What Teenage Boys Should Know About Teenage Girls

What Teenage Boys Should Know About Teenage Girls

Among my oldest and best friends are men I became friends with when we were teenagers. For the most part, like teenagers today, we thought of ourselves as equals. We went to the same schools, socialized together, participated in sports meets at the same time, eventually worked in similar jobs and generally assumed that our lives were very much the same. Once in a while though, I still have conversations with one of these friends, or with my husband or brothers, and I am genuinely taken aback by some of the jarring gaps in our understanding of the world. Our lives, beginning when we were teenagers, have distinctly different aspects and are affected in ways that teenagers today are usually still not talking about. As young as 11 or 12, different rules and double standards based on gender begin to alter our day-to-day experiences in subtle, and often not-so-subtle, ways.

Just as your physical horizons are expanding, those of the girls you know are usually shrinking, something that girls have as much interest in as you would if it happened to you. The U.S. has a double-digit safety gap, meaning there is very big chance that in many places where you feel safe, the girls you know simply don't. There are places and activities that you might take for granted, such as going for a run in the evening or at night, along a park path or a river, that girls often cannot engage in. It's very frustrating to be told you are equal, to feel independent and strong and to have to adapt to a specific kind of vulnerability.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/what-teenage-boys-should-know-about-teenage-girls_b_7623350.html

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(This is one of my favorite writers on feminism and gender issues.)