Greetings, Jenny Asencio,
“…they come from convenience, from taking the easy way out…”
“…couldn’t resist, it’s 5 a.m. and I have a sense of humor right now!”
I can commiserate; I find it difficult to resist delivering a smart aleck remark when the opportunity presents itself, as it did when I made the remark about “mansplaining” in my previous comment.
As it happens, I am a compulsive explainer. I regularly irritate everyone, regardless of their sex, with frequent, gratuitous explanations of just about anything. Anyway, you’re welcome; I am happy to be of assistance.
“Is there a method for getting longer quotes from different parts of a post into the response?
You can copy the words you want to quote from the comment you are quoting and paste them into your comment; then format the pasted words as a quote.
You have provided a clear explanation of how social norms are propagated among members of a population. You included the idea that people resist efforts to reengineer those norms because people become comfortable with them. I consider that idea to be correct but incomplete. I suspect there are other, equally important reasons for the persistence of existing norms.
What you have not explained is where the norms originate. Who decided that boys should not be allowed to cry? What brought them to that decision? Who decided that girls are not good at math? What brought them to that decision? Where did people get the idea that “when a boy hits you it’s because he likes you” in the first place? How were those norms successfully imposed upon an entire population?
Girls can’t do sports? Obviously they can’t “do sports” as well as boys; if they could there would be no need for girl’s sports teams. The fact that there are girl’s and women’s sports teams is probably what gives people the idea that “girls can’t do sports.”
“…prevailing attitudes (those social norms) about the capabilities and flaws of both genders also need to be corrected.”
Who determines which attitudes are the “correct” ones? What happens to those of us who resist adopting your prescribed attitudes? How would you respond to those who advocate alternative corrections that would conflict with the particular corrections that you advocate? If your corrections benefit some at the expense of others, would you not expect the others to resist your efforts to correct them? How will you overcome their resistance? How will corrections be imposed upon the unwilling?
Does anyone actually know how to identify the forces that produce social norms? Does anyone know how to manipulate those forces to achieve predictable results?
