Monopolising struggle

[DanaC]

Oh I don't for a moment suggest that boys have danger free lives, or are not subject to threats. But the messages we tend, as a society, to give to boys and girls about danger are very different. And the nature of the threat is also different. For boys the message is that there are dangers in the world and they need to have ways of tackling those dangers. Girls are taught that their gender makes them peculiarly and inherently endangered. And the way to try and avoid danger is often to minimise displays of femininity.