Is "Boys/Men Only" too Taboo?

[Baron Kurtz]

Good God! This is the best example yet of "beware the internets". Are we honestly going to treat "princess_ami", the apparent author of this link, as reasonable source material? She doesn't have a single primary literature source, for Christ's sake. Come on, you've gotta do better than this.

A quick google search found this: http://www.medicaleducationonline.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=46&Itemid=69

 

[Tomasso]

Darn...

I needed a shadowy waterfront bar guide...

I can recommend this joint for shadows and water but it's sadly lacking in riffraff .

 

[Miss Neecerie]

I can recommend this joint for shadows and water but it's sadly lacking in riffraff .

heheh....see....that view of the Hudson....further convinces me that living on the opposite shore is where its at in terms of views....the view from Hoboken is the Empire State building and if at the right angle the Chrysler.....from NYC all you see is Weehawken and Guttenberg...

 

[Undertow]

Good God! This is the best example yet of "beware the internets". Are we honestly going to treat "princess_ami", the apparent author of this link, as reasonable source material? She doesn't have a single primary literature source, for Christ's sake. Come on, you've gotta do better than this.

lol

But Bk, she is a princess after all?

 

[Undertow]

Darn...I needed a shadowy waterfront bar guide...

Exactly what I was thinking! Man, you just can't find good help anymore!

 

[SGT Rocket]

Ya, I could.

Good God! This is the best example yet of "beware the internets". Are we honestly going to treat "princess_ami", the apparent author of this link, as reasonable source material? She doesn't have a single primary literature source, for Christ's sake. Come on, you've gotta do better than this.

Ya, you are right. But, it was the first thing that popped up on my Google search. Still though, you can find tons of reports to support for both sides. You just can't have a one size fits all, every one is an individual. I would have done much better in a male only environment. I think the option should be there for the kids and parents who want it.

 

[reetpleat]

I say this with all due respect, but in my opinion, that's a vast overstatement. Throughout my life, whenever I've come across magazine stories, quizzes and such that compare and contrast the sexes, I have invariably answered or identified more as a woman would than a man.

And yet, I'm strictly heterosexual with no particular feminine leanings. All man, as some would say. But I don't fit the cliches that are blithely tossed around about how men are supposed to think and behave.

Is that nature or nature or personal choice?I don't know, but there it is. And I don't think I'm alone in this.

The notion that gender is more distinct than race is arguable, at best. Come to NYC -- I'll introduce you to dozens of people who will have you questioning that theory: butch women, fem men, trans men, trans women, and everything in between (and I run in pretty standard circles, I'm not hanging out in shadowy waterfront bars). There's a whole spectrum of behavior and lifestyle and biology out there.

As for single-sex schooling, I can see its benefits, but I consider the social aspect of education as vital as the academic. One might well emerge from 16 or more years of single-sex schooling very well educated, but will one be prepared then to make one's way in society? I question that. Similarly, I wouldn't send my kids (if I had them) to an exclusive private school. The academics offered there might be top-notch, but the social education would be lacking.

In a way, the exception proves the rule. I generally tend to be very balanced in my male and female energies, if you will. Masculine in some ways, but much more sensitive, don't really get along with very macho males, etc.

And I recognize that there are very definitely masculine and feminine behaviors, energy (for lack of a better term) and predispositions. This is considered gender, as opposed to strictly genitals or sexual preference.

Yes, there are butch lesbians, and transgender people. But these are, by definition, people who differ from the majority of their gender, so much so in the trans case that they actually identify and consider themselves to be of the opposite gender.

If here were no real difference between genders, no one would consider anyone butch or fem and transgender might not exist.

A little more complicated than that, but not much maybe.

 

[Puzzicato]

I'm heterosexual and cissexual and I still am occasionally baffled by statements about what "women" think or want or do. I don't know that those sorts of generalisations get us very far.

 

[MissHannah]

There are way too many variations between individuals to be able to make general statements about the way the whole of a gender group thinks or behaves or what their needs might be.

I am brilliant at map-reading, parallel parking and reversing and I have an awesome sense of direction - all supposedly male traits relating to spacial awareness. However, I'm a very emotional person who talks and thinks a lot about their feelings and I'm quite focussed on making other people feel good - all reputedly female characteristics. Oh and I'm crap at multi-tasking and I have no interest in child-rearing. But I get soppy about kittens and babies.

 

[Undertow]

I am brilliant at map-reading, parallel parking and reversing and I have an awesome sense of direction - all supposedly male traits relating to spacial awareness. However, I'm a very emotional person who talks and thinks a lot about their feelings and I'm quite focussed on making other people feel good - all reputedly female characteristics. Oh and I'm crap at multi-tasking and I have no interest in child-rearing. But I get soppy about kittens and babies.

lol :eusa_clap

Well, I'm an abysmal map reader and I have no sense of direction whatsoever; I rely on landmarks and occassionally the sun set (I'm an excellent driver, however, and you can thank years of video games for the hand-eye coordination I've developed).

I'm also very emotional, I talk and think alot about my feelings, and I'm entirely too focused on making someone else feel good.

So I suppose excluding the driving, I'm all woman!

 

[miss_elise]

from what I understand - there seems to be a greater variation within the sexes than there is between the sexes.

 

[Tomasso]

lol

 

[reetpleat]

from what I understand - there seems to be a greater variation within the sexes than there is between the sexes.

depends on how you look at it. Obviously there is overlap, so there is no difference between the sexes, but a lot of difference between the average or mean or what have you.

To suggest that there is no difference or not much between the sexes is to not see the forest for the trees. It is obvious that most men and most women tend to fall on certain lines which are quite different.

 

[Widebrim]

Minorities or girls and young women, in an environment free of the dominant group in our culture, often perform better. That is why there is perhaps, the need for black or all female schools, groups, clubs, etc. The equivilant, a white school or all boys school is different. I guess I could see the case for an all boys school, so the school could be better geared towards boys habits. But it would be hard to make the case for an all white school. I suppose, on an intellectual level, it could be done. But I sure am not going there. (I am of Mexican descent by the way, so I wouldn't even want to)

I don't know about that, reetpleat. For about the first 15 years of my teaching career, I was at "inner city" schools that were overwhelmingly Hispanic (with some Armenians and a few Filipinos), and I didn't see much (if any) evidence of them having an edge. There are a few Hispanics at my present, upper-middle class school (the majority of the kids are either EuroAmericans or East Asian), and they vary in degrees of performance. Yet I am a proponent of dual-immersion (one language part of the day, another the rest of the day) instruction, greatly due to research which shows it being superior to both bilingual and (especially) monolingual instruction.