Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Bad Girls Gone Wild...SHHH Cards

Forget the "bad boys" for a few minutes. Today I want to write about the bad girls. That is, about the pre and teenage girls who have suddenly become very mean spirited and criminal. It seems that more and more in the U.S (and perhaps elsewhere?) the news headlines are about girl-on-girl violence.
But why? Do girls now have the same violent instincts as boys? Apparently that is the trend. According to statistics from the FBI the number of girls arrested for aggravated assault has doubled over he last 20 years. The number of boys the same age, arrested for the aggravated assault rose only only slightly. Girls had a125% rise in arrests for possession of weapons while boys had a 22% increase.
In the U.S today, one in three juveniles arrested (a huge percentage of crime in the U.S. is committed by juveniles) for violent crimes are females. So today, little girls are not always made of "sugar and spice". As a teacher that girls fight more than do boys and that their fights tend to bear grudges that carry on long after the initial confrontation. So why?
I think part of it is the change in sex roles today. Girl "heroes" in silly Hollywood films are often projected as being violent people, not helpless damsel's in distress. While the old cultural message was for boys to be aggressive, now Tv, movies, and literature glorify the girl as a violent creature.
Young girls see this and imitate it. They are barraged with images of "sheroes", laughably unrealistic in many instances, but so are many of the male hero images that have always been projected. Does this message from the culture impel some girls to be aggressive, to think that a good role model can be a violent one?
Of course the culture can not be entirely blamed for this. Parents who are close to their kids and who set good examples and give their time to them, will likely not produce a violent girl. But that's another subject (the irresponsible parent). Any comments on this?
Get ready for SHHH cards! SHHH cards are the antidote to those loud, boorish cell users who pollute innocent ears with their endless public cell phone yaking. An online agency called The Society for handHeld Hushing (SHHH) is now offering annoyed citizens download able notes that can be filed out and handed to one of those cell phone jerks who speaks too loudly about something too personal. More than 400,000 downloads have been sent to sufferers already. Here's one example of a SHHH card you might want to download.
Dear Cell User, We are aware your ongoing conversation about YOUR HUSBAND"S VASECTOMY is very important to you, but it doesn't interest me in the least. In fact, your babbling disregard for others is more than a little annoying.
Of course the rude cell user is likely to react rudely to the humorous request that he or she shut up, so one who gives a SHHH note must take that into account. Oh..wait....Maybe I am giving those cell abusers too much credit by assuming they can read and understand a SHHH note

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