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Monday, February 11, 2008

Get Those Shackles Back On, STAT!

posted by on February 11 at 18:20 PM

Girls are drinking more and doing more drugs! And, OMG, at the SAME time, the academic and work worlds have opened up to give girls some of the same opportunities boys have always had! How does that rule go again—if two things are correlated, one must cause the other? Bingo! Blame feminism!

A generation of parents and educators have pushed to ensure that girls have the same opportunities as their male counterparts, with notable results. In 2007, for example, it was girls who dominated the national math and science competition sponsored by Siemens. But a growing number of reports show that the message of equality might have a downside.

Teenage girls now equal or outpace teenage boys in alcohol consumption, drug use and smoking, national surveys show. The number of girls entering the juvenile-justice system has risen steadily over the past few years. A 2006 study that examined accident rates among young drivers noted that although boys get into more car accidents, girls are slowly beginning to close the gap.

“When you take off the shackles, you release all kind of energy — negative and positive,” said James Garbarino, the Maude C. Clarke chair in humanistic psychology at Loyola University in Chicago. “By letting girls loose to experience America more fully, it’s not surprising that they would absorb some of its toxic environment.” […]

In the same breath, the young women talked about feeling “empowered” because they can choose from myriad colleges and careers, and about how that “freedom” extends to partying at clubs, drinking and smoking. Experts worry that those feelings, coupled with a teen’s natural sense of invincibility, can be a potent and dangerous combination.

They said it in the same breath, so it must be related. And teenage girls were totally unaware of drugs and alcohol before equal opportunity made the scales of innocence fall from their eyes. And blah Britney blah “The Hills” blah “music” (ha!) blah blah blah. Tell me, is there ANY trend among young women that can’t be blamed on all that ewwwyuckygross “empowerment”?

RSS icon Comments

1

Is this related to Hillary somehow?

Posted by grumpypants | February 11, 2008 6:25 PM
2

I'm sorry, I stopped reading after you mentioned Brittney.

Is she still a loon?

Posted by Will in Seattle | February 11, 2008 6:29 PM
3

Even if the inference from "correlated" to "causally connected" were reasonable, it doesn't tell you which way the causal arrow goes. Maybe the excess drinking and partying caused the science and math grades to go up.

Posted by M | February 11, 2008 6:32 PM
4

Go back ninety years ago, and you would see much the same hand wringing over the flappers.

Posted by catalina vel-duray | February 11, 2008 6:33 PM
5

Where exactly do they "blame feminism"?

Posted by Paulus | February 11, 2008 6:38 PM
6

males and females have always proven themselves to be equally stupid and irresponsible in virtually every forum.

...and equally smart, too, sometimes.

so what?

Posted by pretentious | February 11, 2008 6:39 PM
7

ECB, this might be taken as a critique of 'empowerment' if one thinks that drinking, fucking and breaking the law are neccessarily terrible terrible things. I think they're part of being fully human, which is what empowerment is all about. Score one for feminism.

Posted by johnnie | February 11, 2008 6:40 PM
8

A generation of parents and educators have pushed to ensure that black people have the same opportunities as their white counterparts, with notable results... But a growing number of reports show that the message of equality might have a downside.

Teenage blacks now equal or outpace teenage whites in alcohol consumption, drug use and smoking, national surveys show. The number of blacks entering the juvenile-justice system has risen steadily over the past few years.

There, fixed it.

Posted by markinthepark | February 11, 2008 6:44 PM
9

In the same breath, the young black people talked about feeling “empowered” because they can choose from myriad colleges and careers, and about how that “freedom” extends to partying at clubs, drinking and smoking. Experts worry that those feelings, coupled with a black teen’s natural sense of invincibility, can be a potent and dangerous combination.


"freedom"

Posted by markinthepark | February 11, 2008 6:46 PM
10

Always give the lady the bigger shot nowadays, right?

Posted by Kent Cudgel | February 11, 2008 6:51 PM
11

but erica, they quote experts. EXPERTS! repeatedly! anonymously! and they're worried! and when anonymous experts worry about something, you probably should, too.

Posted by brandon | February 11, 2008 6:53 PM
12

Booze & drugs kick ass. Three cheers for chicks!

Posted by Mr. Poe | February 11, 2008 7:05 PM
13

Wow ECB, for once.....

I completely agree! You just cracked me up.

Posted by Dianna | February 11, 2008 7:16 PM
14

"Tell me, is there ANY trend among young women that can’t be blamed on all that ewwwyuckygross “empowerment”?"

ummmm, purity balls?

yay!!! balls...

Posted by pissy mcslogbot | February 11, 2008 7:29 PM
15

Yeah, its pretty sly how they try to pass that by the reader, but the implication is clear: because women are free they are fucking up. It probably wasnt their intention to imply that women's empowerment is a bad thing, but they did.

It's like saying black people with money atomically become crack heads. Solution? Don't let black people have money. Women getting drunk and doing drugs? Put them back in the kitchen!


Posted by brandon h | February 11, 2008 7:36 PM
16

Erica. I don't know what happened to you, but whatever it was, it's good. More.

Posted by elenchos | February 11, 2008 7:46 PM
17

so erica, what do you think is causing the rise in the partying and crimes numbers? as you say, girls have always known drugs exist (actually you say that they weren't aware, but you mean the opposite of what you say). why are today's 17-year-old girls in more trouble than yesterday's?

Posted by matthew | February 11, 2008 7:50 PM
18

Obviously linked to vaccines and autism.

Posted by umvue | February 11, 2008 7:59 PM
19

Does anyone under 40 still use the word "empowerment"? That one sure took me back to undergraduate days...

Posted by Jason | February 11, 2008 8:09 PM
20

You've Come a Long Way, Baby...

Posted by NapoleonXIV | February 11, 2008 8:17 PM
21

I gotta agree. The negative tone of this article (well, at least this snippet... maybe the article is actually positive, but still) leaves the reader with the impression that feminism is bad! Bad for doing all these things to our young girls. It seems they should have just left all the editorial bits out of it. Cut out paragraph 1, and... every other paragraph except 2, and the article is fine.

Why were the other paragraphs even necessary?

Posted by Me | February 11, 2008 8:19 PM
22

This is terrible! We must protect the delicate flower of your womanhood!

Posted by Fnarf | February 11, 2008 8:24 PM
23

it's pretty obvious that these girls are not ashamed of, nor fear their vaginas enough.


thanks eve ensler, and oprah... for opening this pandoras' vajayjay.

Posted by pissy mcslogbot | February 11, 2008 8:29 PM
24

I'm not going to join in the chorus of sexism, but I am going to say I hope Obama picks a woman for his VP running mate to address the issue of inclusion. It is, after all, his style.

Oh, and why hasn't the Slog mentioned that it turns out Hillary DIDN'T win Douglas county after all? A recount shows he won ALL counties in Washington State, or so says http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004177136_webcount11m.html

Posted by Andy Niable | February 11, 2008 9:38 PM
25

Hmm, that's interesting, I believe that the article stated, "parents need to rethink the messages they're sending their daughters and teach them how to better manage their stresses. Other experts say that those who work with adolescents need to better tailor intervention programs to be effective for girls as well as boys"-not putting the shackles back on - to be necessary. I fail to see how if you actually read the whole article how you could possibly take it as an attack on feminism instead of what it is- an observation (backed up by multiple statistics) on changes in behavior of young girls.

Posted by Weevz | February 11, 2008 10:07 PM
26

Good God--even recreational misogyny is getting tedious.

Posted by NapoleonXIV | February 11, 2008 10:12 PM
27

So, strange question ... why aren't parents upset their sons are beer-swilling sluts when they're underage? Who go around topless and make fools of themselves ...

Well?

Posted by Will in Seattle | February 11, 2008 11:28 PM
28

The problem with gender equality is the lack of stipulations preventing social empowerment from resulting in young women adopting the worst traits normally ascribed to men.

Posted by Mr. Joshua | February 12, 2008 12:39 AM
29

Am I the only young white male who is totally turned on by hardcore feminists? I only date feminists. I love the thrill of having someone with that fiery independence, who doesn't hesitate to say "fuck you!" when I deserve it. I sure as hell have no interest in fucking some waif who wants me to think for her.

Posted by markinthepark | February 12, 2008 12:57 AM
30

And by the way, so the fuck what if young women are doing all the naughty things young men do? The theme of this article seems to be the Dobsonesque "WE MUST PROTECT OUR DAUGHTERS' PURITY". You know what old white dudes, fuck you. Women are going to have sex and do drugs and commit crimes just like the men, and if you don't like it you can go fuck yourselves.

Posted by markinthepark | February 12, 2008 1:03 AM
31

#29 How dare you fetishize feminists!

(say it 5 times fast)

I kid, I kid.

Posted by Brandon H | February 12, 2008 1:08 AM
32

How come these nuts don't get called down for being anti-freedom?
Absorb america's toxic atmosphere, wtf?

Posted by arandomdude | February 12, 2008 3:03 AM
33

You weeves correlation does not equal causation as Erica pointed out at the BEGINNING of the article. Dude pay attention.

Posted by arandomdude | February 12, 2008 3:06 AM
34

@19: Female "agency" is what brings me back to first-year.

Posted by Gloria | February 12, 2008 4:27 AM
35

They said the same things about my grandmother when she was a flapper. She started to drink, smoke, act all wild and stuff. She had the best time of her life but managed to raise some pretty hung up daughters. My mom tried to break out of her house wife role when the next wave of feminism hit (70's) and my dad,, a caveman of vast expanse, figuratively smacked her back.
My daughter, who is a freshman in college, says the wildest of her pals are the ones who were raised by fundies and who were never taught the things she was.
Bottom line is this, if you do indeed keep a person down they are going to go crazy once they have a little freedom (I know I did, raised by semi fundies). If you teach a child how to use that freedom as they grow, they will not abuse it once they are in full possession of it. At least that is how it worked out with my kid.

Posted by G in INdiana | February 12, 2008 5:56 AM
36

I kinda like shackled women, though I prefer rope. And a gag - that's really important. I could watch a tightly tied pretty woman, wriggling on the floor and making those funny little grunting and mewing sounds through her gag all day.

Posted by Hard | February 12, 2008 6:10 AM
37

WWII had The Greatest Generation. Looks like the next one will be The Easiest Generation. Once again, I was born too soon.

Posted by Jason Josephes | February 12, 2008 9:31 AM
38

ok so this article went a bit overboard but the reason this is important and being tracked is that young women can become pregnant...girls who binge drink and get pregnant may not realize they are and continue drinking and smoking in their first trimester, the most critical time in a child's development. smoking and drinking are both risk factors for fetal and infant death. the take home message should be that we need to really focus on pre-conception health for young women so that births can be both planned and wanted.

Posted by Jiberish | February 12, 2008 10:03 AM
39

the article has hints of sexism, for sure. but there's a part of it i agree with that i do not believe is rooted in sexism, and it is this:

why must equality mean the lowest common denominator for both sexes? i would rather equality elevate both sexes.

take any negative male stereotype. here's one, men cheat. i would rather the modern view be that it's unacceptable for men to cheat, and it's unacceptable for women to cheat. we seem seem to be moving to the view that we must tolerate everyone having the worst traits.

i suppose that's what you'd expect. so, this article is just pointing out an observation: when given the choice, some women (just like men) will choose to excel, and some woman (just like men) will choose to party. that is interesting and of note.

the sexist slant comes from treating the "negative" choices as if they were a new phenomenon. because of that, it sounds like they were not a concern when men did them. that's the sexist angle.

Posted by infrequent | February 12, 2008 10:07 AM
40

@39 its not a new phenomenon but its on the rise especially among women of color. when we look at these issues alot of times its not about 'empowerment' but coping strategies for dealing with issues that affect communities of color...aka racism

Posted by Jiberish | February 12, 2008 10:21 AM
41

You might also consider this data in relation to a recent study showing that, statistically, more education = more boozing and depression. I'm sorry I don't have time to find the link. Maybe someone else has it.

Ignorance IS bliss.

Posted by Colin | February 12, 2008 12:04 PM
42

both intelligence and self-control are virtues. the world is pretty messed up right now because of a lack of both -- not to mention the fact that sexism exists.

wouldn't it be nice if we could set the bar higher for all people?

i certainly don't want to anyone how to live -- i value freedom and privacy -- it's just too bad people don't choose better. in the end, it's better to have a choice and choose wrongly, than to have no choice at all.

Posted by infrequent | February 12, 2008 12:53 PM

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