Reply to How to answer sons who are asking me why so many girls have 'girls are better' merch

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My 2 sons (7 and 10) have been asking me about this a lot. At school and camp a lot of girls have shirts that say various versions of like 'girls are better than boys' (i'm not sure exact wording bc the kids are telling me this second hand, but am vaguely aware through culture ofc). My kids ask 'why would they say this?' Thus far my tactic has been to explain that as yet we have had NO female president in US (I am from the UK so can talk about how we have had female leaders at home) and talk about what kind of message that sends to girls. But my kids are not dumb and their answer is - yes 100% we need a female president but that messaging is still like - girls are BETTER than boys. Any tips on how to talk about this to them? I am failing. [/quote]

It sounds like your boys are internalizing female empowerment messages. No shirts say things like “girls are better.” They do have positive messages or are sardonic rejections of old stereotypes (a popular shirt in the softball world is something like “you wish you could throw like a girl.”

So maybe tell your sons to stop internalizing things so much — it isn’t about them. Girls have historically been denied opportunities and suffered from lower expectations for roles in society. And so we rightfully encourage them to achieve. [b]Boys don’t really need that same encouragement[/b] because they have not been bombarded with messaging throughout history like a boy’s place is in the kitchen, a boy shouldn’t get a formal education, etc etc. [/quote]

Yes of course they do.  Boys live today, not 50 years ago.  [/quote]

I should rephrase that. Boys don’t need that encouragement framed in gender-specific terms. Except maybe in terms of redefining roles they play in domestic situations[b]. Professionally and academic, the drive for boys to achieve is already endemic[/b]. There’s no need for equivalent messaging/sloganing the way it exists for girls. [/quote]

It is not.  You've got this wrong.  If you are a curious person, you can easily find this information and it shows that boys do not succeed and achieve the way that girls do.  It starts young and gets worse.[/quote]

Bullshit.[/quote]

Boys are not succeeding academically.  Look it up.  Then eat your post.[/quote]

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