Question: Is it sexist to ask young women to be ladylike?
It would seem so. Earlier in the week it was reported that a Catholic High School asked its young women to sign a pledge not to curse.
The media descended with its charges of sexism and the school quickly relented and opened the pledge up to boys.
While I am not in favor of either gender cursing, I have no problem with asking young women to be superior to their male counterparts. Even in a coed school (which may or may not be such a great idea) we need to teach our boys to be men and our girls to be ladies. And guess what, ladies don’t curse (much).
I think it is perfectly sensible and reasonable to single out girls for a call to better behavior. Boys will be called to behave like men in their own way, but boys are different than girls. I think that our world and our culture already suffers from the lack of the former benign influence of ladies. Today, we have all too many girls who grow up merely into curvier versions of the vulgar male counterparts.
Bottom line, you cannot make ladies of young women by asking them to be equal parts sugar, spice, slugs, and snails.
The world does not need more women who act like men. We need something better than that, we need ladies. We don’t ,,,
February 6, 2013 at 4:02 pm
Girls are more likely to follow a pledge not to curse- it's a girly kind of thing. (Part of why the "purity card" thing is aimed at girls.)
February 6, 2013 at 4:31 pm
It's not even necessarily "better" behavior. It's just more ladylike. It's actually ok for boys and girls to be expected to behave differently.
There is nothing immoral, unethical, sinful, or even necessarily crude about colorful language being used in a socially acceptable context – by guys in a bar, or by coal-miners or other blue-collar laborers. It looks much cruder and less acceptable when done by ladies, or by family men and fathers, because their state in life is different. I used all sorts of colorful language when a bachelor in college. Now that I am getting married, I use more family-friendly language – doesn't mean I am somehow more perfect or better behaved, just that my state in life is different.
You won't find vulgarity listed as a sin in the Catechism.
February 6, 2013 at 6:30 pm
As a mumble-mumble-year-old tomboy, I still found it interesting that feminism seemed to demand that women adopt the same behaviors that they condemned in men.
February 10, 2013 at 3:21 am
As a mother of sons and a woman who works in a residential facility for teenage male juvenile offenders, I can attest that a refined lady has a civilizing influence on a male. A woman who is just as crude will not inspire boys to be gentlemen.
February 16, 2013 at 2:58 am
Like ProudHillbilly, I was always a tomboy. (I'm a hillbilly, too, here in central Kentucky.) When I returned for my 10-year class reunion, there were people who were SURPRISED that I had married and had children. That was a bit disconcerting because I was always attracted to the opposite sex, though I was a tomboy. That doesn't mean I cursed. My parents wouldn't allow that. Still, just because a girls is not all that feminine on the outside doesn't mean she isn't feminine on the inside. I was athletic (volleyball, basketball, softball) and my husband was attracted to that in me because we could play co-ed sports together. He saw in me what others didn't see……..that I was all woman even though I was a tomboy.
February 20, 2013 at 5:52 pm
I agree girls should be lady-like. But I adamantly disagree that girls should be expected to exhibit better behavior than boys. We have 4 boys (no girls). We expect their talk to be clean and wholesome, their behavior to be modest. I don't think you'd find Jesus cursing or joking about body functions. He was a boy. @Seraphim, St. Paul said only wholesome talk should come out of one's mouth. Jesus condemned swearing.