A line in a post in this thread made me ask this question.
When I went to school, I noticed that when girls fought, it was a lot uglier then when two guys did. Why is this?
My theory that I spent a whole 5 seconds thinking about is that when guys fight, they usually don’t want to, but because they almost did, because the other person didn’t back down, they can’t be seen as the weak one. They have a “rep” to uphold, whereas if girls fight, they genuinly hate eachother and want to hurt the other girl.
In a guy fight, as you said, both have a rep to uphold. When each guy spends 5 minutes walking in a circle around the other guy, thumping his chest and dissing the other, if its balanced, both guys can come out of it ahead. When they actually do fight, usually a couple of blows is enough to establish a “winner”, and therefore, the dominant male
As you said, girls actually want to hurt each other in fights, and dominance is determined by who actually wins the fight, not who looks tougher.
Girls fight in a different style than guys. They pull hair, scratch, and sometimes eye gouge. They also tend to scream and cry when they fight. I think this makes it look and sound worse than a guy fight.
Guys tend to have some rules during most fights. They start out as a fistfight (and some end that way) and this usually just looks like a very amateur version of a boxing match. Sometimes it devolves into a floor fight but even them it is mainly punching and wrestling.
Girls tend to be hysterical for a long time after the fight. Some guys get over it pretty quickly. That tends to stretch the drama way out.
I knew a girl who got stabbed in the eye with a shard of a broken mirror. The other girl sliced all the tendons in her hand.
I’ve never even heard of guy fights resulting in more than a little bruising. Well, I suppose there are fights with weapons, but those seem to be all gang-related, not dominance intra-group.
Yeah, in School most girl fights I saw were nastier. As an adult I haven’t seen many girl fights cuz usually it gets stopped before it happens. However, I think adulthood changes the rules. I know people who will pull a knife or shoot their opponent, or otherwise permanently injure them.
One fight I saw in HS was at Senior picture day. I was sitting right below the girls fighting and had to move out of the way when one girl body tackled the other and went down five flights of bleachers before landing on top of her and proceeding to punch her in the face. The fight was broken up by the security guard and both girls ended up going at it again on the way up the hill to the principle’s office.
Also, I think it’s that Boys are quicker to physical confrontation, and girls hold it in until they are totally serious and ready for blood. The guys will do it when they aren’t that pissed, get some aggression out and release that pressure valve early and often.
Because girls rarely get into physical confrontations. They tend to settle their differences through social bullying like rumor-mongering or oastracism or other non-physical methods. The ones who actually do get into fights are usually nuts.
A WAG, but they also tend to be smaller so they can flail about hitting each other longer without hurting each other compared to a couple of 200 lb guys whaleing on each other.
Girls are bigger on verbally and physically humiliating their opponent (starting rumors, as someone else said, or tearing off clothes to expose her breasts or tearing out hair or earrings) and inflicting facial injuries (long fingernails).
hastily checks to see if hell has frozen over
Yup, I agree with msmith here. I’ve been assured that some of the things women say to and about each other would illicit a physical response if it were one man saying it to another. If girls get to the point that actual physical violence is involved, they don’t care what their fighting style looks like, they are out for blood. I recommend staying clear.
That’s why men’s perceptions of “cat fights” are so amusing to me. There is no way in hell they’re going to suddenly decide they’re turned on and start kissing. If you’re feeling particularly suicidal you could suggest it, I suppose…
What, so the white cotton panty tickle fight is a myth? Next you’ll tell me that drinking a whole lot of cheap American beer won’t make you a chick magnet!
I did NOT say that. I also won’t tell you that when you see a woman on t.v. with erect nipples, she’s not really sexually excited, or that those letters to Penthouse Forum aren’t really written by women.
I also get the impression that many girls overestimate how well they would do against other girls in a scrap, then find themselves in the scrap, discover it’s not quite as easy as they thought it was going to be, panic, and go mental.
As an example, I have an aquantance that’s 5’2", weighs about 105. I saw her in a bar threatening to kick this other girls ass - the other girl was about 5’10, 185. Now, I don’t know much about fighting, and what I do know comes from sparing only, but as a 5’8" female wighing about 145, I can pretty comfortably say that I would destroy girl #1. Girl #2, I think I’d have my hands full. I think if girl #1 and girl #2 were scrapping, girl #1 would get her ass kicked - I’ll never know, however, because girl #2 rolled over and cowered like a little girl.
So - what I’m trying to say is - I think girl #1 would get into the scrap thinking she could kick ass. Realize that girl #2 was WAAAY bigger than her. Panic. Do a total nasty-ass freakout that would result in a messy, messy fight.
I have no idea what the cause is, but I’ve noticed too. I had the misfortune to see two women start one in the middle of the crowd at a subway station in Philadelphia. It looked like two cases of attempted murder. I was shaken up for hours after seeing that.
[QUOTE=Maureen] hastily checks to see if hell has frozen over
Yup, I agree with msmith here. I’ve been assured that some of the things women say to and about each other would illicit a physical response if it were one man saying it to another. If girls get to the point that actual physical violence is involved, they don’t care what their fighting style looks like, they are out for blood. I recommend staying clear.
QUOTE]
There must be a cold front moving through hell because I agree as well!
I’ve been in one physical altercation with another girl. One. And I was all of 8 years old, so it really doesn’t count. Most of my female friends haven’t been in any. For those that have (and they weren’t little kids), it’s been when things have gotten really ugly.
