In her recent Workerette post, Barbie or Boxing, Amy brought up some excellent points and statistics about the rising levels of physical aggression by girls in today's society. (Which reminds me, I need to add that Garbarino book to my library list for next week!)
This struck a chord with me as I just finished reading an excellent piece in Brain, Child Magazine entitled "Mean Girls: The Next Generation". Having survived the first thirteen years of my life as a military dependent bounced from school to school, I learned that the fastest way to gain respect in a new school was to quietly sit back and learn the weaknesses of the biggest, baddest bully I could find (male or female) and plot out the best way to take advantage of said weaknesses...then pick a fight. Win or lose, it sure let others know I wasn't to be fooled with. (Half of the observers probably thought I was too nuts to mess with, frankly.)
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