I think the problem is that boys and girls are about equally likely to want to sample the forbidden fruit of same-sex experimentation, but the repercussions of being found out (or rejected) are wildly, disproporionately, more extremely negative for boys than girls. The whole gay-'til-graduation thing is so common among girls that it’s become a stereotype in popular culture and an annoyance to real lesbians. For boys, though… well, I’ll quote Andrew ‘Dice’ Clay on this one: “Either ya suck dick or ya don’t.” As far as the guys are concerned, once you’ve partaken of the forbidden sausage, there’s no going back; they are forever locked into a destiny of pink feather boas and Barbara Streisand records.
There was a time in the not-to-distant past where it seems it was just assumed that the gym teachers would be pedos. It was traditional, like Father O’Malley having a little private communion with the altar boys. People didn’t talk about it, but it was just assumed to be happening. I remember when I was in middle school, the girls’ gym teacher would walk into the boys’ changing room, stand in the middle with her arms crossed, and have a good look around. If anyone complained, she’d just sneer and say, “It’s nothing I haven’t seen before.” Well, yes, that’s because you did the same thing last week.
But, again, from a different point of view, that can also be “boys had a lot more freedom to be naked”–being treated like your body is shameful and must be covered is not exactly a boon. I do think this is changing because boys are much more modest than they used to be–witness all the threads we’ve had about naked boys swim lessons in the 50s, and certainly boys go shirtless much less often than they used to. The infrastructure and routines are tied to an earlier time period.
Oh my God, that reminds me of this assignment in Grade 8. Our teacher was big on Home Ec skills so she got our class to cook a meal for the whole school (it was a really small rural school). She took us to buy ingredients in two different groups, one consisting of the boys and one of the girls. When we girls went, we automatically loaded and unloaded the groceries from the car, but the boys just hopped into the car and waited for our teacher to do it! They were just all so used to their mothers and sisters handling it.
You are seriously underestimating the amount of space some females need to store their tampons/pads. When I was in high school and college, I needed to change my tampon AND pad at least every two hours. None of those minipads would do, either. I needed the equivalent of a maxipad. Those puppies are about four inches long and two inches thick by three inches wide when folded. So I needed about five or six of those during my school day, in case I was having an exceptionally heavy flow day. Tampons (and I was wearing tampons WITH the pads) are more compact, but are more likely to allow clots to pass through) are more or less fingersized, and add another finger or so for the applicator. Again, I’d need a half dozen or so of these.
A bra pocket could maybe hold ONE mini pad or TWO non-applicator tampons. Binders? You expect teens to keep their sanitary supplies in BINDERS, which are opened several times each class period? Anyway, there’s really not enough room in them either.
Good luck in finding women’s clothes with pockets in them, especially pockets that are large enough to hold a day’s supply of protection. And it’s a good idea to have at least one pad in your possessions, in case of sudden onset of menstruation.
Please, is there anyone anywhere that doesn’t read “All men are created equal” in the Constitution through the modern day filter of “All men [and women] are created equal.”?
But seriously, the ERA and whether it passed or not has no bearing on whether or not women are treated equally today because everyone knows about discrimination suits and protected classes and very other ways your ass will get sued for sexism.
It’s an institutional solution where the institutional problem disappeared. Offer not valid when dealing with individual bigots and people who are just plain jerkasses.
I suppose I’m not the only one here whose high school banned wearing shorts (outside of gym class), and so a group of boys showed up for school wearing miniskirts in protest, based on “why can girls wear miniskirts, but guys can’t wear shorts?”
Unless he’s getting paid for it, of course. Nobody thinks twice when the cook at their favorite restaurant is a man (which it almost always is).
This happened a couple of weeks ago and involved a guy who in the past has seriously indicated that he thought guys he liked jelly beans – except for the licorice ones – are gay.
I’m gay (though he doesn’t know this for sure) so I now don’t really engage in much conversation with this guy.
There’s also a lot of sexual banter around the office, especially involving him and my female supervisor. She doesn’t seem to mind it, so why should I?
The latest incident took place, while my supervisor was talking to a group (including him) in the hallway, she dropped a piece of paper. It fell close to my foot so I reached down and picked it up. As I reached for it, he said, “Don’t pick it up; let her, let her.”
I picked it up anyway, at which point, he walks away disgusted, stating, “I thought you were alright.”
How sexist! Not only to her, but to ME (poor me), for thinking I, as a male, need to be a selfish, rude ass just to get a glimpse of a female’s derrière.
We could only wear shorts until they early October and then again from April (the principal would decide the exact dates and make an announcement). Girls could were skirts/dresses year round, but only a few girls ever wore a dress or skirt to school. I don’t recall any guys ever showing up in kilts, but there was year we had a mini-heatwave in January and everybody realized the principal forgot make the long-pants-only announcement.
I’m a guy and I’ve done the walk of shame. Walk of Regret? Walk of The Hell Did I Do? Walk of Shame rolls off the tongue better.
ETA: filling pages did it better.
That’s the secret to being a pick up artist. Lose your fear of rejection, don’t “put the pussy on a pedestal” (40 Year Old Virgin), then play the odds. Most people know it by the smooth-talkingness of the guy, but that skill is developed only over hundreds of pick up attempts.
They’ve gotten cocky… ballsier… cheekier… more explicit these days.
We were allowed to wear shorts, but only under skirts or dresses. Otherwise, we couldn’t wear shorts, except for the field trip to the local amusement park.
I would quote whoever asked whether anyone has ever gotten positive results from cat-calls but I’m far too lazy to find the post. I can say from personal experience that they have worked about 40% of the time for me.
I will attach a heavy disclaimer to this statement however. I’ve never made a vulgar cat-call or a whistle or an animal sound, more of a “Hey, you!” sort of call across a campus quad; not from a moving car. Also I was never persistent, I would only ever yell once unless they did a “Who? Me?” sort of gesture. Some women that I’ve called to may have felt harassed, I’ll never know. And at the time it seemed like a reasonably good way to get someone’s attention. I probably could have run up and tried to start a conversation several of the times but that out of breath “Hi, how are you” sort of thing reeks of just as much desperation as yelling without all the physical effort.
It’s a huge point. The Constitution is American law; the Declaration of Independence is not. So “all men created equal” only has legal weight if it’s in the Constitution. In the Declaration of Indepedence it’s just a nice slogan.
You can’t file a discrimination suit just because you’ve been discriminated against. You can only file the suit if discrimination is illegal.