Posted by jay on April 16, 2006, at 23:24:23 [reposted on April 19, 2006, at 0:04:47 | original URL]
In reply to Re: This may not be appropriate but it's bothering, posted by special_k on April 15, 2006, at 20:17:34
Now this helps blow apart the stereotypes too...GEORGIE BINKS:
Violence by girls uncoolCBC News Viewpoint | March 17, 2006
Last week, five Manitoba girls attacked a teacher's aide, beating her with a flashlight. A school principal and teachers were punched and hit as they tried to intervene.
Teachers and the community have been shocked by the attack. It's not the first time we've heard about girls turning violent. There was the terrible murder of Reena Virk, 14, beaten and drowned in 1997 on Vancouver Island. The attack was committed by a group that included teenaged girls.
Is there actually an increase in violent acts committed by teenaged girls these days? And if so, what are the reasons, and are we dealing with it?
In the 10 years leading up to 1998, there was a steady and significant increase in girl violence – it jumped by nearly 130 per cent. Then, according to the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, from 1999-2004 the total number of violent attacks (murder, assault, robbery) by girls stabilized at approximately 5-000 to 6,000 a year. The numbers are one-third of what they are for boys. Still, they are disturbing.
It's not surprising in a world whose mantra has been "Girl Power" ever since the Spice Girls popularized it, that young females are taking matters into their own hands.
Simon Fraser psychology professor, Marlene Moretti, lead investigator on the Gender and Aggression Project for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research cautions that: "There are programs aimed at teaching girls to be assertive, to believe in themselves, have a sense of self-esteem and not allow themselves to be pushed around or intimidated or drawn into a peer group.
"That's great if it's done appropriately. However, some families don't understand the difference between aggression and assertiveness."
There's no simple reason girls become aggressive and violent. Moretti says, "One size doesn't fit all. There are marginalized girls with low self-esteem who fall into the wrong crowd and become aggressive. They are girls who are both victimized and bullied by others. Then there are girls who are popular and are very oppressive – those girls often grow out of it."
Rebecca Godfrey, author of Under the Bridge: The True Story of the Murder of Reena Virk, learned a lot about violent girls when covering the trials of those charged in Virk's murder.
She says, "A lot of these girls came from violent environments. The fathers of two of the girls had been murdered and they were in very violent situations. There was nobody who came through for them, like a social worker or a program. The pop culture they were interested in was glorified violence, which influenced their sense of what was glamourous and powerful."
The media definitely plays its part in glamourizing tough girls. Think of the women in the Charlie's Angels movies taking down their opponents or Kill Bill's Uma Thurman meting out justice. Tough girls kick *ss, right?
Moretti says if a girl doesn't have a lot to hang onto, images like these convey the message that this is a great way to be respected.
Of course, with female violence, as with just about everything else female these days, it's become sexualized. Think of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry drooled over thoughts of a "catfight."
When you combine these images with girls who already are dealing with the pressures of puberty you can easily create a ticking time bomb.
"Girls are already under pressure as they enter adolescence. They're competing for social status, and trying to be attractive. Wanting to feel part of a group, they can drift into groups of girls where they feel they can compete. Often that means being involved in aggressive behaviour with each other," Moretti says.
In his book See Jane Hit James Garbarino praises the physical outlet that sports has given girls for their energy and aggression, which he views as a positive thing. However, sports cultivates physicality that could translate into physical aggression, he says.
Still, the benefits outweigh the risks. Girls feeling good about themselves on a soccer field usually aren't the same girls angrily beating up another girl in the playground.
The other day I spoke with a teenaged girl who had fans cheering in the bleachers last year as she stood her ground in a fist fight with a male hockey player. However, a five-minute penalty for both players is certainly not what would happen in real life. Last week, when confronted with a female who wanted to settle things physically over a guy, the reality of possible assault charges and a fight with no hockey gear convinced that same girl that walking away was the best solution.
Boys are taught how to fight fair and are also cautioned about the implications. Godfrey says girls aren't that familiar with the rules of fighting.
"Boys know you only do one on one, and girls simply go wild. With the Reena Virk case, these same girls had attacked another girl several weeks before in a similar way, setting her hair on fire. In this attack, one of the girls was a kickboxer. You wouldn't have seen that 20 years ago."
Right now, the first step is to take the issue seriously. Godfrey maintains that, "Anything about teenaged girls seems to be trivialized and sexualized, and it shouldn't be."
Violence among teenage girls isn't sexy or funny or cool. But until society starts seeing that, it's going to be pretty difficult to deal with it.
poster:jay
thread:634672
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/relate/20060220/msgs/634680.html