Cooties.

[Senior citizen]

Apparently it is common for little boys to think that little girls have cooties, and it is viewed as just a phase. I have to question that.

Obviously these boys weren't taught about girl cooties from their parents. They learn it playing with other boys who learned it from slightly older boys, and it quite possibly goes back as far as the beginning of patriarchy. I mean, how DO you tell little boys that little girls are inferior and they shouldn't play with them? Cooties seems to serve that purpose until they are older and can be introduced to porn.

But as for it being a phase they'll outgrow, I have to question that. Obviously some males never do outgrow the attitude, although they may outgrow the word. In fact, if it is implanted in your head during your formative years that another group is dirty or unclean, I'd think it would take major self-work to change your attitude later on in life. That is known to be the case with racism, so why wouldn't it be the same for sexism?

Anyone else have any thoughts about this?

[Bunny]

1. I don't know, my two daughters always thought that boys had

cooties. I was pretty sure that boys had cooties too, when I was younger!

[trotsky]

2. Same here.

At my school, members of the opposite sex always had cooties no matter what you were.

[Misunderestimator]

3. That's an interesting perspective...

And that's certainly the experience I had growing up. I remember girls saying boys had cooties too, but it seemed more of a defensive position... as in "No... YOU have cooties."

There are many other ways in which boys learn their "superior" behavior during childhood... using words that imply that girls are less than boys to insult other boys like "sissy" or "you throw like a girl"... choosing girls last in games... judging girls SOLELY by their looks... some of them later, as they grow older, intimidating girls physically, spreading false rumors about sexual exploits. Then of course, there's the focus on boys' sports... Title 9 helped, but it did not fix it. In fact, it seems to create resentment in men who feel they should be entitled... (similar to those who object to Affirmative Action).

It's pervasive and insidious, and I admire any man who comes out the other side of it unscathed.

[geniph]

4. I got it from my brothers

who told me little girls had cooties. It didn't sink into my thick head until I was about 8 that *I* was a little girl, and was going to stay one (for some reason, I thought I was going to become a boy when I got older). Girl cooties forever!!!

However, girls also thought boys had cooties, and often had rather more justification, as many of the little boys of that era were...shall we say...less than scrupulous about hygiene.