The article Boys can be a royal pain, but they have redeeming qualities (Bergen Record, 5/1/07) by New Jersey high school student Elana Altman has some of the standard, tiresome female view that “girls/women are superior to boys/men,” but it has some other interesting points, too.
Altman describes some of the terrible emotional abuse some girls and women inflict on one another, and sees men’s more straightforward, less manipulative nature as a safe harbor. I’ve known many, many women who feel this way, and who have suffered terribly at the hands of other girls or women. Unfortunately, their view is not widely aired in the mainstream media and culture, which finds “woman good/man bad” a much safer alternative. Altman writes:
“‘Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them!’ is the title of a humor book that seems to ring true to the ears of many high school girls…Of course, high school girls aren’t flawless, either. Even though we are more socially and emotionally mature, we come with the whole cattiness, back-stabbing, rumor-spreading sort of thing.
“I know I wrote a column earlier saying that girlish cliques are not bad or mean, and I’ll stick by it, but just because cliques as a whole are not mean or exclusive does not mean that girls as individuals are not mean, back-stabbing and manipulative.
“When things like this happen, it seems as if the title of the book could be changed to ‘Girls are stupid, throw rocks at them’ and seem just as true. Or, since I am a girl and thus more likely to use girly tactics, ‘Girls are stupid, spread rumors about them.’
“Boys are usually more straight-up and honest. If they don’t like you, they just won’t be friends with you; they won’t pretend to be your friend and then start whispering about you the second you leave their presence…yes, sometimes I’d like to throw rocks at boys, but sometimes they are the best friends a girl could have. They can give us honest opinions, insider guy advice and fun with much less drama.”
Read the full article here.
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