More at work
than gender
Individual character, not sex,
By Sherry Kim
determines the ability to lead
Special to the Star-BulletinIn a recent Rant & Rave column, a young woman attending Kaiser High School wrote an article about the difference between girls and boys. In this article, she said that boys are born to be leaders and that they are more aggressive. Maybe it is because I attend Sacred Hearts Academy, an all-girls school, but I disagree with her.
While sitting in class and listening to my government teacher read this article, I saw the shock in many of my classmates' faces. Even when I talked to a male friend, who attends Moanalua High School, he told me that he disagreed with her stand on this position.
A column entitled "Boys are from Mars, girls are from Venus,"
by Kaiser High School student Emily Lee, was published in Rant & Rave
on Oct. 7. The column drew 23 responses from Sacred Hearts Academy
students. Two are printed here, another appears here.He believes that no matter whether a person is male or female, it is their upbringing and their decisions that determine who they are.
Maybe at Kaiser High School all the leadership positions are held by males, but in other public, and even private, high schools, females take up leadership positions in their schools.
To say that a boy is more aggressive than a girl is a stereotype that is diminishing. In older times, maybe guys went out of the house and did all the chores while making all the decisions in a house, but nowadays, it is not a man's world anymore.
Some boys can be more aggressive than girls, but many girls are aggressive too. If girls were not aggressive, how would we be able to explain how some girls go out to play football in an all-guy team? Some guys go for what they want, no matter what, but some girls do too. I have seen many girls at my school go out for leadership positions, play sports that used to be only for guys, like football and basketball, and even ask guys out, which used to be forbidden.
Another point which I disagree with was when she said that boys think things through before they say anything. This may be true in some areas, but not all areas.
Like a student at Moanalua High School said, "Guys don't think things through when it comes to fighting, but most girls do."
There are times when girls and boys think things through, and times when they don't. I think it all depends on the situation. I think situations through when there is time, but sometimes I react on the spur of the moment.
Gender limitations have played a part in the past, but this is changing. In the past, men were the only ones who held high positions in the workforce and they were usually the dominating forces in the family.
Currently, women can hold high positions in the work force but they don't earn the same wages that men do, and many women and men are working equally for families.
In the late 1970s, my parents came from Korea and I was the first of my family to be born in the United States. Until this day, my parents tell me that when I am older and married I have to stay home and make dinner for my husband, but I disagree with them.
When I am older, I want to be married but independent and share jobs in the home equally with my husband. Maybe I will be able to change my parents' minds, even just a little. But if not, I know what I want in life and I know that being a girl doesn't have anything to do with it!
Sherry Kim is a senior at Sacred Hearts Academy.
Women are just as capable,
By Sun Han
if not more, than men
Special to the Star-Bulletin"BOYS will be boys, and girls will be girls." What?! I don't think so. Through the evolution of time, the stereotype of girls being feeble and insignificant has found its way to the rubbish heap of outdated ideas.
No longer does it matter if a person is a girl or a boy because I know very well from the experience of attending an all-girls' school for 12 productive years, that girls are just as capable, if not more, than boys.
In an all-girls' school environment, all the leaders are girls, all the athletes are girls, all the performers are girls and all the girls are fully intellectually capable of logical reasoning and anything else that a boy can do.
My school has the only all-girls' marching band. The band plays just as well and perhaps a thousand times better than any co-ed or all-boys' marching band. Oh, but I forgot, girls are fragile and we wouldn't want to break a nail playing our instruments, right?
At Sacred Hearts, we have a very respectable speech and debate team whose members are very capable of logical reasoning.
Has it ever occurred to the common soul that women are the ones who give birth to men? If women are so weak and helpless, then maybe someone should just get rid of us all, huh?
Then all you'd have is men, and we all know that men can't exist without us strong-minded, goal-oriented, spirited WOMEN!
Sue Han is a junior at Sacred Hearts Academy.
