play ball!
Interesting interview on NPR:
Caitlin Flanagan On Protecting Girlhood
Hypersexualized society is bad for girls? I think so. It's bad for boys, too. Especially the way it is manifested in American and French cultures, the only societies I can really speak for. The cartoonish, photo-shopped, objectified approach to things erogenous is effed up, so it seems logical that a hyper-ization of said approach would be pretty dysfunctional, too.
Flanagan's remedies don't seem like the answer, though, at least not today. The minute I hear words like "forbid" in relation to something as ubiquitous as Facebook, I question the author's grasp on reality. Makes me think of Prohibition. (As much as I dislike Facebook, I don't think it's inherently damaging.)
I also can't believe that a seemingly intelligent author (with two boys, to boot) would say something as grossly sexist as, "boys will be thrilled with hook-up culture!" Statements like "boys will be boys" repel me, and sneering that all boys everywhere would be "thrilled" with copulation without affection goes hand in hand with this low expectations attitude toward the male sex. Since when did we decided that all men are devoid of a need for intimacy?
The lie that only girls and women want "romance," or a more emotional, profound link to another human (be it boy or girl, but that's another issue I had with this interview) leads us to the whole b.s. trap that women are the "gentler sex," that we naturally polish men's rough exteriors.
If I had a daughter, I would encourage her to play team sports. Since I have a boy, I will encourage him to play team sports.
Caitlin Flanagan On Protecting Girlhood
Hypersexualized society is bad for girls? I think so. It's bad for boys, too. Especially the way it is manifested in American and French cultures, the only societies I can really speak for. The cartoonish, photo-shopped, objectified approach to things erogenous is effed up, so it seems logical that a hyper-ization of said approach would be pretty dysfunctional, too.
Flanagan's remedies don't seem like the answer, though, at least not today. The minute I hear words like "forbid" in relation to something as ubiquitous as Facebook, I question the author's grasp on reality. Makes me think of Prohibition. (As much as I dislike Facebook, I don't think it's inherently damaging.)
I also can't believe that a seemingly intelligent author (with two boys, to boot) would say something as grossly sexist as, "boys will be thrilled with hook-up culture!" Statements like "boys will be boys" repel me, and sneering that all boys everywhere would be "thrilled" with copulation without affection goes hand in hand with this low expectations attitude toward the male sex. Since when did we decided that all men are devoid of a need for intimacy?
The lie that only girls and women want "romance," or a more emotional, profound link to another human (be it boy or girl, but that's another issue I had with this interview) leads us to the whole b.s. trap that women are the "gentler sex," that we naturally polish men's rough exteriors.
If I had a daughter, I would encourage her to play team sports. Since I have a boy, I will encourage him to play team sports.
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