Urb wrote:
> The above is fact, now for the fiction part. I have four grown
>childred, two are female. My observation from an n of 4 is that our
>society does not prepare females for failure. Male children are almost
>required to play on athletic teams, until a generation female athletics
>was discourgaged. Failure (losing) is part of athletics, the coachs
>extols their charges, "forget what happened and just try harder." It's
>a powerful message for all minds, espically your impressionable ones.
>From this female's viewpoint, oftentimes traditional male team sports are
little more than legalized violence, serving as an outlet for
testosterone-driven male aggressiveness. Having worked with a some men who
play at business like a game of pro football, I'm not sure that I approve
of the values that team sports instill in men. Perhaps the best example I
can cite is Heisman trophy winner OJ Simpson.
As a whitewater canoeing and kayaking instructor, I have observed two main
differences in the way men and women approach learning the sport. Men
don't let fear hold them back, whereas some women are positively crippled
by it. Teenage boys seem to simply have no fear, even those like my son,
who never played a team sport in his life. Yet it often takes quite a lot
of coaxing to get a woman to try a new maneuver for the first time. Girls
and women seem to hold themselves back, to be more reserved. Many girls are
more attracted to sports that border on art forms, like ballet, horseback
riding, gymnastics or ice skating. I never had a daughter, so I don't know
if this is learned or innate behavior. I certainly never had to encourage
my son to try anything athletic. Holding him back would have been
impossible. I suspect that these tendencies towards passive vs. aggressive
behaviors are hormonal or genetic in nature.
The other difference in teaching kayaking is that men tend to try to use
muscle power instead of learning more efficient techniques for working with
the force of moving water. Women, lacking muscle bulk and psychological
dependence on it, learn technique more easily. As a consequence, women can
become even better paddlers than men, since moving water is much more
powerful than even the strongest guy.
Perhaps it's these tendencies towards fearlessness and 'powering through'
situations that allows more men to overcome computer paranoia and to tackle
other academic fields that seem more difficult?
Regardless, I applaud the differences between men and women. For balance,
we need both. I just wish there were a way for society to place equal
monetary values on professions that attract women and those that attract
men.
Suz
Suzanne Stephens, Dave Stephens Design; Ashland, Oregon
541-552-1190, 541-552-1192 http://www.KickassDesign.com/
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