{"id":1245,"date":"2016-12-06T15:55:04","date_gmt":"2016-12-06T20:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=1245"},"modified":"2016-12-06T15:55:04","modified_gmt":"2016-12-06T20:55:04","slug":"boys-will-be-boys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=1245","title":{"rendered":"Boys will be Boys"},"content":{"rendered":"

By The Growler Staff<\/strong>
\nThe Growler
\nIthaca HS
\n1st Place
\nDivision 4, News Writing
\nEditorial<\/p>\n

Ask any girl to count how many times she has been told not to do something because it\u2019s \u2018not lady-like\u2019. Ask any boy to count how many times he has been told not to do something because it was \u2018too girly\u2019 or \u2018gay\u2019. They probably never kept track of all the times they have been unwittingly policed based on their gender.<\/p>\n

Gender is one of the oldest social constructs that is ingrained in the world around us. It is a constant non verbal proclamation about you, who you are, and how you feel about yourself. But the roles and negative stigmas we have developed for the genders have swelled into major modern problems.<\/p>\n

For whatever reason, over the centuries our concept of gender and sex has developed into strict roles and expectations, such as a baby girl in pink. Gender has become synonymous with biological sex, and is not a reflection of expression, but a reflection of something you never had a choice in. Despite this, it is still viewed as one of the most important pieces of your identity and affects almost every aspect in your life, whether consciously or not.<\/p>\n

In elementary school we are consistently segregated, the teacher orders us by boys and girls; little girls wear shirts with tiaras and sparkles, while boys wear dark colors with rocket ships and dinosaurs. It teaches us that boys and girls must be treated differently, which seems harmless enough in pinks and blues.<\/p>\n

But through school we practice these gender roles, girls learn to act meek and quiet and strive to con-form, while boys learn to be unemotional, strong, and are encouraged to think independently. Kids are fed stereotype after stereotype, \u2018boys are better at math and girls are better at reading\u2019, \u2018girls are always over emotional\u2019, \u2018boys are naturally violent\u2019. We accept these as truth and they unconsciously influence how we behave and perform.<\/p>\n

Studies have shown that gender stereotyping does affect academic performance. If someone is consistently told they are not expected to succeed in an area, then it is only natural they would not feel motivated to try as hard. The same goes for recreational activities, kids might have wanted to pursue something that could have been a lifelong skill, but backed out due to societal pressures.<\/p>\n

By doing this, we cut kids short on experiences and block them from exploring their identity. We\u2019ve cut ourselves short by letting gender norms straight from the 1950s model influence us.<\/p>\n

The subtle misogyny that little boys are taught only adds to the destructiveness of these stereotypes. A little boys\u2019 erratic and violent behavior is excused because \u2018boys will be boys\u2019. To little boys, they learn that it\u2019s okay to act like this, good even. But it also oversimplifies what could be a major problem, aggression is-sues could be linked to an unhealthy lifestyle or homelife.<\/p>\n

By glossing over the issue it only snowballs into problems later in life. A boy never had to worry about consent to tear down his classmate\u2019s block castle, so why should he care now when a girl says \u2018no\u2019? Sexual harassment and rape is too often over-looked because \u2018boys will be boys\u2019. And by letting sex offenders and rapists go without any repercussions for their actions, it is only a matter of time until they do it again.<\/p>\n

It does not help that all around us the media brazenly depicts sexual aggression. It normalizes this sort of speech and behavior, it makes people feel like it is justifiable even. After all, Blurred Lines was just a fun song, right?<\/p>\n

Raunchy ads and sexist media only discredits both parties involved, the producer and the consumer. The producer\u2019s use of sex appeal only shows they do not want to bother with creating something artistically pleasing. Not only that, but it can make us numb to what true beauty is by insisting that what it is presenting us with is what beauty should be. By influencing how we perceive beauty it gives us unrealistic expectations. For the consumer, because we react and support these types of ads, it only tells the producer that manipulating us this way works. Because we don\u2019t question if they are profiting because they\u2019re demeaning someone else.<\/p>\n

These influences tell us misogyny is okay, that it is natural for anything feminine to be considered weak. Phrases like \u201cyou throw like a girl\u201d or \u201cyou\u2019re acting like a girl\u201d seem completely normal, but they send the clear message that anything feminine is lesser. The tolerance of misogyny and the expectation of it should be insulting. No one even expects us to know how to talk about each other properly.<\/p>\n

It boils down to the need to actually respect each other and treat each other equally. The differences between the sexes are important and should be embraced in a positive way. Not by over-sexualizing each other and normalizing degrading stereotypes in speech and media. But by accepting people for how they want to express their gender, and treating each other the way we should.<\/p>\n

It has taken centuries to develop the gender roles and stereotypes we have now, and it will take time to achieve the equality we need. But if we all do our part to stop supporting degrading media and start asking, \u201cwhy?\u201d And maybe one day, we can live in a world with the freedom to express ourselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By The Growler Staff The Growler Ithaca HS 1st Place Division 4, News Writing Editorial<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,44],"tags":[135,23],"class_list":["post-1245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-nw","category-editorial-nw","tag-2015-16","tag-division4","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Riley Anson","author_link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?author=4"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6K0n6-k5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}