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Analysis Of Girlfighting By Lyn Mikel Brown

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Lyn Mikel Brown writes a book called Girlfighting: Betrayal and Rejection among Girls about relational aggression in females. She writes about how it manifests, what causes it, and how the media encourages it. A manifestation can be seen in the trope of good girl vs. bad girl, or girly girl vs. tomboy, or any variation thereof (Brown 213). It is in movies and tv, it is in our everyday lives. Brown shows how it is practically forced upon young girls to pick a side in a divide and conquer type strategy. When girls grow up, that trope does not leave their lives. It is there, and it follows them. Good girl and Bad girl stereotypes are reinforced in shows like “The Real Housewives of [Insert Any town]”. This media perpetuates girlfighting …show more content…

The reasoning behind this is that girls perform better in single gender classrooms because it removes the air of worried competitiveness from the schools (Sax 245-246). In the U.S.A. the school system tried to promote gender equality by introducing a gender blind system. But, Dr Leonard Sax author of Why Gender Matters points out that this has “[lead] paradoxically to a strengthening of gender stereotypes, with the result that fewer girls take courses in physics, computer sciences, trigonometry and calculus” (99). In coed schools today girls shy away from typically boyish subjects because they feel out of place or are discouraged and boys shy away from typically girlish subjects from fear of being mocked (243). As I pointed out, girls are constantly stressed with trying to meet our cultural standards for them. When they perceive that a standard is not met, their self esteem crumbles which leads to depression (Lopez et al). In a study done in Belfast, Ireland between two schools close in all factors, except one was coed and the other single gender (Sax 245). In the coed school it was found that the attending girls’ confidence relied solely on their perceived beauty of themselves, no matter their academic performance, family standing or encouraging friends (246). However, at the single gender school, the girls’ confidence relied on multiple facets, appearance was just one. (246). Girls and boys at coed schools are concerned mainly with things other than their grades, they are worried about appearances, popularity and who is better at what (247). So, in single gender classrooms it is less likely for girls to have low self esteem and depression. This means relational aggression will decrease as well, since a large part of the enacting of relational aggression is negative internalized beliefs about one's self

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