Reply #25: I hate that phrase too [View All]

[Nobody]

Ever notice how when people compare someone to pond scum, you often hear "Apologies to algae everywhere." But when someone says: He needs to grow a pair. Be a man. Cried like a little girl. And more from the sexist hit parade, they never once take back the implied insult to women. But they do with pond scum.

I'm trying to combat insults based on being female wherever I go. A success story.

I was at a hotel out of town several years ago and heard a teenage boy tell a teenage girl that she threw like a girl. This was a group of about 5 or 6 teens. Insults that imply that woman=inferior bother me and I spoke up. I said: "So she throws like a girl. I throw like a girl too, I hit what I aim at."

The girl's response: "You rock!"

As for having different expectations for different people, you should. We're all individuals and should be treated as such. What works for one person doesn't work for the next one. One girl told all her life she's never going to amount to much will give up and spend her life working minimum eage jobs, her sister who was told the same thing will work harder to prove everyone wrong. There are millions of steps between these extremes.

And then you get the kids whose parents encouraged one and not the other. Better hope the one not encouraged has a strong rebellious streak.