap lyrics, insult-laden clothing lines, confrontation-packed reality TV shows, and advertising that defines girl-power as boy-bashing.
Psychologists and gender-relations researchers warn that this ratcheting up of boy/girl conflicts could damage kids' self-esteem and their ability to relate to the opposite sex. But a lot of today's media-savvy kids say they appreciate the humor behind this gender war-mongering -- and they doubt they'll be scarred by this new form of commerce. As for parents, we need to make mature judgment calls without being humorless.
An antiboy shirt from David & Goliath, whose founder has also written a book (right).
Apparel firm David & Goliath saw its popular "boys are stupid" line dropped last year from about 10 store chains after protests by parenting and tolerance groups. Still, the company says its products remain in 2,500 outlets, and it expects sales to rise to $100 million this year from $90 million in 2004. (About half of its sales are these controversial products.)
David & Goliath founder Todd Goldman, 36, just released a "boys are stupid" book. It begins: "Girls are bundles of joy and gifts from heaven. Boys pick their nose in front of 7-Eleven." It ends: "Just remember. For every stupid, smelly, cootie-ridden boy, there is a rock."
Mr. Goldman fell into the boy-bashing business after starting his T-shirt concern in 1999. He created a "boys are smelly" shirt, then a "boys have cooties" shirt, and sales jumped. "For twenty bucks, a girl can walk around town, saying things she wouldn't normally say, without opening her mouth."
He argues that his products are just darkly comic, and critics need to lighten up. But detractors point out that our society wouldn't condone products that encouraged violence against a specific race. Nor is anyone selling "throw rocks at girls" shirts. "This is not humor. This is sarcasm as a weapon," says Ted Braude, a psychologist in Royal Oak, Mich., who works with boys.
Gender-bashing products are popular today in part because our society reduces childhood to zero-sum accounting, says Joe Kelly, president of the advocacy group Dads and Daughters. "People think that in order for girls to get a hand up, we have to push boys down. For boys to get a hand up, we have to push girls down." Title IX legislation, requiring schools to end discrimination based on sex, has heightened animosities, he says.
But store owners say sales are driven not by politics, but by kids' sense of what's cool. Beautiful Girl, a boutique in Woodmere, N.Y., sells piles of boy-bashing apparel. "Kids realize it's tongue-in-cheek," says Jon Shapiro, the store's co-owner. "The moms are very indulgent. If kids want it, moms buy it." Mr. Shapiro considers the controversy overblown. "There hasn't been a rash of boys being stoned."
Teachers and parents can ease boy/girl conflicts by avoiding the adult impulse to group kids by gender, says Barrie Thorne, author of the book "Gender Play" and a sociology professor at University of California, Berkeley. Spelling bees and kick-ball games shouldn't be boys versus girls, she says. And she advises parents to encourage boy/girl platonic friendships; too often parents tease kids by suggesting they're in a romance.
"New Moon," an ad-free alternative magazine for girls, purposely avoids revving up gender squabbles, focusing instead on girls' aspirations and inner beauty. That makes it a rarity on newsstands. My 15-year-old daughter notices that most teen magazines for girls depict boys as jerks. "It's always, 'He did this to me. He did that to me.' Rarely do I read a story where a boy does something nice," she says.
Madeline Gobbo, 14, of Hood River, Ore., sees that advertisers woo girls through boy-bashing. She's amused by ads for Skechers sneakers, which show kicking or whip-wielding females and cowering males. "Girls used to try to be equal to boys," says Madeline. "Now they're trying to be better. The media is picking up on that."
Movie and TV executives admit that they see dollar signs in boy/girl conflict. Reality show "Girls V. Boys" airs on The N, Viacom's "network for tweens and teens," available in 43 million homes. The show pits girls against boys, as they fire water guns or joust each other off boats. In the "Ride 'Em Cowboy" challenge, teammates dressed in cow costumes had to move around on all fours and avoid being lassoed by a team of the opposite sex.
"We wanted to set them up in situations where they'd be competing during the day and flirting at night," explains Sarah Tomassi Lindman, a vice president of The N. She says that "tension" has created strong drama and growing ratings.
Kids I spoke to seem to know that at the root of boy/girl antagonism, there's a whole lot of attraction.
In Wayne, Pa., Rachel Hobbs, 15, has a friend who wears a shirt that reads: "Boys are smelly. Throw rocks at them!" Rachel told her friend: "You're dating this guy. You're holding his hand. You're wearing that shirt. Why aren't you throwing rocks at him?"
Her friend replied: "Because I like him."•
See when they break up she will run crying to that first friend and BOY HATE will be reinforced to follow her throughout her life.
Should we invest in the company? |
