A feminist article was recently brought to my attention, called "How to Talk to Little Girls" by Lisa Bloom. Whilst I agree with everything Lisa says, my heart immediately sank, as it reminded me once again that feminists only ever care for their own. The entire article would have been equally valid if it had been talking about little boys.
For the TL;DR, the article basically forwards the idea (which I agree with) that praising girls' appearance is counter-productive since it emphasises body image, which can lead to harmful obsessions. Instead, little girls should be engaged on an intellectual basis, for example by talking about books.
There are a few assumptions here. 1) that body image issues only affect girls. I uncovered some articles from The Guardian (2012) and by Naomi Weinshenker (2014) that basically suggest that men and teenage boys are as much if not more worried about body image than women. Certainly, teenage boys kill themselves more often than teenage girls.
Assumption 2) that girls are not sufficiently stimulated, seems to be undermined by the fact that girls do much better in school, and that most of the education system is run by women.
Assumption 3), that girls are praised for their appearance more than boys. I certainly remember having my hair ruffled and told how sweet or gorgeous I was as a child. I have no data on this, but I imagine both genders have to suffer this.
I have sympathy for Lisa Bloom's position that this affects girls more than boys, but I don't think the problem is nearly as gendered as Lisa supposes, or that this is a single gender problem.
This is just typical of a society in general, or feminists in particular, who ignore the health of boys and then wonder why they cause more problems later in life.
For the TL;DR, the article basically forwards the idea (which I agree with) that praising girls' appearance is counter-productive since it emphasises body image, which can lead to harmful obsessions. Instead, little girls should be engaged on an intellectual basis, for example by talking about books.
There are a few assumptions here. 1) that body image issues only affect girls. I uncovered some articles from The Guardian (2012) and by Naomi Weinshenker (2014) that basically suggest that men and teenage boys are as much if not more worried about body image than women. Certainly, teenage boys kill themselves more often than teenage girls.
Assumption 2) that girls are not sufficiently stimulated, seems to be undermined by the fact that girls do much better in school, and that most of the education system is run by women.
Assumption 3), that girls are praised for their appearance more than boys. I certainly remember having my hair ruffled and told how sweet or gorgeous I was as a child. I have no data on this, but I imagine both genders have to suffer this.
I have sympathy for Lisa Bloom's position that this affects girls more than boys, but I don't think the problem is nearly as gendered as Lisa supposes, or that this is a single gender problem.
This is just typical of a society in general, or feminists in particular, who ignore the health of boys and then wonder why they cause more problems later in life.
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