Girly? NOT!

[memelaina]

ArwenSouth made me do it:

You Are 20% Girly

Um... you're a guy, right? If not, you're the most boyish girl in the world. And for you, that's probably the ultimate compliment.

How Girly Are You?

Comments

[gilraen2.livejournal.com]

i find it deeply disheartening that these kind of activities measure the value and perception of women. there wasn't a single question about nuturing, teaching, achieving - nothing of value. i only got my 20% because i do go get my nails done on a regular basis to help control the "finger tip ulcers" caused by arthritis.

if you want to see how pervasive this is in our society try to find some positive statement to make to or about a little girl (like my three year old grand-daughter) that doesn't include a reference to appearance. our society just does NOT use positive terms for little girls that don't refer to them as "cute", "beautiful", "pretty", "nice". those are really the only terms that society uses for little girls. no wonder they grow up "girly".

[arwensouth.livejournal.com]

And if you say that a little girl is "smart" or "clever" or "has a good sense of humor," many people will think, "Wow, she must really be ugly!"

Yes, for all the strides women have made in the last 50 years or so, there are still areas where we have lots of room for improvement. I remember being really incensed some number of years ago when they came out with sets of Legos "for girls". If the only difference had been that the colors were different, it probably wouldn't have bothered me so much. But the biggest difference that I saw was that the vast majority of the pieces were not individual bricks that could be used to build anything you wanted, but rather sections and furnishings that would let you, for example, put together a doll house. The message I got was that "girls aren't smart enough to be able to take Lego bricks and build walls or chairs or tables for their doll houses, so we have to do it for them." Well, that and "we know little girls are only interested in building doll houses. They would never want to use their building blocks to make space ships or cars or airplanes or skyscrapers or anything else..."

Grrr....